What makes for a prosperous country? A growing country?
- Economists would say Per Capita GDP is an excellent indicator.
- Nutritionists might say a country that can feed itself with healthy foods.
- Resource managers will measure renewable energy, water tables, energy resources, and environmental indicators.
- Climatologists will measure pollution indexes, deforestation, and weather stability.
- Researchers like to rate poverty levels.
- Buddhists have developed a Gross National Happiness Scale (GNH).
- The Better Life Index measures a number of things such as housing, jobs, education, health, environment etc.
The United States and Canada do pretty well on some of these, and less so on others. I find it interesting to look at countries we once called “Third World Countries”, or the developing world, or the BRIC countries – how are they doing?
I lived in a BRIC country for 21 years. When I moved there in 1972, we bought our food at roadside stands and open meat markets; when we left in 1993, there were air-conditioned malls and supermarkets. Pretty nice – yet the tens of thousands still lived in poverty-filled, crime-ridden “favelas” (slums).
Overall, the country of Brazil has risen to have the 6th largest economy in the world, and the city of Sao Paulo is the 5th wealthiest in the world. There are high tech regions with world class research in agriculture, avionics, Artificial Intelligence, and environmental science among other hi-tech industries.
Ok, so what? I am more interested in what God is doing in that country.
Fifty years ago, the Roman Catholic church dominated the religious landscape, and while Catholicism is still very influential in the country, consider how God is at work today:
- Some estimates suggest that 31% of the population of this historic Roman Catholic country is Protestant (2020 census), with the majority of that identifying as Evangelical or Pentecostal.
- About 20% of legislators in the national congress are Evangelicals, and an Evangelical pastor has been appointed to the supreme court.
- Second generation believers are making a difference; not only in the church, but in the marketplace. Note the story of Kerusso, in the book Missions Disrupted (page 86ff).
- At the Lausanne 2024 conference in Seoul, South Korea, plenary speaker Sarah Breuel, reported that Brazil has sent 40,000 missionaries, second only to the United States.
- The Alliance of Evangelical Churches primarily in north Brazil, where I at one time served on the seminary board, has grown to more than 400 churches and 40,000 members. The seminary in Sao Luiz, founded in 1936, continues to grow and to thrive.
- Scores of indigenous tribal groups have the scriptures in their own language, largely due to Wycliffe, but many Crossworld translators also have produced the New Testament and whole Bible translations for the Wai Wai, Wapishana, Sunuma, Macushi, Kayapo, and the Trio, amongst others.
- Business as Mission (BAM), is an idea that focuses on God’s people in the marketplace being God’s disciples and making disciples of Jesus. The movement is taking off in Brazil, as BAM Brazil coordinates hundreds of business owners gathering in congresses and small groups to learn how to bring the Kingdom of God to the marketplace. IBEC, as a coaching group, is very much at the heart of this movement, with Bob Bush and Jonathan Brake joining Mike Baer and Mats Tunehag at some recent conferences there.
- Yes, we have come a long way from paddling up rivers and riding donkeys in week-long trips to bring Jesus to the unreached. God’s people in the marketplace are key to spreading the Good News today.
Larry Sharp, Director of Training, IBEC Ventures
Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com