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| Revival in Brazil Thousands of people becoming Christians every day.
Magazines, TV broadcasts and Newspaper commenting about the growth of the Church. Social
changes starting to happen through the church.
How did it start? How can this experience be an encouragement for other countries? This
is what we share in this article.
"Option for the Poor"
Brazil was colonized by Portugal, and the Catholic Church arrived with the first
Portuguese expedition in 1500. With the growth of this church Brazil was considered the
country with the largest Catholic population in the world.
Concerned with the growing poverty and social unbalance of the population, the Catholic
leaders became strongly involved with social and political matters. Their speech became
increasingly philosophical, and the Word of God was not preached anymore by most of them.
The motto "Option for the Poor" was very well known, emphasizing the efforts of
the Catholic leaders towards the social needs of the country. However, political and
ideological discourses from the pulpit were not able to feed people's hearts. Thousands of
people started leaving the Church every year to Spiritism, New Age cults, or to go
nowhere.
Evangelicals, Pentecostals and
Fellowships
The Reformed Church arrived in Brazil about 140 years ago, through historical
denominations like Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist. For many years they faced very
strong opposition from the Catholics. After 65 years, the Pentecostals arrived through the
Assemblies of God, and had a phenomenal growth mainly amongst the poor population. It was
ironic that the poor people being reached were mostly those who had left the Catholic
Church.
With the poor population attending the Pentecostal churches, and the historical
denominations reaching mainly middle-class people, there was a gap for those who had
difficulties coping with the formalism of the traditional churches, and the legalism of
the Pentecostal denominations. In the midst of this scenario, the "independent"
churches, or fellowships appeared. With a very lively worship style, a fresh vision and a
light and flexible structure, they attracted a great flow of people coming from
traditional churches and unbelievers who were converted.
Is it Revival?
Visiting Brazil with some British leaders few years ago, I was asked: "Do you
think that what is happening in Brazil today is revival?" I understand the reason for
their question. They saw how the country is struggling with social and moral issues. Being
there, if you turn the TV on, you see that pornography is a big problem, and New age is
growing alongside the growth of the Church. Therefore if you consider the traditional
definition of revival, perhaps we will find difficult to fit it to the Brazilian scenario.
There is not a general awareness of sin amongst society, and we still don't have a great
impact of Jesus' personality upon the whole community.
A Process Going On
When we talk about past revivals, usually we have a date, a place and the name of
someone related to it. We say "The Welsh Revival of 1904, started at Moriah Chapel,
with Evan Roberts", or "The Lewis Revival of 1949, started in Barvas, with
Duncam Campbel". But when we talk about what God is doing in countries like Brazil,
Korea, Argentina and many African countries, it's difficult to find a specific date, place
or someone's name for that. We can just say things like: "In the last 15 years
approximately, the Church in Brazil has been growing faster."
There is a process going on in these countries. The churches over there are changing,
there is a progressive response to the work of the Holy Spirit, and God is saving the
people.
Why we believe that there are Signs of
Revival in the UK
About 10 years ago we began to have amongst Brazilian churches the same manifestations
of the Holy Spirit that we have been having in the UK. People falling in the Spirit,
sometimes shaking, and even some very unusual signs like people receiving golden fillings
in their teeth (thousands for many months), golden dust falling over the believers,
aromatic oil dripping from peoples hands in prayer meetings, etc. However, it was just
part of the process God was developing within the Church. It led the Church to go outside
with boldness, praying for and with unbelievers everywhere, and bringing friends neighbors
and relatives to Christian meetings. Hundreds started to be saved every day.
Although we don't see multitudes being saved in the UK yet, we recognize that the same
process that we saw in Brazil is happening here. We have the presence of God being
manifested from north to south, and a growing willingness to go to the lost. News of
increasing numbers of people being saved is coming from many places, usually through Alpha
Courses, Kids' Churches, house groups or outreach events.
We believe that God is opening the heavens over the UK, and it will get faster and
faster. It doesn't matter so much what is our understanding of revival. What we want to
see is people getting saved, isn't it? We don't have to wait for a special day. Perhaps
this time is the day called today. Let's use every opportunity God is
giving the Church right now to proclaim the gospel, and make His love know.
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of
season..." 2Tim 4:2.
Marcos Barros |
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