The Changing Context of Recife, Brazil

Introduction

Context is crucial. This basic rule of hermeneutics also applies to missions. Just as context clarifies a particular passage of Scripture, context also helps missionaries understand a particular urban population. Missionaries become more effective as they understand the people they serve, which has certainly been the case for Jennifer and me. We strive to base our mission strategy on contextual realities. Also, we desire to help short-term workers such as journeymen, summer missionaries, and volunteers understand the complexities of Recife’s context. In the following pages, we present an overview of Recife’s history, Baptist work, worldviews and ministry challenges. In understanding Recife’s context, we are better able to help Recifenses [reh-see-FENCE-ease] understand the gospel. As we understand Recife’s context, we more effectively equip leaders to plant churches that fit this context. Love demands we make the effort to know the people we serve so we can make Christ known to them.

Recife’s Historical Context

In order to understand the people of Recife, we must understand their history. Is it a peaceful or violent history? Who originally occupied this area? What motivated foreigners to land here? Why did they settle? Who are the ancestors of today’s Recifenses?

Portuguese adventurers came to Brazil in the sixteenth century on a money making venture. They wanted to exploit the new territory’s goods—especially brazilwood, used for red and purple dyes. The indigenous people who met the new arrivals were enchanted at first, believing the gods were coming. But the sailors’ stench, from months at sea with no baths, and the horrific novelty of their bearded faces made the tribal people mistake them for devils. In the end, attraction prevailed. The Portuguese were attracted to the potential labor force; the tribes were attracted to the new cargo the sailors brought: “little knives, big knives, machetes, mirrors, glass beads; but above all tools.”¹ Informal marriages solidified this mutual attraction.

Wherever there was some European . . . in contact with the ships and therefore capable of furnishing merchandise, each village—and there were thousands of villages—sent a young woman to marry him. If he slept with the girl, then he became a son-in-law. He came to have a father-in-law, a mother-in-law . . . he became a relative. Thus, the astute Portuguese . . . was able through these means to put into his service thousands of indigenous people to log brazilwood.²

This practice of intermarriage hurt the indigenous people, whose tropical constitution could not withstand the rigors of slave labor. But the practice produced a new people who considered themselves neither indigenous nor European; a people who adopted the name of the timber that united their two ancestral lines, a people who call themselves Brazilians.³

Meanwhile, the Portuguese crown claimed the newly discovered land and awarded its territories, called “captaincies,” to interested men of means. On March 9, 1534, Dom João III awarded the captaincy of Pernambuco to nobleman Duarte Coelho Pereira, who took possession one year later, founding the villas of Santa Cruz and Olinda (sites of today’s metropolitan Recife). Here Pereira built his castle and established his headquarters.⁴

During this same year, Pernambuco birthed Brazil’s sugarcane industry—the first organized, economic undertaking to succeed in the new territory. By the end of the century, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar in the world and Pernambuco was the largest producer of sugar in Brazil. Sixty-six sugar mill-plantations thrived along the colonized coastline, and the mills formed the nuclei of towns.⁵ Eventually, the sugar industry would depend on the labor of African slaves, whose profound influence on the region’s religious, cultural, and ethnic formation is conspicuous today.

The settlement along the coast was protected by long, natural reefs. The reefs created a natural port, dubbed “Reef of the Ships,” where the colonists exported sugar and brazilwood and imported the king’s wine and olive oil. Whereas neighboring Olinda attracted many wealthy citizens and quickly blossomed into a luxurious town,⁶ its neighbor to the south had more humble beginnings. Fisherman, mariners, small merchants and officials formed a little village on the peninsula and neighboring island. Bit by bit, this settlement grew and adopted the name Recife, Portuguese for “reef.” ⁷

Charles Darwin marveled at this reef during a stopover in Recife from August 12 to 18, 1836, on his famous Beagle voyage.⁸ Darwin wrote in his diary:

The most curious thing which I saw in the neighbourhood of Pernambuco, is the reef that forms the harbor. It runs for a length of several miles in a perfectly straight line, parallel to & not far distant from the shore; it varies in width from thirty to sixty yards; it is quite dry at low water, has a level smooth surface, & is composed of obscurely stratified hard sandstone: hence at the first sight it is difficult to credit that it is the work of nature & not of art.⁹

The Portuguese were not the only ones who coveted the reef-graced settlement. In 1561, the French, who had been expelled from Rio, tried to land in Recife but were repelled by Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque, son of the nobleman who originally settled the captaincy. In 1595, English pirate James Lancaster, along with João Venner, captured the village, comprised of 100 houses and warehouses, and held it for 31 days.¹⁰

Recife’s most celebrated invader was Maurício de Nassau, the count who governed from 1637-1644 on behalf of the Dutch West India Company.¹¹ For well over five decades, the Dutch had traded with Brazil and now dominated the European sugar market. In the face of friction with the Spanish crown, then-ruler of Portugal and its colonies, the Dutch exerted their naval dominance to capture Northeast Brazil. When the Portuguese regained autonomy in Europe, they signed a truce with Holland as a security measure against Spain. Before the truce was ratified, the West India Company scrambled to extend their Brazilian holdings. To this end, they appointed Nassau. The Dutch company meant for Nassau to defend its economic interests. However, Nassau fell in love with Pernambuco and his primary interest was not to exploit the land, but to build a beautiful civilization he would call “New Holland.” Thus he won the support and admiration of his Luso-Brazilian subjects.¹² When Nassau arrived, the colony was deteriorating with corruption and mismanagement, but the capable Nassau transformed the scene. He built the first planned city in the Americas. He brought Rennaissance refinements to Brazil. He introduced Dutch architecture and the concept of interior decorating. He built schools, libraries, hospitals, museums, theaters¹³ and two riverfront palaces.¹⁴ Nassau increased the number of houses from less than 300 to 2,000 in two years.¹⁵ He built canals for flood control, bridges, highways and forts.¹⁶ He attracted painters, such as Frans Post and Albert Eckhout, scientists, priests, pastors and rabis. Under Nassau, Pernambuco experienced great religious and ethnic diversity¹⁷ —a respite from the Inquisition. Nassau established the first astronomical observatory in America, the first zoo,¹⁸ and the first political assembly.¹⁹ When Nassau shared his plans to establish a university, the Dutch West India Company (already exasperated by his expensive undertakings) balked. The conflict of interests (profit versus civilization-building) led Nassau to return to Holland.²⁰

Indians, Africans, and Mozombos joined forces to help the Portuguese recapture Pernambuco in 1654, after two definitive battles against the Dutch,²¹ thus ending their thirty year occupation.²² Still, almost 400 years later, Recife is proud of its Dutch heritage.

The return to Portuguese rule meant a return to corruption, mismanagement, and religious persecution. The colonists suffered economically, feeling exploited and neglected. They stopped thinking of themselves as Portuguese at all, and grew more and more into their identity as Northeasterners and Brazilians. The colonists became convinced that because Portugal had failed to provide, it had thus forfeited the right to govern the colony. The Pernambucan revolution of 1817 was beaten down with much bloodshed, but it served to solidify the region’s political identity.²³ Pernambucans were ferocious in their struggle for independence. With the support of the people and the local priests, the heroes of the revolution raised the first flag ever created to represent an independent Brazilian republic.²⁴ The insurrection failed and Pernambuco’s heroes paid dearly. Hanged, decapitated, drawn and quartered, they were then dragged by horses to the cemetery. Pernambucans celebrate this bravado in their state anthem by singing about “Immortal Pernambuco,” the “New Rome of the valiant warriors.”

After Brazilian independence from Portugal (September 7, 1822), Recife experienced another revolt: a futile attempt to establish autonomy from distant Rio de Janeiro under the Confederation of the Equator.²⁵ Pernambucans felt they were distinct from the people of other regions in Brazil. Today, although the Northeast is decidedly Brazilian, it remains a distinct region, with a unique psyche, music, dance, cuisine, folklore, and speech cadence. It is the cradle of the Afrobrazilian animism that permeates all of Brazil. Northeasterners are cognizant of their cultural distinctions. Brazilians from other regions retain pejorative stereotypes about the Northeast. Nevertheless, Recife, capital city of Pernambuco since February 15, 1827,²⁶ is a popular tourist destination for other Brazilians, who are drawn to its oceanic beauty, June festivals, Carnival celebration and rich cultural heritage.

The History of Baptists in Recife

In the midst of the historical events and cultural forces that shaped Recife and its people, a tiny but determined handful of Baptists entered the scene. They established a notable presence alongside the Congregationalists and Presbyterians who had preceded them,²⁷ and exerted a strong influence on Baptist growth across Brazil.. Over one hundred years ago, Baptists fought to spread the gospel, to bring the Bible to laymen, and to establish churches and schools in a violently hostile environment. The legacy of Baptist predecessors in Recife has created the context we work in today, just as our work will establish the future context, for better or worse.²⁸

The seed for Baptist work in Recife came through William and Ann Bagby, the first Southern Baptist missionaries to Brazil. The Bagbys disembarked at Rio de Janeiro on March 8, 1881, an event that O Jornal Baptista would view as “one of the most glorious chapters in the history of Christianity.”²⁹ Zacharias and Laura Taylor soon followed the Bagbys. Both couples stayed first in São Paulo State to learn Portuguese, and then moved to Bahia, working closely in both places with a Pernambucan pastor and former priest named Antonio Teixeira de Albuquerque.³⁰ Teixeira had adopted Baptist principles and joined a Baptist church started by Confederate colonists who had immigrated to São Paulo State after the civil war. Teixeira, the Bagbys and the Taylors were companions on the same ministry path, a path that eventually led Teixeira back to his home state, where he, along with C. D. Daniel (son of a Confederate immigrant) and Mello Lins (the first convert in Recife) started the first Baptist congregation in Recife in 1886.³¹ This work marked the beginning of a lasting venture.

The list of Brazilian and foreign laborers who ministered in Recife is long and laudable. The scope of this article does not permit an adequate overview of these important figures. But they achieved much in the way of establishing Baptist structure and institutions, of spreading the gospel and building the church in the face of severe and sometimes fatal opposition from devout Roman Catholics of that day.

From Recife, pioneers of Baptist work strengthened the denomination in Brazil. For example, they helped to unify Baptist life through the publication of Baptist journals. Solomon Ginsburg, who had served as a printer’s apprentice in England,³² edited a local paper. Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board³³ missionary W. E. Entzminger used this and other local publications to produce the national paper, O Journal Batista. From such efforts came the national Baptist publishing house in Rio. Recife was home to the first regional Baptist association, formed in 1901. Other regions followed suit. Thus, Recife proved to be a vanguard for Brazilian Baptist life.

A further influence on national Baptist life came when FMB missionary Solomon Ginsburg³⁴ founded the Seminário Teológico Batista do Norte do Brasil (STBNB). In 1899, Entzminger had, like his colleagues in other states, started giving theological classes for ministers-in-training. Sponsored by the FMB, Entzminger’s four-member class was the first theological education course in Brazil to receive an endowment.³⁵ When poor health led the Entzmingers to move south, Ginsburg continued the courses, officially founding STBNB in 1902. The seminary preceded the founding of the Brazilian Baptist Convention by five years. In the early years of STBNB, its founder, subsequent directors, and students felt pulled between the need for theological education and the immediate need to spread the gospel throughout their unreached land. Evangelism was a constant priority. Ginsburg left the seminary to focus on evangelistic work. His successor, Jefte Hamilton, the first official seminary director, left after only one year in order to minister among the people along the Amazon who had never heard the gospel.³⁶ William Canada succeeded his colleague, Hamilton, as director, but when Ginsburg went on furlough, Canada took over the evangelistic work, somewhat to the detriment of the seminary, certainly to its regular enrollment. Many of the students left to pastor churches. They did, however, return for intensive classes one week per month—a pattern that ensued until 1905. Ultimately, Bbecause the need to equip national leaders was urgent and unrelenting, the seminary grew and became established.

STBNB was the first Baptist seminary in Latin America.³⁷ The school’s vision to prepare Brazilian ministers who would reach their own country with the gospel inspired SBC missionary J. W. Shepard to found a second national Baptist seminary “like the one in Recife,” in Rio in 1906.³⁸ Today, STBNB is one of the Brazilian Baptist Convention’s three national seminaries and a reference for Brazilian Baptists. The seminaries have produced thousands of Brazilian pastors and missionaries. And seminary professors, both foreign missionaries and Brazilians, have influenced Baptist thought and practice by lecture, example, and texts.³⁹

The Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was an ever-present catalyst to the formation of Baptist life in Recife. The city housed the headquarters of the FMB’s North Brazil Mission for many years. Regional struggle and a sometimes cautious sentiment by the Brazilians toward FMB/IMB missionaries have marked the sharing of Baptist leadership between Brazilians and Americans. Their division of ministry responsibility changed over the decades as Brazilians took on an ever-greater share of the responsibility for funding and directing their institutions until, in the twilight of the twentieth century, “New Directions” limited the IMB missionary role in Brazilian Baptist Convention institutions to one of influence and short-term partnership, the era of foreign directors and patrons of Baptist institutions in Brazil having been laid to rest.

Today, there are 200 churches in Greater Recife affiliated with the Pernambuco Baptist Convention. With two seminaries,⁴⁰ a primary and secondary school, and one of Recife’s more prominent Baptist churches seated on prime property intersecting two main avenues in the heart of Recife, Baptists are a known and respected minority of the population. On one hand, this prominence marks the victory of thousands of lives touched by the gospel as a result of our predecessors’ investments. On the other hand, our Baptist presence gives a dangerous and erroneous impression that Baptist work is strong, that the job is being done, that Baptists in Recife are on the right track for accomplishing the Lord’s work in their generation. Although much has and is being accomplished to that end, the way Recifenses see the world, including the Christian church, necessitates a closer look at Baptist effectiveness in the sociocultural milieu of Recife today.

History’s Present Outcome: Recifense Worldviews

Recife’s history shaped the city and its people. Through history, Recifenses fostered a social system where divergent classes interface without blending. And Baptists in Recife formed one branch of the church responsible to lead Recifenses to Christ.

So what has become of the descendants of those Portuguese traders, those indigenous brides, the Dutch, and the Yoruban slaves? How do they classify themselves today? How do they interpret the world and what does this mean for the mission-minded church?

Recife is divided into two classic sets of people: the haves and the have nots. A man pedals his children to school. They sit in a milk crate strapped to the back of their father’s rickety bicycle. He pedals past a high rise apartment complex, a bakery, a mansion, a bus stop. The rich and the poor tend to their business side by side on the busy avenue by our house. On this avenue, worlds collide.

While some neighborhoods are known to be affluent and some poor, slums are interspersed throughout all neighborhoods–often pushed up against the edge of affluent districts. Some 54.9 percent of the people in Recife live in slums.⁴¹ Meanwhile, the city is growing skyward as houses are sold to luxury apartment contractors. This building craze points to the existence of Recife’s large population of professionals.

The striking division between rich and poor originated with the colonists and the indigenous and Yoruban slaves. The slaves had to depend on their masters for basic necessities. After emancipation, society was still divided by color, darker skin often corresponding to a state of poverty. Although some slaves had escaped and formed secluded villages, and some freed slaves returned to Africa, most remained as paid workers, in positions similar to what they had before slavery. The descendents of the Portuguese considered manual labor a sign of low status; so they contracted maids, cooks, gardeners and nannies, as the middle and upper classes do today. These laborers work long hours for low wages, although President Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva has more than doubled the minimum wage during his tenure. Poor laborers look for a “good” patron, that is, one who gives clothes, medicine, school supplies, and whatever else is needed since the minimum salary is inadequate to house and feed a family, much less cover other expenses.⁴² The culture of dependency prevails. The majority of the population expects the government, or in the words of one shantytown resident, “somebody [else]” to fix the problem, to mitigate poverty. Although racism is a crime in Brazil, it apparently applies only to individuals who discriminate racially in public by such acts as uttering slurs or prohibiting entrance or participation—mere fruits of the underlying racist social order that remains elusive to the law.⁴³

The stark division between rich and poor marks two distinct population segments interacting in two distinct spheres. Although the two groups share some perspectives, their worlds are different. We delineate worldview distinctions based on socioeconomic status because that is the way Recifenses divide themselves. We must comprehend each worldview in order to communicate the gospel and start indigenous churches.

For the urban poor, life is a struggle, a fight. The goal is to have enough food and money to support the family. Poverty and street violence are constant threats. Recife leads the nation in the number of homicides, surpassing even Rio de Janeiro, and most homicides are among the poor.⁴⁴ To the poor, the ideal person provides for the family, takes care of the home, and occasionally finds ways to be happy without hurting anybody else. Loneliness and depression are common struggles. The poor prioritize close friendships, as do all Brazilians, but for the poor it is difficult to trust others. Living in close quarters affords little privacy and gossip is rampant. Tempers flare, sometimes violently, confirming the Northeastern reputation for hotheadedness. The poor fear the violence around them. They fear hunger. The poor can give in to despair, but they can also be resourceful in applying survival skills. The poor want to work, and prefer the dignity of earning their bread. The problem is a lack of jobs.

The current mayor has relocated many shantytown populations into new housing projects. He has promoted cultural awareness, encouraging Recifenses to value the regional art, handicrafts, and music that thrive in the poorer segments of society. These efforts have raised cultural pride. The mayor has also promoted leisure and recreation as a means for the urban poor to relieve the stress of their lifestyle. There have been educational campaigns about the importance of leisure, and the city has built open-air fitness parks next to several slums. While these efforts are commendable, they do not touch the deeper issues of de facto segregation, the lamentable lack of public education and healthcare, and unemployment. The debilitating attitudes of fatalism and dependency exacerbate the problem.

Afrobrazilian spiritism, stemming from the gegê-nago cult of Yoruban slaves, is prevalent in poor communities. People interact with the spirit world, seeking benevolence in exchange for gifts or sacrifices; and they attribute malevolent occurrences in daily life to the spirit world.

A Pentecostalism that majors on legalism has made headway in Recife’s poorest communities. According to these groups, adhering to rules against soccer, beach-going, sleeveless shirts, lipstick, and shaving legs determines right-standing with God, and divine blessing is bought with offerings. So when the urban poor think of “believers” or “evangelicals,” this strict and strange image comes to mind. Perhaps because of the Roman Catholic teaching that ties relationship to God with baptism into the Catholic Church, the urban poor equate being a believer with church attendance. Even when a person prays to receive Christ as savior and Lord, he often equates the act not with becoming a Christian but becoming a member of a certain denomination. A person remains a believer as long as he frequents that church’s worship services. If he stops attending, he is no longer a believer. This view is understandable, considering most Brazilians think of themselves as Christians because they were born in a predominantly Catholic country. Syncretism is so much a part of their worldview, the Recifenses may pray to Jesus Christ and also consult a witch. This syncretism ties into urban poor survival skills: a person taps into whichever resource will solve the problem currently presenting itself.

The middle and upper class Recifense worldview is syncretistic, as well. It retains respect for a saints-based Roman Catholicism but is highly informed by the scientific materialism that dominates higher education. The upper classes also add spiritism to their blended religious orientation. Spiritism takes various forms, including Afrobrazilian cults, Kardecism (similar to New Age religion) and, more recently, Asian mysticism (especially pop-culture variants of Hinduism and Buddhism), which has been added to the mix in the name of well-being. The goal of the adopted (and adapted) mystic practices is self-gratification and fulfillment, rather than the traditional goal of self-negation and oneness.

Middle and upper class stresses often stem from professional demands (long hours and hard work) and the high cost of maintaining the high life (condominium fees, cars, this season’s designer clothes,⁴⁵ private school for the children and servants). Because armed robbery is common, there is a high fear index.

The upper classes, as well as the poor, celebrate regional culture. Immense pride in cultural heritage is a Northeast Brazilian reaction to the tendency of the South and Southeast regions of Brazil to openly disparage the Northeast for its poverty, lack of productivity, and slower pace, which other regions in Brazil attribute to laziness.

The middle and upper class worldview reflects Relativism. While many may revere the saints or even attend mass, lifestyle choices do not reflect Roman Catholic ethics. The sexual revolution was considered to be liberating. Divorce is sad, but common. The homosexual movement receives wide political support in Recife. One of the most famous Carnival blocks is the “Virgins” block, consisting of thousands of men dressed as women.

As with the poor, the more affluent classes prioritize close friends and family relationships. They spend leisure moments with family and intimate friends behind garden walls, in the home, or on outings. Anyone who is not a family member or intimate friend is not invited into the home. Relationships may be started by meeting at restaurants or visiting on the patio or out on the street, but it takes a long time to move beyond a shallow acquaintance.⁴⁶

Some members of the more affluent classes lament the rampant poverty in Recife, give alms, and participate in social action projects. These philanthropists act out of pity and also out of self-preservation, seeing such intervention as a way to address violent crime since the government is not solving the problem. Despite this benevolence, the middle and upper classes are wary of the poor. The haves and have nots interact to exchange goods and services or charity, but never to socialize and never as equals. Both classes are resigned to the fact that most of Recife’s residents live in slums.

Two Challenges to Baptist Growth in Recife

In addition to the tremendous ills of poverty, functional segregation, and social injustice, Baptists in Recife face immediate ministry obstacles that hamper the growth of the church. These obstacles come from both inside and outside the denomination.⁴⁷ The issues at stake are the integrity of the gospel, the multiplication of disciples, and the future of the church. Among numerous stunting obstacles, the most pressing external challenge is syncretism and the most pressing internal challenge pertains to delivery of conservative theological education.

The Challenge of Syncretism

As noted in the historical review above, the Brazilian people of today came into existence through the mixing of distinct races. Likewise, Brazilian spirituality (and Brazilians are very spiritual) comes from the blending of distinct religions. Inherent in the psyche of Brazilians is the tendency to glean ingredients from outside sources in order to make something new, i.e., something Brazilian, be it food, fashion, art, music, business, ethnicity, or religion. Brazilians are a creative people. But no group of people can transform the gospel, for a transformed gospel ceases to be the gospel at all. Rather, the gospel transforms people. While contextualization is vital, syncretism is fatal. In response to syncretism, Recife Baptists must communicate the gospel message and teach basic Christian doctrine. This task is critical in light of an arresting discovery that calls into question the state of evangelicalism in Brazil.

The growing number of evangelicals in Brazil has grabbed the attention of news media and church organizations alike in the past decade. The statistics are deceptive, indicating that evangelicals comprise 14 to 30 percent of the population in some of Brazil’s major cities. The numbers must be interpreted carefully. IMB leaders in Brazil have long recognized that the government census takers make no distinction between groups like the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses and mainstream evangelical denominations. Furthermore, census takers put all members of a household in the same religious category as the one member responding to the survey. (Although Brazilians are group-oriented, it is common in the twenty-first century for members of the same household to differ in religious preferences.) Beyond the discrepancy in numbers between those who do prefer evangelical beliefs and those who are carelessly counted in that category is the question of what “preference” means. Is the preference exclusive? Does it entail an understanding of the gospel? Research Specialist Alan Myatt and Brazil Strategy Associate Nolen Pridemore discovered through a four-city survey that the number of true, exclusively evangelical believers is much smaller than federal statistics indicate.

Myatt and Pridemore’s survey explores discrepancies between adherents’ beliefs and the official teachings of the dominant religions of Brazil, including Roman Catholicism, spiritism, and vangelicalism. The respondents’ answers showed marked syncretism, a pragmatic approach to religion, and rampant legalism.⁴⁸

Very few individuals fit any of the profiles as consistent with any one of the religious belief systems tested. For example, of those who responded positively to the question that salvation is by faith alone without dependence upon good works, 17% also affirmed that they would consult a medium in a time of crisis, 28% affirmed belief in reincarnation, and 53% also affirmed the necessity of attending Mass and obeying the 10 commandments.⁴⁹

Syncretism and pragmatism are not new phenomena to Brazil. Brazilians have historically embraced new trends and incorporated whatever works in order to survive. This approach to life is an expression of the jeitinho brasileiro (Brazilian way of tweaking things to make life work). Bearing this context in mind, let us add that, in our years in Recife, the preaching we have heard is typically not in-depth, doctrinal study. “Concern with correct doctrine has not been an emphasis of Brazilian evangelicalism, especially among the majority Pentecostals. Rationality takes a firm place far behind mysticism and experience as the basis for worship and understanding of God.”⁵⁰ The Sunday night church service (the main event of Brazilian evangelical church life) is evangelistic, with an invitation that often amounts to “if you want a better life, accept Jesus.” What Recifenses understand accepting this invitation to mean is no more dancing,⁵¹ drinking, smoking or going out with friends, and constant church attendance. Many accept these rules; others fall away. The bad news is that Recifenses equate this lifestyle with evangelicalism. If a “believer” stops going to church or obeying the rules, then he considers himself no longer evangelical. Even worse, Recifenses distinguish between being Evangelical and simply being Christian. Clearly, attention must be given to scripture study, discipleship, leadership training, and communicating the good news of salvation from sin by grace through faith, in order to plant churches, free from syncretism, that do not “tweak” the tenants of the faith.

So, given the tendency for Brazilians to self-identify as evangelical while espousing opposing religious beliefs, what percentage of Recife’s population embraces a rigorous, confessional understanding of the gospel? According to Pridemore, on average 4% of the population of Brazil is born-again.⁵² The average is 3.5 to 7.7% in the northeastern coastal city of Salvador, near Recife, and 0.8 to 1.8% in Porto Alegre, South Brazil.⁵³ We have been deceiving ourselves in thinking Brazil is 14 to 30% reached. The sobering, more accurate numbers give ample justification for the South America Region motto: “Reached? Not yet.”

The Challenge of Theological Education

Baptist theological education in Recife stands at a crossroads. Recife is home to the oldest Baptist theological seminary in South America. Years ago, STBNB educated approximately 800 students on a manicured campus with grand buildings. Now, the seminary has barely 400 students, the buildings are dilapidated, the school struggles financially, and it wrestles with theological liberalism.⁵⁴

During my initial days on campus, I thought I was misunderstanding the Portuguese when students said, “the Bible contains the words of God, but should not be considered the Word of God . . . There are scientific explanations that account for the miracles in the Bible . . . Demon possession is the author’s way of describing psychological problems . . .” and (my favorite) “I love reading Paul Tillich during my quiet time.” Veteran missionaries later explained there were a handful of liberal professors on campus whose ideas were popular among students. Pridemore identifies theological liberalism in Baptist seminaries as one of the major challenges confronting Brazilian Baptists today.⁵⁵ Missionary David Bledsoe connects the present influence of liberal professors in Brazilian seminaries to the IMB’s 1998 decision to specialize in Church Planting Movement (CPM) strategy. Speaking about the CPM strategy’s consequences for theological education, Bledsoe explains:

The ramification of this strategy change was that we, as Southern Baptists, lost most of our influence in overseas theological educational institutions. Instead of transitioning and becoming partners at the table with the nations, we excused ourselves to begin another tactic [CPM strategy] that contained no emphasis on theological education . . . . Although the pendulum is returning to a more balanced strategy of ministry, only a handful of missionaries are left in Baptist seminaries with little voice to teach students and mentor the national leadership within these institutions.⁵⁶

STBNB’s challenges are great. Nevertheless, there are signs of hope. First, the seminary’s new president, Dr. Roberto Schuler, is courageously taking unpopular measures to ameliorate the financial situation. Schuler has laid off fourteen employees and scheduled all classes in the evening to reduce expenses, and he has outsourced billing to motivate prompt payment. Second, Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest plans to partner with the Recife seminary by sending visiting professors and holding joint theological conferences. Third, IMB leadership in Brazil has posted four career job requests for seminary professors. These changes reflect Baptist determination to strengthen Brazilian theological education. The daunting challenges for Baptists in Recife provide a timely opportunity to draw nearer to God and let him guide us through this maze into a brighter future.

Conclusion

The missionary’s context is always changing. Yesterday’s events shape today’s populations and today’s decisions form tomorrow’s worldviews. Each urban setting is unique. It has a unique history, unique people, and a unique weave of challenges that are defining tomorrow. Effective ministry is suited to the context. For this reason, we must be aware of what goes on around us. Such awareness will help us to communicate the gospel in a way Recifenses can understand and to start churches that are truly Christian and truly Recifense.