Urban International English Speaking Churches
More than ever today, there is a plethora of books on church growth, church planting and alike, it seems that the editors have found this “new” niche a promising one. Most of those books will focus on strategies, on how to respond to demographical, socio-economic aspects and needs of a certain area, and how to apply that information effectively to a church plant project.
I may be wrong, but sometimes this approach seems as an infallible recipe that irons out any distinctiveness, especially when it comes to international churches. Of course I believe that some of these books are helpful, because seldom an author is wrong one hundred percent of the time. I still have them on my shelf, I developed a strange relationship with them, they make me feel guilty of pastoral malpractice, because my congregation is not growing the way they tell me it should.
Being a pastor of an international English speaking church in Rio de Janeiro, I have to be honest: sometimes I find myself struggling with a plateaued congregation, people coming and going all the time, which is the normal pulse of an expatriated community. Being a Brazilian, Rio is home for me, but I have had the experience of being an expatriated myself in the past, therefore I know what it means to be a transient member of a community.
Even knowing that this attendance fluctuation is somehow expected, I have to admit that after browsing through most of these church growth books, I found out that none of them addressed to my particular ministry, on the contrary, when I read axiomatic statements like: “quality attracts quantity 1” there is an implied jab meaning (with all subtlety) that there must be something wrong with small congregations such as the one I have been serving here in Brazil.
The major aspects that agglutinate us as church, is of course, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the love for God´s word and the English language. But certainly this kind of ministry is not less than that, but there is more to it. There are many other questions that international pastors should be asking themselves: what is the fabric of this ministry? Are we just chaplains? Are we here to provide a warm environment, a home away from home, until our people go back to their home land? Are we only planting the seeds that will fructify in “foreign” lands?
The answer lies on the fact that we should understand more fully the contemporary trends that affects our churches directly. For the first time, since the Greco-Roman world, our planet is seeing globalization resurging bringing with it multiculturalism and pluralism accompanied by a ever-increasing efficient global capitalism, a fact that will allow us to receive in our churches workers ( managers, C.E.O´s, etc…) from all over the planet at a faster pace than ever. Unlike past years, in my personal experience, Americans do not make the totality of our congregation; we have been experiencing the influx of cultures that in the past were seldom present in our church.
Union Church of Rio also has a secondary function, it is a thermometer of our national economy, when it is going well, I can be among the first ones to witness the short-lived economic boost, because more people will show up at the services, on the other hand, when economy shrinks in certain areas, more dependent on international investments, I know I will have to say good bye to many in our church. This may not be true in some English speaking churches in European countries, but still is a quite recent phenomenon that surely reproduces itself, although with different aspects, in all international churches.
Therefore, how could we define ourselves, other than a thermometer, or a safe haven for expatriated families? The answer is no different from any other “regular” Christian church; we are all called to preach the gospel in an age that defies and is suspicious of any notion of propositional truth and abhors anything that is not pluralistic and all-encompassing.
The great challenge we have as international churches is that we stand at the cross-roads of the world; I believe we have the same potential as every other church to transform the community where we are in, even being a transient congregation.
One relevant aspect of this specific ministry is that of social work. I found out that people will eventually show a desire join home Bible study group during the week, but they will be very enthusiastic joining a task force to paint the classrooms of a rundown orphanage in the slums of Rio.
The reason for that, some have said to me, is the inevitable result of a social heavy conscience, people are driven by guilt. I doubt that, for me there is more than a desire to appease one´s conscience by doing these kinds of work, I am convinced that this generation wants more, they want themselves to participate in social action rather than paying someone else to do it for them, they pursue authenticity in everything they do, they want to leave this country knowing that somehow, in a forgotten corner of a dirty ghetto in Rio, someone has been touched by their act of love in the name of Jesus Christ.
Is this a new spirit in the church? No, the Bible is permeated with admonitions for us, as Christians, to materialize our words of confession into good deeds, just a cursory glance at the book of James will attest to that. All I can say is that international churches can contribute greatly to its community by focusing on these issues:
1) Preach the gospel with no compromise and without a grain of legalism, refuting the false dilemma between “Fundamentalism” and “Liberalism”, the gospel always offers a third way, we don´t need to sacrifice the orthodoxy of Scriptures on the “altar of modernity” ( Sttot)
2) Instill in the hearts of your congregation the biblical notion that we can bequeath to the next generation( the next group coming next year or so ) a better community and that they will reap the benefits and will continue to do the Lord´s ministry according to their capacities
May the Lord continue to bless us, as we go throughout this world preaching His transformational word.
Pr. Lucas Ribeiro
Union Church of Rio
www.unionchurchrio.com