Concerns from Brazil

Daniel 6:6-13; Matthew 8:18-27; 1^st John 4:9-18

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

12 September 2004

Who is going to win the election? Are you back to stay? What is it like where you live? Why did Southern Baptists allow Fundamentalists to take over the convention? Who are the current missionaries on the field? Why did you ever leave Brazil in the first place? We were peppered with many questions on our trip back to Porto Alegre. Perhaps the most important question we were asked was, “Do Baptists support what is going on in the SBC?”

When we were asked about politics, our answer had to be, “The politicians are going to win the election. After all, politics is about wielding power, and politicians must care more for themselves than others to gain that kind of position.” Daniel found himself surrounded by pressure from people seeking to wield power. They wanted power for themselves to wield over others. For that, they had to get rid of Daniel. He was an easy target, anyway. They devised a scheme to put Daniel in a very difficult situation. In order for him to remain alive, he would have to sacrifice his ideals and integrity. They knew he would not do so. They could then get him killed to clear away room for themselves.

The plan went into effect. They had the king write up a law that would force all to worship the king alone, making him the only intermediary between the people and the gods. More than all else, it was a move to consolidate power. Daniel refused to give in. He determined that there was a different order of power in the universe—a power much more significant that that of a king or any other human figure. He vowed to continue to serve God, and God alone.

On returning to Porto Alegre, we were not sure what we would find. We knew that we had some friends there, but we had no idea what had been done in following up on threats to ruin our name among Baptists in Brazil. What we found was rather unexpected. Rather than finding Baptists poisoned against us, we found people who recognized the difference in how we had served among them and a new generation of missionaries interested in control. The new missionaries were no longer serving as partners in the work of Christ Jesus. Brazilian Baptists were seeing the difference between cooperation among servants of Christ and the imposition of a coercive missionary methodology.

We had been invited by the seminary director to speak to the issue of Fundamentalism among Baptists in the US. He told us that he had an IMB missionary that had been teaching at the seminary who would not have allowed him to teach if their roles had been reversed. The director was trying to understand the new spirit of IMB missions. I am not sure that I was able to clarify it for him, but he noticed the difference—control is not the same as service. There is another kind of power in the gospel that has nothing to do with the power of politics—it is the power of love.

John tells us in his first epistle that love is the essence of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. He reminds believers that it is love that is to guide our actions and even our understanding of God. It was love that prompted God to come to us in Jesus Christ. It was love that brought Jesus to give Himself on our behalf to eliminate that which would separate us from God. It was love that taught us the true power of God—the power to forgive, reconcile, mend, repair, and restore. God’s love was expressed to us in sacrificial giving, not in domination or the imposition of will. Love is a free offer of unmerited acceptance. It is the power of mercy and grace.

People can tell the difference in love and condemnation. They can perceive when one seeks to serve others and when one seeks personal advantage. The executive director of the Baptist state convention told me that they had asked who were the current IMB missionaries in Rio Grande do Sul. They were given no answer. The evangelism director wrote the South Brazil Mission office to find out who the current missionaries were and where they were working. The message was sent to the local field leader. He then told the state convention leaders that they would not be given that information, as the IMB does not report to local Baptist leadership.

Baptists in Brazil have a problem with that. They are not seeking to control the actions and direction of IMB missionaries in Brazil. They want missionaries to partner with them to reach the lost in Brazil for Christ Jesus. They cannot understand how cutting off communication and refusing to interact with the local leadership structures furthers the cause of Christ. They shared with us some of their grief over losing a cooperative relationship based on mutual love and respect. Without that attitude of love, they hear only condemnation. They did not learn that from Christ Jesus or from missionaries of years past.

We heard many questions from Baptist leaders seeking to understand the tumult and conflict raging about them. They are worried about changes in the Southern Baptist Convention, for they understand that issues which plague Baptists in the United States tend to make their way to Brazil as well. They yearn for the storm to subside, but it shows no sign of abating.

Matthew records for us a story of Jesus sending away those who wanted to be disciples but were not up to facing the storms of life. He then took the twelve with Him in a boat. A storm came up, and they feared they would drown in its midst. Jesus was sleeping. In their fright, they awakened Jesus. When He commanded the waves and wind to be still, the disciples became afraid. Up until that point, they had not really understood who Jesus was. Their picture of Him was just not adequate. He was more than they had bargained for! They came away from that experience with a new outlook on life. The issue for them became not whether or when storms would arise, but whether they would be in the boat with Jesus when they did.

Baptists in Rio Grande do Sul are facing various storms. The seminary has a debt of over $5,000 that it cannot pay. Part of the debt is due to the state convention owing the seminary $8,000 as part of an overall debt of its own in the neighborhood of $30,000. To solve its financial crisis, it has decided to fire all its staff except the executive secretary. The Colégio Batista has its own financial crisis and the possibility of becoming completely insolvent pending a court case that should be defined over the next three years. Baptists cannot turn to Southern Baptist missionaries for help, for help from the IMB has been flatly denied. They are seeking rather to find God’s direction for their future. After all, the question for them has ever been one of following Jesus, even into the midst of a storm.

We like to think that Jesus’ greatest demonstration of power was commanding the storm to be still. I would propose rather that it was allowing the disciples to know that God’s love is greater than any storm. We can face any storm with Jesus in the boat. Will we follow Him in the storm?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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