Theology for the People

By John Barry Dyer

Brazilian evangelical churches often depend on their pastors to do everything and in turn their pastors exercise a kind of managerial role over the flock. In Brazil, it is often only the pastor who can baptise or preside at the Lord's Supper. This becomes complicated when churches find themselves without a pastor for long periods at a time. Even in the general running of the church its members are sometimes restricted to the role of onlookers with a sense of admiration and frustration as the pastor takes charge.

 

In this book, I look at the theology behind this and, also, share examples of how this tendency to focus on the pastor as the centre of gravity within the local church was challenged through the creation of courses of theological education by extension, resulting in the equipping of ordinary Christians for their God-given vocation on the frontline of Christian mission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kingdom Publishers
• Release date: Mar 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9781916801042

John Barry Dyer

I have written several books, two of which have already been published by Kingdom Publishers. I am a retired Baptist Minister having served with the Baptist Missionary Society in Brazil for 33 years in the areas of church development and theological education. I am married to Maria, and we have one son, João Marcos, and two grandchildren, Aurora and Luís João.

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Acknowledgements

The preparation and writing of this book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my present and former students. By their enthusiasm and commitment, sometimes in the face of obstacles that would have caused lesser men and women to give up or not begin in the first place, they gave me the strength and vision to invest my own time and energy in this undertaking with the hope that it may be a lasting testimony to their achievements.

I also wish to record by gratitude to my Brazilian mentor, Dr. L. Roberto Silvado for the many enjoyable hours that we spent together in reflection and appraisal in relation to this research project, and which were some of the most profitable learning and sharing experiences of my ministry in Brazil.

Foreword

Theological education and formation are under constant review internationally, since the students at the centre of the process are perhaps uniquely exposed to practising in their changing contexts. In this short book, John Dyer amalgamates his years of experience in Brazil with the BMS with his understanding of theological education.

I speak from a UK ministry formation context, and this material prophetically identifies many of the issues of theological education for leaders in post-Christendom western nations, albeit for different reasons. Primarily John argues that in Brazil the church can only grow well if the ‘laity’ are mobilised for ministry and mission. He argues, ‘It is important to stress that the training of the so-called laity is no less important than the training of candidates for the ordained ministry and should be made available to every church member. The laity are often the real experts when it comes to understanding the realities that Christians face in day-to-day contact with those outside the church. It is the laity who represent the church in the secular world from Monday to Saturday’. The term ‘laity’ is an uncomfortable one for many Baptists, but John explains that in Brazil there is no concept of a ‘lay pastor’ and that one is either laity or clergy.

Unfortunately, sending students to big Brazilian cities to train for ordination at Baptist colleges, often renders these students unsuited to a return to remote rural areas: once they have been formed in the sophistication of urban life, they do not want to leave; and may do more harm than good if they do, by reinforcing the hierarchical view of ministry that has dogged Brazil as an inheritance from pre-liberation Catholicism. Here in 21st century Britain we find a similar dynamic around the north-south divide, in the tendency of Baptists, with our cerebral approach to the Word and our self-funding-church model, to appeal primarily to the middle classes.

The move to planting and pioneering ministries in the UK acknowledges many questions similar to John’s about mobilising lay leaders in their own contexts, and developing training and formation (the character-shaping element of ministerial education) that equips them at their own level of ‘academic’ access – i.e. it is not necessarily about acquiring a university award, but about providing an environment in which God’s calling can be nurtured. John explores the ways in which these goals can be achieved in Brazil by a study of two lay training programmes, delivering different training suited to the two contexts. Home-based programme learning and ‘learning by doing’ are both identified as key strategies to enhance access for as many students as possible, and I love John’s remark that ‘The programme must not exist for its own sake, but for the sake of those it aims to serve and help’. There is so much wisdom here from a godly and mission-hearted practitioner. It arises from Brazil but speaks also to the UK, and I hope that John’s research will be a contribution to the fluid yet fertile ground of writing and reflection on theological formation globally.

Sally Nelson

Dean of Baptist Formation at St Hild College, Yorkshire, 2022

Preface

The central issue under consideration in this book is the preparation of God's people for ministry and mission in the light of biblical tradition and in the specific context of southern Brazil. The case is made for a serious commitment to the training and mobilisation of the vast majority of the church's human resources, for so long confined to the sidelines of her pastoral and evangelistic activity.

Lay training courses under my own leadership are examined and the appropriateness of different training methods assessed with regard to the specific demands, which they attempt to meet. Special consideration is given to the student and his/her needs, limitations and possibilities.

This personal contribution to lay training courses in southern Brazil is viewed in the wider context of the role of the Baptist Missionary Society as a sending agency that supports the local, indigenous initiatives of Baptists affiliated to the Brazilian Baptist Convention. The relationship between the Baptist Missionary Society and Brazilian Baptists is maintained on the basis of invitations received from the Brazilian state Baptist conventions that belong to the Brazilian Baptist Convention.

In this book we explore the concept of 'the people of God' in its biblical setting and its semantic background in the Greek word 'laos'. This concept has been misunderstood, distorted and misapplied so as to create a false and unbiblical division between clergy and laity with negative consequences for Christian ministry and mission. These two fundamental and interrelated activities of the Church serve as the foci for theological education and lay training in particular.

Our findings are the result of the outworking of practice based on biblical and educational theory. From a specific context a strategy for lay training is developed, leading to a church better equipped for the tasks entrusted to her.

Introduction

The Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) was founded in Kettering, Northamptonshire on the 2nd October 1792 and was known originally as the 'Particular Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel among the heathen' (Stanley, 1992:14). Its principal founder, William Carey, is generally considered to be the Father of modern overseas mission.

It is the object of this book to examine the contribution of the Baptist Missionary Society to lay training programmes in southern Brazil during the years 1988-95. This period was one in which the BMS contribution was mediated exclusively through my own involvement. It was not, however, the first time that BMS personnel had been engaged in lay training programmes in southern Brazil (Chapter 1.3).

Because of the Society's policy, based on a relationship of cooperation with national partner church bodies, it does not dictate to the overseas church regarding local strategy, although it does have the power of veto in cases where it disagrees with the decision of the national church body regarding the deployment of its missionary personnel. The principle of cooperation involves the sending of missionaries to carry out particular tasks such as church planting, evangelism and theological education at the invitation of Brazilian Baptists in those states wishing to receive BMS personnel. How those tasks are executed locally is largely decided by the indigenous church leadership although, in practice, much is left to the initiative of the missionary.

Cooperation between the BMS and the Paraná Baptist Convention began officially in 1956 following a three-year period of informal cooperation on an experimental basis (Stanley, 1992:471-6). During the seventies and eighties BMS involvement in Brazil widened as missionaries went into the mid-west state of Mato Grosso and Rondônia in the north. BMS missionaries are now working in ten of Brazil's twenty-six states covering four of the country's five geographic regions. The Society further resolved to accept the invitation of the Santa Catarina Baptist Convention in November 1990 (ibid.:497).

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