The growth of Brazilian Baptist churches in metropolitan São Paulo, 1981-1990

Abstract

This work endeavors to analyze the growth of Brazilian Baptists in metropolitan Sao Paulo between the last two official censes. Protestants have been accused of not adapting to Brazilian culture, of organizing "miniconvents," rather than life and society-transforming communities, of having their roots so deeply embedded in their rural past that they are maladjusted to Brazilian urban life. Is this so? Has the result of over one hundred years of missionary effort been the production of a carbuncle within the Brazilian social fabric, a foreign body that must be rejected - as it rejects its host? Chapter two traces the history of Brazil, and of the insertion of Missionary Protestantism into the Brazilian social fabric. Special emphasis is given to the growth and development of the Brazilian Baptist Convention, especially in the State of Sao Paulo. Finally, the growth of the Brazilian Baptist churches in metropolitan Sao Paulo between the last two censes, 1981-1990, is analyzed. Brazilian Baptists have grown at better than twice the rate of the general population, especially in the urban, residential, communities. It would appear that Brazilian Baptists are well adapted to their environment, inasmuch as they are growing within the Brazilian urban context.