Bauman's Blog

A note regarding transitions in my life...

I am very grateful for the church family of Igreja Presbiteriana da Barra (Barra Presbyterian Church).  Since I arrived in Brazil, they have been a huge part of my life.  I have been serving as the Executive Pastor there since January of 2010.  The church has always welcomed my wife and I with open arms.  They have welcomed a "estrangeiro/foreigner" like a true brother in Christ.  Luciane has been a part of the church for nearly 12 years. We also have developed a great friendship with and respect for Pastor Antonio Carlos, who has been a mentor, friend, and pastor to us.

Over the past several months we are sensing that God is calling us to focus more on our work with Restore Brazil and Acts 29 Brazil.  Just to give you an idea, the Restore meetings began with a handful of pastors and church planters in our aparment and we now have upwards of 70 men meeting monthly.  God has been tremendously blessing our ministry to pastors and the workload has continued to increase - increase to the point that I can no longer serve effectively as an Executive Pastor at IP Barra, for this season.  This was a difficult decision to make, but I've made the decision to officially step down as a pastor at IP Barra to focus in the coming months on Acts 29 and Restore Brazil.  We have the support of Pr Antonio as well as the leadership at the church.  The timing seems to be God's timing in every aspect of this decision.

Once we establish a stronger team and infrastructure for A29 and Restore Brazil, down the road, we are praying about planting a new church.  We are already praying, discussing, and making some initial plans for this new project.  In the meantime, I plan to stay engaged in both IP Barra as a member as well as at Union Church, where I will be preaching a couple of times per month.

We appreciate your prayers, that God would guide us, Acts 29 and Restore Brazil, that He would bless the continuing work at IP Barra, and guide our future endeavors by His grace.

The Christian concept of friendship is neither self-serving, manipulative, or proud. It does not presume guilt by mere association, and resists categorizing others. It does not demand that you decide between friends, for we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. The Kingdom mandates that we live at peace with one another and reconcile with our brother.

We should dare to admit that some of our most loyal and loving friends often do not share our faith in Christ. This is a mystery to me. But seemingly, by common grace, some outside the faith exhibit more Christlike qualities in friendship than those of our friends who are believers.

Restore Brazil meeting - March 27

An Update from Restore Brazil

Click here to read our latest ministry update of what God has been up to through Restore Brazil.

 

A Visit to Crackland

My friend Antonio Carlos Costa likes to ask the simple question - "What does it look like to be a Christian in a country with misery, poverty, and corruption?"  

The implication is not that these social problems are unique to Brazil, but rather that the level of the problem is completely absurd in relation to developed countries (and North America).  Just a drive from the Rio de Janeiro airport to our community in Barra da Tijuca is a whirlwind of literally hundreds of thousands of homes, many of which are in communities under guard by militia, drug lords, or under a pacification force of (often corrupt) police.

While the problem of misery, poverty, and corruption has been very slowly improving as our city develops, the underworld of Rio de Janeiro remains.  

While we've been doing ministry in the favelas over the course of the past two and a half years, I've never seen something like I saw just a few days ago.

We started our journey with a church service vigil at midnight.  Then we went through and visited several crack stops in the favela Jacarezinho until 6:30am in the morning.  We visited crack houses, men smoking crack under bridges, saw crack and other cocaine sold openly in large quantites on the streets...  

There was one other pentecostal pastor with us, and let's just say I've never participated in so many exorcisms in one night.  Fearless and freaky.  Not really sure how I felt about all of it, but I was right there with him.

While our purpose was to share the Gospel, I found myself stunned at the level of the problem, as literally hundreds and hundreds of addicts (many as young as 12) swarmed around us as we gave them a bit of food and talked about Jesus.

We met a 24 year old who already had 6 kids, who was on crack.  I met a guy who was on crack who shared the Gospel with me.

Antonio's premise is true:  we need to be thinking in a whole different way as a church if we want to reach the favelas and the underworld of Rio de Janeiro.  This means that the church must love it's neighbor, not just itself.  It also means that we need to be thinking strategically of how to impact all the domains of society in order to alleviate some of the misery, so that we can be good neighbors and help renew the city. Above all, it is critical that we know that Jesus is the best and ultimate change agent, and that His church can transform society through the power of the Gospel.   This means we must develop public-private partnerships, develop robust ministries to really assist those with drug problems, and plant churches so that the seed of the Gospel can be sown.

 

 

Reformissão: The third annual Acts 29 Brazil conference

Looking forward to seeing many friends in late May at our annual Acts 29 conference.  To learn more, visit http://www.atos29brasil.com/

Restore Brazil City of God Christmas Update - Video

Mark & Liz Need a Miracle - Please pray

We at Restore Brazil are in a very difficult season as we have learned the following over the weekend...

Missionaries Mark and Liz Hataway, who left the US in May of this year to serve full time with Restore Brazil, have learned that Mark has a large tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain, affecting both sides of his brain. 

We have been working feverishly to get Mark and Liz back to the US.  It has been a complicated process full of challenges because of a their 2-week old baby that has had to go through a process of registration to be able to travel with the family.  

By God's grace, my wife was able to secure the registration yesterday by sharing with the authorities at the registration that they were in violation of Brazilian laws regarding the baby.  Eventually they gave in, granting the registration which was necessary to obtain the US passport.

In some ways this challenge is coming at an already challenging time for the Hataways - a newborn infant, plans to spend several months in the States to raise support (with which they were near their end), and the new necessity to literally pack up in the matter of a couple of days.  This in a culture and language that is not their own.  We are doing our best to walk with them every step of the way.

Yesterday in a conversation with Mark, he said to me that he hopes to back in Brazil soon, because "God has called us there."  We are praying for a miracle - that in the future he would return, and that God intervenes for this precious family that left behind the comforts of the US to serve among the poor in Brazil.

I said "YES Mark, this is the faith that God gives.  Let's pray together that God grants a miracle."

 As you can imagine, Mark and Liz have significant expenses related to this quick move back to the US as well as the pending surgeries and treatment.  If you would like to donate to Mark and Liz, click here - Download Giving To Mark & Liz - and it will give you instructions.

 

 

We need to send some of our best men overseas

By and large the decision to move to Brazil was for me, a clear calling from God.  A few years ago when I shared my plans to begin our work in Brazil with Restore Brazil, the majority of people were very supportive.  However there were a few people, that were critical of the idea of "sending an American overseas."  They argued on many levels - mentioning an imperialistic history of missions, argued that nationals can always do the work better, theres too much of a cultural learning curve, etc.  While I respected their opinions, I'm not sure that they really understood the clear direction the Lord gave me.

I am careful not to share these thoughts in a reactive way, or to try and justify our work.  God is the judge.  The American church still has massive resources that need to be stewarded for work in the nations of the world, in both income and in people.  Despite the economic crisis, Americans have more disposable income than over 90% of the world.  More importantly, there still remains thought leadership in evangelicalism that is undoubtable, stemming from the US.  Some of this thought leadership is counterproductive, I would add, but at the same time, there is much to be learned and used.

Critics of American missionaries and church planters overseas tend to have the following problems -

1)  They are ignorant of the sending nature of God, where it is clear throughout Scripture that God oftentimes called men out to nations not their own;

2)  They are often ignorant of the unique calling God has given particular men at points in their life;

3)  By this ignorance they don't value the history of the church and of missions;

4)  Oftentimes an evangelical American bubble causes them to not understand the complexities of global cities and contexts to which we are sent.  (I would argue that Rio has more in common than New York City, for example, than a small town in Oklahoma has with New York City.)

5)  Oftentimes they misunderstand the value an American missionary can bring to certain contexts where English is desirable and specific skills sets are lacking;

6)  They often use lame arguments like America is the #1 or #2 mission field in the world and is the most unevangelized.  I don't know of anyone serious that could say that.  Think of Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc.  You get my point.  (Even in evangelized Brazil, we have true groups of unreached peoples in the Amazon.)

7)  They don't understand that global cities require missionaries/pastors from all over the world to pastor unique communities, because in these cities there are people from all over the world.

So what is the point?  Be careful not to be critical of those God is calling overseas.  It's not a better calling, it's a different calling.

In the wake of the recent emphasis on cities and urban church planting, I would like to sound a resounding alarm.   We need some of our best men overseas.  We need them planting churches, starting businesses, starting networks for the glory of Jesus.

In Rome, in Dubai, in London, in Tokyo, in Bangkok, and in Rio de Janeiro.

It's true that God's got the world covered and he can do it all without us.  

But our attitude should remain "Here am I, send Me!"

Unsung Heroes in a Celebrity World

Sometimes as pastors and leaders, we confuse proclamation of our ministries with evangelism, and they are not the same thing.

Unsung Heroes in a Celebrity World

A blog post I wrote recently for Vision360.

Restore Brazil in September with Ronaldo Lidório

Recently I was asking some of the staff at my church who is on the forefront of missions thinking in Brazil.  They all said Ronaldo Lidório.  Then recently at a conference I had an opportunity to hear Ronaldo speak, and I understood why.  He has a brilliant mind, an impressive resume, and linguistic skills that are incredible.  At the same time he appears to be a very humble man.

Igreja Presbiteriana da Barra has been a supporter of Ronaldo´s work for a few years now.  He was planning on making a visit to the church on Sept 4, so we are holding him over for a day to join us for a special Restore Brazil meeting on Sept 5.  Join us!

 

"Revolutionary Christianity" and anti-institutionalism

I thought this was a profound quote from "To Change The World" by James Davidson Hunter.

"Observers who contend that the anti-institutional trends that signal an exodus from congregational life are a healthy development - a sign of a new "revolutionary" expression of Christianity - are profoundly misguided.  The reason is that such trends are rooted, in fact, in a consumer logic that makes individual choice central and the self sovereign...  Such trends are less an expression in revolutionary Christianity than of modern individualism and consumerism, the effect of which will undermine the only structure capable of constructively resisting the worst of contemporary culture."

Restore Brazil in Peru

I arrived at the tiny airport in Piura, Peru, last night a bit exhausted, but excited to see what God has in store.  We at Restore Brazil are committed to planting Gospel-centered churches in Brazil, as well as serving church planters and pastors with training, coaching, and mentoring.  Recently, through a friend Renato Vargens, we decided to take part in organizaing a pastor's conference in the North of Peru to reach pastors.  Four pastors are traveling with me for this conference, all of them Brazilians (no English for me this week!)

Piura is a good sized state (500,000) in a heavily Catholic region, with very little evangelical presence.  The majority of pastors here are not trained in theology, and a local missionary told me that they basically learn much of their theology from televangelists, primarily neo-pentecostal televangelists.  Additionally, the churches here lack resources in every way, so we hope to discover ways to help.

We are planning a two-day conference where we hope to saturate 100+ Peruvian pastors with Gospel-centered theology and church planting concepts.  Speaking at the conference will be myself, Renato Vargens, Judiclay Silva Santos, Jean Pires, and Leandro, a Brazil missionary and popular blogger at http://www.pulpitocristao.com/.

While we are not changing our focus to reach Brazil, we believe occasional conferences such as these can serve the greater community of pastors in South America.  Join us in prayer that God would use this conference to reach Peruvians and that this largely unreached region would see more Gospel fruit in the future.

 

 

 

Recap of "The Mission and the City" with Ed Stetzer

Just eight weeks after our annual church planting conference, we decided to host Ed Stetzer for a one day event here in Rio de Janeiro.  Ed had already a couple of speaking engagements in Brazil, and we wanted to make sure that he had a chance to visit the cidade marvilhosa.  Coming to Brazil and not visiting Rio is actually quite tragic.  

Lu and I spent two days with Ed and Donna showing them all the sights in Rio.  It was a wonderful time together.

For those in the States with so many conferences to choose from, it may not seem like a big deal to host someone who speaks hundreds of times a year at churches and conferences in America.  But for us overseas, the travel itineraries of men like these only bring them to Brazil once or twice in a lifetime.  

Ed spoke on church revitalization, mission, and movements.  He did an excellent job.  We had over 100 pastors, church planters, and leaders participate, which is pretty good considering it was a Saturday in the middle of a holiday season in Brazil.  

More importantly, God is developing a network - hopefully into a movement, of pastors and church planters who have a desire to pastor and plant Gospel centered churches.  Churches that exist for the glory of Jesus Christ and the renewal of the city.

Link to photos of The Mission and the City

Recap Article on the conference in Portuguese

Photos of a Restore Brazil Meeting

http://jaybauman.typepad.com/photos/restore_brazil_june_meeti/index.html

All these photos were taken by Jimmy Chalk, an amazing photographer from NYC!