José Carlos Pezini - April 2020 Update
Portuguese-language Ministries Coordinator Rev. José Carlos Pezini sent the following update on Brazilian ministries’ COVID-19 response:
Greetings to you all with the sweet peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I think this is a good time to share with you what is happening in our ministry in the midst of the pandemic. I know that we are living in an unprecedented time in history. I don't remember experiencing anything like this in my lifetime. But we know that it is in times like this that we learn new things and new ways of living. This crisis has forced us to learn new ways to develop the ministry that the Lord has entrusted to us.
In Brazil, this crisis began in March. The government ordered everything to close and for people to shelter at home. I have had to cancel 15 pastors' mentoring retreats, 6 master's degree classes in church revitalization, and several lay leadership and discipleship training sessions in different cities and states in Brazil. We have had to reinvent the way we do our ministry. This situation forced us to carry out all of our ministerial actions through the internet.
To meet the demand for mentoring pastors, we created mentoring groups instead of talking to each one individually. With this new strategy, we reached an average of 500 pastors from 16 different denominations and 12 different states. The mentors use Zoom and they are doing very well. Because of the crisis, a large number of small churches are not able to pay their pastors. Many members of these small churches have lost their jobs and are unable to support their families. Nobody knows when the government will authorize the reopening of churches for worship. Because the churches cannot have regular gatherings, their giving has declined an average of 40%.
As I mentioned earlier, we have had to reinvent the way we do our ministries. So we are also using Zoom for lay leadership training and discipleship for small churches. We are negotiating with the IPIB Seminary, our partner in Brazil, to offer the master's degree in church revitalization course 100% online. We have more work to do including writing the text and recording the videos for the online platform. Only the master’s degree in spiritual formation course will continue to be offered in a modular format.
In addition to what is already being done to help pastors in this period of crisis, we created a type of talk show through Instagram which airs every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. The idea is to offer pastors tools that will help them improve their ministerial work. The first one had over 700 participants!
92% of the IPIB congregations are small, with less than 100 members. Many of them are suffering from this crisis and are looking for ways to keep their pastors. And many of these pastors were already in need, especially those in the northeast of the country.
Thank God for partnership with The Outreach Foundation in raising funds to help them in this difficult time. I would like to thank all of you for your generosity and fidelity in continuing to contribute to our ministry. We have been praying every day for God's blessing on your life. Without your contributions, it would be impossible to develop our ministry here in Brazil. You are blessing many lives and contributing to the expansion of the Kingdom of God.
Grace and peace in the Lord,
Pezini and Odete
Read more about Pezini’s ministry HERE.
THE NEED
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts totaling $95,000 for support and ministry funds. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.