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From Latin Growth to
Asian Need
Reference: Grigg, V. (2005). Cry of the Urban Poor.
GA, USA:
Authentic Media in partnership with World Vision.
There are more
churches in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
than in other cities of Latin America or Asia. In Sao Paulo, 5294 churches have
been counted, with a greater movement among the poor than in any other city.
Many favelas have three or four churches. It is estimated that one third
of the above churches, or 3,500, are in the 1086 favelas in Sao Paulo.
The majority of these are Pentecostal, particularly Assemblies of God.
Evangelical churches in Brazil are also growing.
Of the 150 million people in Brazil, 24 million are evangelicals. Some churches
are attempting social work programs in the favelas. This response has not
yet resulted in significant church planting. There has recently been a
significant movement by evangelicals to reach out and establish homes for street
children. There are now about 70 evangelical homes for this purpose. Antioch
Mission, one of the first Brazilian sending missions, has developed a ministry
to drug addicts as well as to street children.
The church among the poor has largely grown
through spiritual power encounters. In Brazil, there are many public
confrontations with the next major religious grouping after the evangelicals—the
spiritists.
A pastor in a favela
The stocky pastor motioned us away from the
bullet holes in the window. We sat down, and he told us the story
of a congregation of 200 that had formed in one of the most violent slums in the
world.
Gangs of bandits that functioned out of the
community at times came right into the church building for their gang wars. Once
a gang returned a loudspeaker system stolen from the church, fearing that they
would receive God’s judgment if they kept goods stolen from him.
Another time, a woman walked up the aisle,
knife in hand. She slashed at the pastor across the pulpit, missed, and fell to
the ground under the protective power of the Spirit of God.
The pastor’s hands shook as he talked. Three
years of stress to establish this church were taking their toll. He worked
during the days to support himself, and preached and worshiped every night.
We left him in the middle of the road at the
entrance to the favela—an unschooled man with the intellect of a professor. A
missionary for the slums of Asia?
We founded a new mission to send such men to
Asia.
Movement in Latin
America- silence in Asia
The reasons for such a movement among the poor
in Latin America and such an absence of any movement among the poor in Asia are
still unclear. In Latin America, there has been a dynamic of church planting in
rural areas. Then, as migration has occurred, pastors have moved with their
people to the favelas and pueblos jovenes of the cities. This
pattern In Asia, however, has not resulted in churches among the urban poor.
Some possible reasons might be:
1. A greater dependence in
Asia on foreign money, resulting in pastors who move to the city to obtain
middle-class positions.
2. The basic movement in
Latin America has been Pentecostal rather than mainline evangelical. The
concept of the empowerment of the Spirit is linked to ministry among the poor.
Mainline evangelicals have tended to be more a book culture among the middle
classes.
3. Pentecostal reluctance
to require a lot of time in seminaries and Bible schools seems to encourage
the development of pioneering leaders. In Asia, a Bible-school approach to
training leaders unintentionally results in training poorer rural pastors for
middle-class status in the cities.
4. The middle classes in
Latin America have been linked with the Spanish and Portuguese, who have been
closed to the gospel outside of the Catholic tradition. The poor in Latin
America, on the other hand, come from the more oppressed indigenous cultures
that resent Spanish culture, even though they may be attracted by the
cultural flow in many ways. This is in contrast to the Asian scene, where a
positive attitude towards Western culture by the upper and middle classes have
meant a responsiveness at these levels to the gospel, which is associated
with the West. The poor in Asia, however, see
their poverty linked with the oppression of Christian colonialists.
Sending the Latin poor
to Asia
It is possible that God will raise up some
apostles from among the middle-class church of Asia to bridge the gulf to their
own squatter communities. Perhaps he will call some rich to live among the poor.
On the other hand, why not co-opt some of these trained Latin Americans—perhaps
several hundred—to catalyze this? They have the faith.
In fifteen years, Pastor Waldemar of Brazil,
while developing the project Servos Entre Os Pobres under his mission
Katros, has recruited 350 missionaries for this task. The Brazilian church
does not have all of the finances needed to get them there, nor to enable them
to survive. By faith, they wait on God, and press ahead into other Latin
countries, for God will overcome this barrier. Other missions in Brazil arrange
for their missionaries to spend time in Western nations en route to the field
as a way to raise money.
Brazilian culture breeds resilience. The
character of a missionary was woven into the history of the people. In their
strengths—relationship, worship and spiritual dynamism—they may also find their
weaknesses. Excessive dependence on Brazilian culture, arrogance towards
artistically-poor cultures and a world view leaving little room for loner-types
are difficulties that have been experienced on the field.
A new missions movement
Someone had drawn a city on the blackboard
with a favela on either side—a
picture of one of the world’s richest mega-cities, Sao Paulo, with its 15
million people and multiplex of cities, and skyscrapers pointing up into the
skies.
As I was preaching to this group with a
determination to “push through” until a new mission movement had emerged, the
Spirit of God descended! I preached the burden of my heart; preached of the
needs of the poor of Asia; of the needs of an Asian church that is unable to
reach the poor by herself; of the contrast between the 5200 churches in Sao
Paulo and the 132 in the city of Calcutta—two
cities of equal size.
God had prepared this people as he is
preparing people throughout Brazil. Of the 30 people who came forward to give
their lives for ministry in the favelas, 20 have the intention of going
overseas. I looked out to see a sea of smiling faces—men
and women with commitment and experience.
The next week, this group gathered again,
eager to learn and excited about the commitment they were entering into. For 18
months, their mission had been developing a ministry to the street children. Now
they were entering a new phase—ministry
among the favelados. We talked of the theology and practice of planting a church
among the poor. Already there were contacts in three favelas through the
ministry to the street children. Team leaders were assigned to evaluate some
favelas and prepare to get teams into them.
A church and economic base
That day a new phase had begun—a
phase of training not only missionaries from Brazil but missionaries for the
poor. In Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro, the greatest movements among the urban poor of any place in Asia and
Latin America exist—over three
thousand churches in the favelas, usually led by favelados who have gifts of
pastering and have chosen voluntarily to remain in the favelas and love the
poor.
For every missionary, 30 people need to tithe.
Can churches be taught a new pattern of giving? Can pastors’ intent on building
empires release this money from Brazil to the greater needs in nations now
unknown to them?
We do not expect significant church planting to
take place among the Asian squatter areas by people from the affluent
West—affluence makes it too hard to live among the poor. Western mission to the
poor tends to be defined as development. Traditional Western theology and
structures do not meet the needs of the poor. I say this, despite having set up
two missions from Western nations to accomplish this goal, and having an
extensive background in community development.
Foreigners, be they Western or Latin, are an
important catalyst for the national Asian churches. But they are only a
catalyst. We must model in such a way that indigenous ministries, indigenous
Leadership and indigenous missions emerge. The aim is not mission. This is too
small. Nor is it church growth. This is too limited. The aim is the
discipling of the peoples—indigenous, discipling movements among the
squatters in a city. These will not emerge from highly financed mission
programs. Missions that would catalyze these must be sending workers who choose
lifestyles of voluntary poverty among the poor.
God is calling for Latin missions with
commitments to lifestyles of non-destitute and incarnational poverty, (and years
of voluntary singleness for many) to catalyze indigenous movements of churches
among the unreached squatters of Asia.
How much could God do?
At the 1989 Lausanne II in Manila Congress, a
gathering of many of the world’s evangelical leaders, there was a major
strategic focus on the urban poor. Mission strategists had just brought together
lists of strategic goals for the year AD 2000, and they were requested to revise
these goals, placing a primary emphasis on the urban poor.
The target proposed was threefold: a vital,
ministering church, culturally and geographically accessible to every urban poor
person; a movement of churches of the poor in every major city; and
transformation of slums and squatter areas. God will do what we ask.
As you read, please bow and pray for:
1.Two incarnational workers in every squatter area.
2.A church in every squatter area.
3.A movement among the poor in each mega-city.
4.Transformation of slums and squatter areas in some cities.
5.Incarnational workers from among the poor who can affect economic and
social structures and
political options.
6.Mission, leaders to make the squatters a priority.
7.A major thrust from Latin America and Filipino churches to other Asian
squatter areas.
8.50,000 cross-cultural workers in the slums raising up indigenous
leaders movements of 10,000 in each city.
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