| The first-ever senior pastors of Brazilian Vineyard churches was another milestone in Vineyard church-planting history. In many ways, it felt like an extended family gathering as most have worked together for twenty years and have not seen each other for about five years. I found it interesting to compare with the Porto de Moz conference, which felt historical on a different plane. I am looking forward to seeing how these two conferences will develop in the years to come. One of the two conferences was partially sponsored with outside help, while the other was completely covered by participants. I think this is a good use of outside funding if everyone knows the goal is that the participants will eventually find enough value in the event that they find ways to cover the costs. Around twenty years ago, Mark Fields led a project funded by the American Vineyards to sponsor three years of senior pastoral meetings twice a year. Twelve couples were invited, and the goal was spiritual formation and relationship building. If a couple could not attend a meeting, we could not send someone in our place, enhancing the personal relationship factor because human systems change depending on who is present. We usually met for three or four days at a time at Catholic retreat centers out of town, which were sparse but perfect for our purposes. Meetings were minimal, usually teaching on a spiritual discipline like, for example, centering prayer. Then, we would try it out and come back together to share our experiences. The result was a powerful bonding among pastors from various regions of the gigantic country of Brazil and many years of self-supported meetings. Now, after the five-year hiatus, the senior pastor group has grown to those who attended the Atalaia Conference, plus many who could not come for diverse reasons.   These are the eight leaders (plus Clenildo) who compose the Vineyard Brazil national board for the next four years. Milton called them a “Dream team.” Deanna and I will represent this board and the Brazilian church in Nepal at the Global Missions Leaders Conference. Awesome. What I See: * Seven of the eleven leaders in the photo were part of the original Vineyard leaders almost twenty years ago. * Seven of the eleven are from Northern Brazil. * All four women leaders in the photo are from Northern Brazil. Milton, far-right, is the president of the Vineyard Brasil for another four years. Beside him is Elba, who is vice-president. Next is Athila, the pastor of the Central Church in Altamira. Beside Athila is Manga, a pastor from Rio de Janeiro who is in the final stages of a Ph. D. in spiritual formation. Beside Manga are two pastors in white shirts from Southern Brazil who I don’t know that well. In front of them is Edna from Gurupá. Beside them are Angelita and Clenildo. Clenildo resigned from the national board because he preferred to be out on the front lines, helping pastors and introducing people to Jesus. Still, Angelita is on the board, responsible for the mental health of the pastors, and they walk together. On the left are Deanna and I. We are not on the national board, but we are representing them and the Brazilian churches in Nepal at the International Global Missions Partnerships conference in Nepal. One of the themes that came out in the groups I facilitated was how most people understood that everyone had suffered during these past five years, but their specific situation was more. One pastor shared, for instance, that his state in Brazil had a power outage that lasted for forty days. The stores lost all their produce. A gallon of drinking water sold for R$25, about 2-4 hours wages for the working class. He called it “Training for the Apocalypse,” another layer of chronic stress. Chronic stress comes when you are burdened with things over which you have no control. I sensed that hearing and sharing about difficulties from the past five years in an ambiance of abundance felt healing, empowering, and hopeful. We had a great relaxed supper with Milton and Luciana. The month Milton was announced as the national leader of the Association of Vineyard Churches in Brazil, in 2015, his wife Erica was diagnosed with cancer. Two years later, she passed to the other side. I cannot imagine how challenging these last eight years have been, but we are pressing through to another season.  Milton and Luciana Milton told us of how he worked to decrease the power distance between pastors and lay people in his church in Southern Brazil. When new people would come to his church for the first time, they would approach him, “Pastor Milton…”. Milton would hold his hand up and stop them. “I’ll give you one chance. Call me Milton. Do not start by saying pastor.” He told us they would look at him, and he could see their struggle as they addressed him by only saying his first name. But they would finally get it out. Now it is as normal for people to call him by his first name in Southern Brazil as it is for women to be leaders in our churches in Northern Brazil.  Neuma and Timoteo, at the front of this photo, were our first pastors in Santarem once we moved from the PAZ mission compound to immerse in a Brazilian neighborhood in 1994. Timoteo is from a fishing village near Santarem and was pastoring a small church of 20 people. They had a few benches made out of 8″ wide boards with no backrest. Elba committed her life to God in Timoteo’s church while living with us at about 16 years of age. Who could have ever guessed we’d end up as leaders in a different movement at a resort on the ocean 1,500 km to the East almost 30 years later? Near the back of this photo are Cleury and Ricardo, pastors from a farming community near Santarem. They are ranchers and pastors of a church Clenildo and Angelita helped plant.  |
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.