Brazil

[David]

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GEOGRAPHY

Area 8,511,965 sq.km. One half of the land surface and population of South America. The world's fifth largest country.

Population		Ann.Gr.	Density
2000	170,115,463	+1.32%	20 per sq. km.
2010	190,875,224	+1.11%	22 per sq. km.
2025	217,929,781	+0.77%	26 per sq. km.

Capital Brasilia 1,985,000. Other major cities: São Paulo 17.7 mill.; Rio de Janeiro 10.6m; Belo Horizonte 4.2m; Porto Alegre 3.7m; Recife 3.3m; Salvador 3.2m; Fortaleza 3m; Curitiba 2.6m; Campinas 1.86m; Belem 1.63m; Manaus 1.4m; Cubatao 1.3m; Santos 1.3m; Goiania 1.1m. Urbanites 78%.

PEOPLES

Brazil is a 'melting pot' of nations, with much intermarriage, so percentages given below are not meant to indicate rigid categories.

European 53.5%. Portuguese 15%; Italian 11%; Spanish 10%; German 3% in origin; other 15%.

Mixed race 34.4%. Mestizo and Mulatto.

African 11%. Descendants of slaves brought from West Africa and Angola.

Asian 1%. Japanese 1,400,000; Arab 180,000; Chinese 180,000; Korean 70,000.

Amerindian 0.14%. In 1900 there were 500,000 in 230 tribes, but now there are an estimated 240,000 in 200 tribes, still decreasing through the encroachments of new settlers, loss of land and disease.

Literacy 83%. Official language Portuguese. All living languages 195. Languages with Scriptures 1Bi 40NT 31por 55w.i.p.

ECONOMY

Vast economic potential in the developing hinterland of the north and west. Rapid growth and industrialization in the 1960s and '70s in the south made Brazil one of the world's leading industrial and trading nations. Massive inflation in the 1980s, crippling foreign debts and gross disparity between the rich 30% and the poor 70% brought Brazil to the brink of disaster. There was economic improvement in the 1990s, but the core issues of corruption, protectionism, state ownership, regional overspending and the growing ecological crisis in Amazonia have yet to be addressed. Unemployment 6%. HDI 0.739; 79^th/174. Public debt 11% of GNP. Income/person $4,400 (15% of USA).

POLITICS

Independent from Portugal in 1822 as a kingdom, it became a federal republic in 1889. Authoritarian military rule between 1964 and 1985 left a legacy of social inequality, bureaucratic inefficiency and state ownership of large parts of the economy. Multi-party democracy restored in 1985. Popular outcry at the President's corruption forced his resignation in 1992, and democratic accountability to the people has improved since then.

RELIGION

Freedom of religion and separation of Church and state. There is still a residual bias to Catholicism in government circles.

Religions	Population %	Adherents	Ann.Gr.
Christian	91.43	155,536,568	+0.7%
Animist/Spiritist	5.00	8,505,773	+1.7%
non-Religious/other	3.01	5,125,476	+2.9%
Buddhist	0.25	425,289	+0.5%
Jewish	0.21	357,242	+2.3%
Muslim	0.10	170,115	+1.3%

Christians	Denom.	Affil.%	,000	Ann.Gr.
Protestant	116	6.63	11,274	+1.1%
Independent	216	5.80	9,859	+3.6%
Anglican	1	0.07	125	+7.5%
Catholic	1	73.18	124,500	-0.4%
Orthodox	15	0.11	188	+0.8%
Marginal	59	1.16	1,970	+3.9%
Unaffliated		4.48	7,621	n.a.

Churches	MegaBloc	Cong.	Members	Affiliates
Catholic	C	25,500	90,875,912	124,500,000
Assemblies of God	P	22,000	2,000,000	4,100,000
Seventh-day Adventist	P	3,378	882,352	1,500,000
Christian Cong.	I	4,500	675,000	1,350,000
Baptist Convention	P	5,765	843,638	1,200,000
Brazil for Christ	I	4,500	800,000	1,200,000
Jehovah's Witnesses	M	7,730	528,034	1,200,000
God is Love	I	5,000	600,000	1,200,000
Lutheran Confession	P	2,700	713,287	1,020,000
Catholic Apostolic	I	349	300,000	600,000
Latter-daySaints (Morm)	M	1,310	437,956	600,000
Univ Ch K'dom of God	I	1,200	300,000	600,000
Int'l Ch of Frsqr Gospel	P	2,300	212,000	500,000
National Baptist Conv	I	1,294	220,000	370,000
Presbyterian	P	1,867	280,000	370,000
Evang Congreg Chr	P	2,250	180,000	300,000
Ev Luth Church of Brazil	P	1,800	125,749	210,000
Methodist	P	2,400	120,000	200,000
Restoration Church	I	560	140,000	200,000
Episcopal	A	320	51,230	125,000
Christian Brethren	P	810	65,000	120,000
Indep Presbyterian	P	500	60,000	100,200
Conv of Evang Baptists	P	1,204	65,000	90,000
Adv Ch of the Promise	I	473	26,000	56,000
Chr Evang Alliance	P	665	13,308	35,000
Other denoms [387]			2,807,230	6,261,000
Total Christians[410]			103,282,000	147,916,000

Note: Both the Catholics and various Pentecostal groups claim high numbers. These have been adjusted in line with census and independent research groups. Figures given here are substantially lower than those given in the 1993 edition of Operation World.

Trans-bloc Groupings	pop.%	,000	Ann.Gr.
Evangelical	12.6	21,379	+4.4%
Charismatic	23.2	39,524	+2.4%
Pentecostal	7.9	13,523	+5.3%

Missionaries from Brazil
P,I,A 4,754 in 132 agencies to 100 countries: Brazil 3,440; Portugal 103; Paraguay 85; USA 68; Guinea-Bissau 66; Mozambique 63; Spain 62; UK 52; Peru 51.

Missionaries to Brazil
P,I,A 3,100 in 205 agencies from 41 countries: USA 2,060; UK 210; Germany 200; Korea 140; Canada 132.

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Answers to Prayer

1 Continued spiritual hunger in the midst of economic uncertainty has caused many to seek after God. Evangelicals continue to grow in numbers and influence – but not at the rate many have believed in the past. Note the growth in the graph above.

2 The state of Goias was well known for spiritism, but massive intercession by women is breaking this power. In 1992 Evangelicals were 7% of the population, but by 1999 they had greatly increased.

3 The Brazilian missionary movement is continuing to grow and mature.

Challenges for Prayer

1 The government continues to dodge the painful restructuring and righting the wrongs of the past. It is said Brazil is a paradise for some, purgatory for most and hell for 20%. Pray that the endemic corruption, cronyism, injustices of society and discrimination – against the poor, underprivileged children and indigenous tribal peoples – may be ended.

2 The Catholic Church is in crisis. Brazil is the world's largest Catholic country with nearly 10% of all Catholics. Annual losses of 600,000 to Evangelicals and to spiritism continue. Only 13% of Catholics are active in their commitment; nominalism and spiritism are rife among those who profess. Change must come, but the 'Base Community' movement, once two million-strong, has lost much of its cutting edge. Widespread espousal of liberation theology in the 1970s and 1980s faded with increased prosperity and democracy. Positive changes are these:

a) Vocations to the priesthood among Brazilians have increased and now only 23% of the 15,300 priests are foreign.

b) The growth of the charismatic movement continues apace with over 15 million active participants.

c) The successes of evangelical denominations have stimulated a more people-friendly, contemporary worship and ministry, and a greater growth of Evangelical Catholics as well as traditional mass attendance.

Pray that the Bible and its truths may mould the lives of Catholics.

3 Challenges facing Brazilian Evangelicals. Intercede for the following:

a) Relevance and a prophetic voice in Brazilian society. Evangelistic vision is rarely extended to a vision to bring a message of righteousness to a society ravaged by inequality, injustice, selfishness, crime, immorality and AIDS. Evangelicals have increased their political leverage, but there have been many evidences of carnality as well as moral and ethical failure among those with a high public profile. Pray that they may use their growing influence wisely and in biblical holiness and humility.

b) Spiritual depth. Success rather than holiness has spawned many unhealthy trends: an overemphasis on healing and prosperity, a 'worshipping' of large numbers with much exaggeration, a great zeal for evangelism but less concern for retaining or discipling in depth those who seek help. The result is over-evangelized but underfed converts, many petty legalisms, a growing Pentecostal nominalism, and an enormous rate of backsliding with millions of ex-Evangelicals now disillusioned with Christianity.

c) Godly servant leadership accountable to those to whom they minister. Some leaders have sought political and ecclesiastical power, fame and selfish gain. There have been too many widely-publicized scandals and moral failures.

d) Effective modelling and training for those called to Christian ministry. Only a minority of the 75,000 evangelical congregations are led by those with basic theological training. In 1992 there were 321 seminaries and institutes where over 12,000 were being trained for ministry and also 275 AoG Bible schools with over 12,000 students. This has greatly increased – over 7,000 were being trained in Baptist seminaries by 1999, but all forms of theological training need to be increased to provide the Church with pastoral care and biblical leadership. Too few are willing to serve where the need is greatest.

e) Unity. There are anywhere between 400 and 4,000 denominations among Evangelicals. Unresolved inter-personal relationships, jealousies and hatreds have weakened their voice. Pray for the Evangelical Association of Brazil, founded in 1991, that it may be a means of fostering lasting unity, fellowship and prayerful cooperation.

4 Goals for the new Millennium. A visionary conference sponsored by Projeto Brasil 2010 and associated with DAWN was a catalyst for an unprecedented unity and cooperative commitment to national goals for prayer and action:

a) Thousands of new churches to be planted as a multi-denominational national initiative. In order that there be a church for every 1,000 urban dwellers and a church for every rural and river community, there must be 250,000 congregations by 2010.

b) Adoption of, and church planting among, the 139 Amerindian tribal groups still unreached.

c) A focus on the hundreds of Brazilian towns and municipalities with less than 1% Evangelicals. Nearly all of these are in the north-east.

d) Adoption of 173 unreached peoples in other lands.

5 Spiritism is a dynamic force for evil in Brazil. Not only is Brazil the largest Catholic country, but also the largest spiritist country in the world. It appeals to the emotions and offers physical healing; both traits make it an attractive alternative to traditional Christianity. In 1975 there were at least 14,000 spiritist centres guided by 420,000 mediums. There are seven million Brazilians practising Kardecism ('high' spiritism) and millions more practising Umbanda and Macumba ('low' spiritism with African roots). A majority of Brazilians are involved – most still claiming to be Christian. Pray both for Christians willing and spiritually equipped to minister to those bound by Satan, and for the deliverance of many.

6 The challenge of the less evangelized peoples. Pray for effective outreach and church planting in:

a) The squalid favelas. These slums are a highly visible blight in every major city – home to nearly 20 million poverty-stricken and needy people, and 20-25% of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo's population. These lawless areas are rarely entered by the police and are hotbeds of crime, drugs, violence, prostitution and disease. AIDS is a major problem.

b) The northeast, which is poor and underdeveloped and also has Brazil's lowest percentage of Evangelicals. About 15 million people live in the poor Sertão but only 3% are Evangelicals. There is a great exodus of poor to the Amazon and the cities of the southeast. Pray for wise Christian relief and development through an effective Brazilian and expatriate missionary presence.

c)� The Amazon basin, which is larger than the whole of non-Russian Europe, and is of global importance because of its oxygen-generating forests and huge biodiversity. It is also spiritually needy. The challenges for outreach are the pioneer settlements springing up along new roads through the forests and the 36,000 yet unchurched river communities accessible only by boat. UFM, AoG, Baptists, YWAM and others are involved with MAF support in some areas. Church planting is made difficult by the relative poverty, loss of key members to cities, and geographical isolation.

d) The cities. Though they have numerous churches, cities also contain ethnic minorities and the nation's elite which are far less reached. Pray that the Church may find effective means to break through into these groups.

e) The Japanese. Over 60% are Roman Catholic but only 3% Protestant. In 1992 there were 80 evangelical churches with 7,000 adult Japanese believers, with little increase since then. Pray for the witness of the Japan Holiness Church (OMSI), Japan Evangelical Mission and UFM. Many Brazilian Japanese have gone to Japan as low-paid labourers – the Holiness Church has sent missionaries to work amongst them.

f) The 180,000 Chinese who live largely in São Paulo, where there are 12 small evangelical congregations, but the percentage of Christians (1.7%) is low. By contrast, there are more than 42 churches for the 60,000 Koreans.

7 The under-18s are over 50% of the population. There is a widespread gap in ministry to children and young people both inside and beyond the churches. Pray specifically for:

a) Children in crisis. Remember before the Lord:

i) The 10 million children who make their living from the streets. Pray for the many churches and agencies which have orphanages, homes of refuge, rehabilitation and training ministries (YWAM, UFM, WH, WEC, AM, etc.).

ii) The hundreds of thousands of street kids who have no home and are subject to drug abuse, prostitution, misuse by criminal gangs and even murder by police death squads (over 1,500 murders every year).

iii) The 7 million child labourers.

iv) The 500,000 involved in prostitution.

v) The 540,000 already infected with the AIDS virus in 1999.

Pray also for Christians to be active in social action to address the spiritual and economic causes.

b) Young people who face many pressures – especially in university. There are about 1,700,000 students in 851 universities. Pray for more workers to minister to them. The CCCI and Navigators are active, and the ABU(IFES) is having a significant impact with groups in most universities. They help students come to the Lord, build them up in the Word and encourage missionary vision. The ABU has a ministry to Christian graduates.

c) Appropriate ministry for children and young people in the churches. There is a huge gap in this area in the majority of congregations. Without this the next generation will be, at best, poorly discipled or nominal in their faith and, at worst, reject their parents' faith.

8 The indigenous Amerindians, as elsewhere in the Americas, have had a long history of prejudice, oppression, massacres and exploitation that continues to this day. There are now protective laws for the remaining small tribal groups but they are rarely applied. The continued survival of these peoples is threatened by encroaching woodcutters, gold prospectors and ranchers. Their cultures are disintegrating through despair, disease, alcohol abuse and suicide. The six million indigenous peoples of 1500AD now number 240,000 with many reduced to small bands in inaccessible areas of the Amazon basin. Pray for:

a) A change in attitude on the part of Brazilians, and wise balance on the part of government agencies, in protecting existing cultures and their integration into national life. Tragically it is often those appointed to 'protect' them who become the chief oppressors and exploiters.

b) A reversal of restrictions on mission work among them. In 1978 the ministry of SIL in 41 tribes, NTM in 20 and UFM in 5 was severely curtailed. This was triggered by anti-Christian anthropologists, land-grabbers, gold-diggers and corrupt officials. Pray that this unholy alliance may be thwarted in their hindering of evangelism, church planting and Bible translation. There has been some easing of restrictions over the past decade.

c) Christian agencies ministering to them. There are nearly 1,000 national and expatriate workers in ministry among Amerindians. Pray for an increased commitment to this ministry by Brazilians – they face fewer hassles. Pray for the work of NTM with 251 missionaries in 17 tribes (targeting a further 22), SIL in 45, UFM in 7, SAM in 4, YWAM in 2 and various Brazilian agencies. Pray also for sensitivity in applying the gospel message in ways that are biblical yet give pride in their language and culture.

d) Bible translation – SIL, the Brazilian ALEM and NTM have made a large investment of effort, time and personnel into this ministry. Over 55 translation projects are in hand and a further 56 languages need surveys to clarify their need for translators. Over 19 languages are on the verge of extinction.

e) The unreached. About 40 small tribal groups totalling around 5,000 people have yet to be contacted with the gospel. A total of 131 are listed as still without viable congregations of evangelical believers. Pray for their complete evangelization and the preservation of the integrity of their societies.

f) The Yanomami with some 15,000 people straddle the Brazil-Venezuela border. Their land has been invaded, despoiled and poisoned by illegal gold-diggers. Over 2,000 have been killed in clashes with settlers. Many powerful bodies seek the expulsion of missionaries working among them.

g) The Guarani on the Paraguay border number 30,000 but have been deprived of their lands so frequently that they are rapidly dying out through a wave of suicides, tuberculosis and malnutrition. There are only about 300 known believers.

9 The role of missionaries has changed over the years. The most important ministries for missionaries today are in leadership training, preparing Brazilian missionaries and in pioneer work in the Amazon region. Missions with the largest number of workers: YWAM (1,068, 93% Brazilian), NTM (451, 58% Brazilian), IMB-SBC (267), SIL/WBT (177), Baptist Mid-Mission (177), ABWE (135), UFM (121), AoG (115, 20% Brazilian), LL (58), Chs of Christ/Christian Chs (57), MAF (53), Brethren (52), WEC (52, 54% Brazilian), BMS-UK (48), CBI (39), GMU (35). Pray for the wise and strategic deployment of the missionary force to the best advantage of the Brazilian Church.

10 Praise God for the rapid growth and maturing of the Brazilian missions movement. Brazil has become a major missionary-sending nation. Pray for:

a) The AMTB – an association of cross-cultural missionary agencies that links many of the 2,000 cross-cultural Brazilian missionaries serving in 92 agencies and 85 nations.

b) Brazilian missionaries – their recruitment, effective training and preparation for the field and their long-term survival and fruitfulness in cross-cultural situations.

c) Christian congregations to increase their long-term commitment to pray for, send and support missionaries. The danger is that initial enthusiasm can quickly fade, and inflation erode promised financial support. General attitudes to cross-cultural missions have changed little during the 1990s.

d) The Associação de Conselhos Missionários de Igrejas (ACMI), founded in 1990, which aims to help local churches set up viable missions structures, programmes and channelling mechanisms.

11 Christian literature. Brazil's most widely sold books are about magic and the occult. The evangelical community, as a whole, reads one book per person per year, though the rate of Bible reading is high – 84% of Evangelicals read it every day. Pray for change through:

a) Christian publishers such as the two large AoG publishing houses, JUERP (Baptist Conv), EVN (New Life, CBI), Betânia (Bethany Fellowship), Mundo Cristão (EUSA) and ABEB (IFES). Most of these operate under the umbrella of the Evangelical Literature Committee of Brazil.

b) Bible distribution which increased markedly in the '90s. The Bible Society has massive sales of Bibles and portions of Scripture, distributing over one million Bibles and 142 million portions or leaflets annually. The Gideons distributed 10 million NTs and a further 17.2 million copies of the leaflet 'New Life for the '90s'.

12 Christian media – for prayer:

a) The JESUS film has been widely used and over half the Brazilian population has seen it. The video version has been successful among professionals. The film is in preparation in two indigenous Amerindian languages. Pray for those who respond and for their integration into Bible study groups and churches.

b) Radio. Brazilian Evangelicals operate numerous TV stations and local and national radio stations. The wide use of these media can lead to abuse. Internationally, TWR Bonaire, KYFR USA, and HCJB Ecuador beam in 226 hours of broadcasts per week. Projeto Luz (700 Club) gains huge audiences across the country. Pray for lasting impact.

Web links for Brazil

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	CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html)
	Country profile, with only very brief information on religion or society.
	Brief, largely statistical information on geography, people, government, economy, and more.
	Infobrasil (http://www.infobrasil.org/)
	Strategic information and links related to the evangelization of Brazil. In Portugese.
	A service of Sepal Brazil. Much from Ted Limpic.
	Brasil 2010 (http://www.brasil2010.org)
	A national, cooperative, Saturation Church Planting project.
	Brasil-Brazil (http://www.dubina.com/Paises/Brasil/main.asp)
	A set of essays on the country and its culture, and links. In 5 languages.
	Alcance (http://www.alcance.cjb.net)
	A Christian Web guide and Internet services. In Portugese.
	Brazil's Site E-Magazine (http://www.brazilsite.com)
	A series of illustrated pages on country and culture. In English and Portugese.