Brazil

The Apostolic Church UK first planted churches in Brazil 43 years ago. During the most recent Actionoverseas board visit in June 2017, board members Pastors Glen Chaplin & Stuart Wood introduced the Brazilian pastors to a saturation church planting model that will enable the Apostolic Church in Brazil to expand beyond their current 18 churches, extend into new provinces and even pioneer into neighbouring countries.

Brazilians are known for their passion, whether it is for football, dancing or just life itself. That same passion is evident in the churches from the welcome that is extended to everyone present to the vibrant praise and worship during the service. It is no surprise, therefore, that there was great passion and excitement during the church-planting training that took place in a small rural guesthouse complex outside of Belo Horizonte.

Alongside the 15 church pastors who attended the training there were many other leaders and young people present with a desire to evangelise and plant new churches. Stuart & Glen were joined by Francois Rauch, one of the senior staff members from Harvesters Ministries (South Africa) who helped to facilitate the evangelism training and outline the Hub planting model.

Although the formal launch of the Phase training will not take place until January 2018 already the pastors have begun discipleship & evangelism training with their congregations in readiness.

At the end of the 3 days of church-planting training Pastor Flavio Aredes, President of the Apostolic Church in Brazil said that the training that the pastors had received was something that they had been looking for and praying about for a long time. For almost 18 months he and the other pastors had been praying about a way to expand the church in Brazil, which had become static in recent years.

Brazil is a massive country with a population of over 225 million people. It is a nation that is facing many challenges from poverty and crime but in the midst of the difficulties God is building his church – with passionate stones!