Pray today
Evangelical growth is both a source of encouragement and a serious challenge.
- Church unity must remain a priority in prayer, even as it was for Jesus in John 17. Unity is often difficult in contexts where evangelicals are a smaller minority, such as in Portugal. The large number of small congregations and denominations creates the risk of making relationships among evangelicals fragmented. Nearly half of those attending evangelical churches are foreigners (especially Brazilians), yet this diversity has the potential be a powerful testimony of unity in Christ. Most pastors state that there are no major barriers to unity in their local congregation. Pray, as Jesus did, that His disciples might be one!
- Pray for church planting efforts in Portugal. Many congregations closed down, and many others have appeared. Nearly half of current evangelical congegrations were started since 2001, and the vision to grow and plant more churches is widespread. Several groups adopted cell-church models but face the difficulty that, for many Portuguese, a physical building is what communicates religious legitimacy. Pray for continued church growth, for affordable and appropriate meeting places and for leaders for these future churches. While there is reason to be encouraged, evangelical growth is quite uneven across the country.
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Religious and political freedom transformed Portugal after 1975. But the focus on individualism and material gain, and a rise in substance abuse, all challenge the nation. The Roman Catholic Church still has influence, but it needs renewal. In southern areas, less than 3% attend mass. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work so that many people encounter the Scriptures and the Saviour in a meaningful way.
Many congregations lack full-time workers with adequate theological depth and spiritual maturity; church growth exacerbates this problem. These institutions are therefore highly strategic: Assemblies of God, Portuguese Bible Institute (GEM, ECM), Presbyterian, Baptist and Brazilian-founded Bethel Bible Institutes. TEE programmes and Nucleo, a widely used Bible correspondence course, are also strategic. Pray that these may contribute to meeting the ministry needs of the churches.
There remain pioneer challenges, despite recent church growth. Pray for:
- The seven northern and northeastern provinces, which are strongly traditional Catholic; relatively few evangelical churches exist. Brethren, Baptists, AoG, GEM, TEAM, ECM, Missão Antioquia and several other missions all have church-planting programmes in the area.
- The four provinces in the south that are poorer and much less religious. Attendance at mass is very low, and evangelical churches are few.
- The 316 counties, 44 of which still have no evangelical congregation. This is praiseworthy progress from the 69 in 2000 that lacked a church.
- Madeira Island (270,000), which has fewer than 20 small evangelical churches, and the Azores (250,000), with a further 26, most being Assemblies of God and Baptist.
- Ethnic minorities. Large numbers of immigrants continue to flow into Portugal. The earlier waves of Portuguese-speaking West Africans and Brazilians are joined by Chinese, Macanese and Eastern Europeans - especially Ukrainians, who now comprise Portugal's second-largest community. Many of these are unevangelized but open to the gospel; pray for the churches (both Portuguese and foreign) to gain a vision to reach them.
Young people are often spiritually neglected.
- Drug abuse is a growing problem - over 50% have experimented with drugs. Teen Challenge, Betel-Spain as well as TEAM and ECM have ministries rehabilitating and discipling addicts.
- Student work is still in a pioneer stage. GBUP(IFES) has a ministry in eight universities and some high schools. Cru (Agape) and Navigators also have ministries on several campuses.
- SU and CEF have ministries among school children.
- Sports are a useful form of outreach. Agape (Athletes in Action) and YWAM (Athletes for Christ) both minister in this way.
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Content taken or adapted from Operation World, 7th Edition (2010) and Pray for the World (2015). Both books are published by InterVarsity Press. All rights reserved.