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Emerging Church in the Brazilian Context |
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Por Gustavo K-fé Frederico
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27 de março de 2008 |
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Página 5 de 9
In the Brazilian context I think that the emerging conversation will include two streams: the evangelical and the “free” one. And in the former we must consider Pentecostal versions. The evangelical stream would maintain an uninterrupted historical link with denominations or even “independent ministry”, even when the emerging community exits such denominations. This way the new community would be more easily identifiable as “church”, in the sense evangelicals conceive the term today. And the church would identify itself as “Christian church”. In this stream we could also expect churches or movements that live and develop inside historical denominations, perhaps with the support of the denominations. In the United States, movements of this kind include Presbymergent<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[14]<!--[endif]-->, Anglimergent <!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[15]<!--[endif]-->, Luthermergent <!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[16]<!--[endif]-->, EmergenceUMC (Methodist) <!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[17]<!--[endif]-->, and Submergence (Menonite)<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[18]<!--[endif]-->. This version would also include groups not accepted in their denominations, but which would still like to maintain historical or doctrinal ties. In fact, somebody noticed that many self-called emerging communities keep their historical traditions. In the United States these communities keep with more interest and more deliberately ancient traditions (most of the times deconstructed and reconstructed, mostly with regards to liturgy) than most of the churches in the original denominations. This speaks to insinuations of unconcern with the historical and apostolic heritage by emerging churches. By “free stream” I classify emerging communities of forms and practices different than what evangelicals would refer to as “church”. These would be groups of people that intentionally want to follow Jesus, but would have even more alternative forms and structures. Here we would initially see more people coming with negative experiences with the establishment. We would see a vast range of very heterogeneous communities. For instance, we would see networks of Christian and non-Christian friends that are intentional and aware of their faith expressions and that have some level of mutual accountability. Churches in bars and in homes. Coffee-churches. Shoe store-churches. Soccer-team-churches. “Third spaces” as the ones described in the books “The Shaping of things to come” and “The Great Giveaway” would be common to both evangelical and “free” streams. I particularly expect to see out of the emerging conversation in the Brazilian context many “labs” and “experiments”. Such exercises would give wings to imagination and would support the emerging conversation with practical experiences. The pentecostalization of Brazil has the potential to bring positive things to the emerging conversation in the national and international stage. The characteristics of belief in the supernatural and experience with God, instead of pure rationalization of the faith, has sympathy in postmodernism. Indeed, many American evangelicals (“traditionals”, as we Brazilians would call them) and English believers would admire such characteristics. This can be an item of dialog between North and South. Pentecostalization is also a common factor with Africa, where the emerging conversation also currently develops (see the initial chapters of the book “Everything Must Change”, by Brian MacLaren). Certain people migrate from more traditional communities to Pentecostal ones motivated by discontent and aspiration for changes in their original communities, not as much for the attraction to the Pentecostal doctrines. At times they are frustrated with the bureaucracy of their original denominations, or with the seemingly old-fashioned liturgy, or with the approach of their leaders, or with the incapability of church and pastors to communicate in a relevant language. This would be a group that would like to consider one of the emerging streams of the non-Pentecostal versions. I suspect there is a greater group: that of the Pentecostals dissatisfied with the alienation from culture, language disconnected from daily life, the approach of their leaders, and lack of consideration with social issues. This would be a group that would probably like to consider one of the two emerging streams in their Pentecostal versions.
I suggest four hot-potato themes for the emerging conversation in Brazil: the Prosperity Theology, the division between sacred and secular, the rescue of the “brazilianness”, and leadership.
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Última Atualização ( 03 de novembro de 2008 )
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