Latinos to drive future church

Pato Oyarzún is a new kind of missionary.  This month he and wife Dagmar return to Chile to serve as CMS’s first International Ministry Partners at a time when the thriving Latin American church is in desperate need of trained leaders.

After five years studying at Moore College, Pato will plant churches and teach theology with Chile’s Anglican Church. Chile’s 100 Anglican congregations only have three pastors with training equivalent to clergy in Sydney. “That’s the same number as the parish I’ve been working with [in Sydney],” Pato says.

Latin America’s religious landscape is changing rapidly. Just 50 years ago, 90 per cent of Latin Americans identified as Roman Catholics: now, according to a University of Notre Dame report, 20 per cent are Protestant, and 10 per cent profess no religion. High levels of Catholic nominalism mean there are almost as many Protestant as Catholic churchgoers.

In Chile, 80 per cent of the population consider themselves Catholics, but only 1 in 5 of these go to church. In contrast, the vast majority of Chile’s evangelicals – 15 per cent of the population – are in church every week.

In Brazil, Protestant churchgoers outnumber Catholic churchgoers. And they are becoming a force in world mission, with Brazilians accepted in many countries where Westerners are not.
Ziel Machado, the Regional Secretary of the International Federation of Evangelical Students in Latin America, says this is an ‘opportune time’ for mission.

“The church in Latin America has a great, soft heart for Jesus,” he says. “Because of the openness of people we have seen many good things.”

But he says the church’s greatest need is biblical literacy. “Sometimes people just look for spiritual experiences, but won’t follow Jesus. We need to build up a mindset of discipleship, to learn how to follow him wherever he leads.”

Tim Swan, a CMS missionary serving as Academic Dean at Chile’s new Anglican Bible College, says the result of poor training is ‘distressing’.

“In Chile Christianity is splintered into literally thousands of denominations, weakening the call to repentance and faith in the risen Christ,” he says.

But the strategic importance of the college is becoming clear. Founded in 2003 with just five full-time students, it will take its first international students – from Bolivia and Paraguay – this year.

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