Bryan Moak never expected to come home from South America as an honorary gaucho, the cowboy-like folk hero of the Argentine and Uruguayan grasslands.
But that’s how a Brazilian restaurant owner warmly honored Moak as he ate pizza alongside a São Leopoldo pastor. The pastor took Moak, vice president of Church Strengthening for Converge MidAmerica, out to eat on a Sunday night in September.
“It was a riot,” the Green Bay native said of dinner at that pizza joint. “[The owner] made me an honorary gaucho and it was a highlight.”
Even after Moak returned home, he and the owner exchanged some humorous banter on WhatsApp. Even better, the São Leopoldo pastor’s relationship with the pizzeria owner has grown.
Before the pizza came people hungry for strong churches
That highlight for Moak came after he’d invested three September days fueling existing churches to become strong enough to send out church planters. More than 100 pastors attended; some pastors drove more than 10 hours to participate.
“They were clearly hungry to get help from a church strengthening perspective,” Moak said. “If our existing churches are not healthy, we’re not planting churches. We need both, and I think they recognize that well.”
Jonathan Mathews, who leads Converge’s strategic effort among the least-reached people of southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, invited Moak. Through the Southern Cone Initiative, God is developing transformational leaders who plant churches or pastor churches into revitalization.
In September, Moak encouraged and empowered existing congregations so they could better create the foundation and momentum for making disciples. During those three days, Moak shared many of the same resources American churches utilize. As an example, he presented information from Natural Church Development by Christian Schwarz and Church Unique by Will Mancini.
“I went to them the same way I come to [American churches],” he said.
How are the Southern Cone churches doing?
Down in the Southern Cone, pastors shared their dynamic with Moak. He learned about conflict in the church and believers who don’t want to make disciples who make disciples or other key acts of obedience.
In response, Moak offered them resources he regularly uses with U.S. churches. First, he helped them understand how critical healthy pastors are to Christ’s mission. Church leaders must be emotionally, spiritually and physically fit.
Secondly, he said healthy churches honestly assess their reality and dream about a preferred future. Unfortunately, research shows 85% of American churches are plateaued or dying. Moak wanted to help South American believers discover the truth about their church’s condition and then constructively consider what the church could become and do.
Natural Church Development is a beneficial tool Moak uses with all existing congregations. In Brazil, two churches signed up to do Natural Church Development, which works for believers in any culture. These two churches will hopefully help lead other groups through the NCD materials.
Lastly, healthy churches understand their gospel context and cultural uniqueness. Moak shared from Church Unique by Will Mancini how each body of believers can understand the culture around them and the unique gifts and passions they can offer.
“I wanted these pastors to wrestle with what is God’s unique calling for their church to be where they are,” Moak added. “I want them to think more contextually and about how to take the gospel and make it effective where they are.”
Today’s churches can overcome habits and transform communities
Tradition, even those that resist scriptural commands, has become dominant in many churches worldwide. In addition, churches can measure their value through the number of people, the size of their buildings or the budget.
However, Moak wants leaders and believers to pursue growing churches strong enough to send out church planters. Converge Brasil’s leaders have formed an ethos for their network of churches that emphasizes planting, revitalizing and collaborating.
“We don’t talk enough about the Great Collaboration,” Mathews said. “Collaboration means working together for the advancement of God’s kingdom in the gospel.”
Moak’s trip succeeded because international and domestic staff teamed up with efforts to start churches, strengthening churches and sending global workers. By dreaming together, dialoguing and planning, they shared inspiration and information with Southern Cone churches so that they grow stronger.
That started with Converge MidAmerica’s vice president of Church Planting, Danny Parmelee, who serves as a liaison. He visited Brazil in February 2022 to assist with creating a church planting system and process, including developing an assessment.
Leandro Nogueira, a Converge pastor in Elk Grove, Illinois, went to Brazil in the spring. His passion has influenced Moak, engaging him in the mission while uniting Converge servants around the kingdom Christ wants to build.
“One of the ways we knew we could begin creating a culture of collaboration among our partnership base was to invite key district leaders in the U.S.,” Mathews said.
He said that could influence an entire generation of pastors and church planters.
Southern Cone leaders are being built up and sustaining their obedience
Converge Brasil, a movement of affiliated churches, applied the fruit of that teamwork to hold their first church planters’ assessment in October. As a result, four couples were approved through a culturally appropriate format to plant churches next year in southern Brazil. So now, there is a new, solid foundation and hopeful future for people to hear about Christ in the Southern Cone’s 10 largest cities.
At the same time as church planting has been gaining momentum, the region’s existing churches also wanted more people to meet, know and follow Jesus. Many of the least-reached people live near communities that have a local church. But, sadly, those churches have stagnated or declined in vitality to the point they may not survive.
When Mathews talked with Parmelee about collaboration to strengthen churches in such a challenge, Parmelee immediately suggested Bryan Moak.
“Bryan came to southern Brazil to help a new network of church leaders understand the guiding principles and best practices of church strengthening,” Mathews said. “The Christ-followers in those churches are well connected in their community and the surrounding communities.”
Therefore, those people can become the starting point as the Southern Cone Initiative strives to plant new churches.
“Many of those leaders have been identified as key leaders that we plan on developing as church strengthening catalysts,” Mathews said after Moak’s trip. “These leaders will be trained in church strengthening principles and best practices in order to facilitate the acceleration of gospel advancement throughout the region.”
’Tis grace that makes disciples and gauchos
Moak doesn’t believe he’s special or that his service in Brazil equals a magic bullet for transforming churches or leaders. Instead, he recognizes more kingdom work gets done when people partner in Christ’s eternal endeavor.
He’s got new friends and partners in ministry after a weekend with leaders in Brazil. Some of those people start churches while others seek to revitalize congregations. On the same mission are global workers like Mathews.
One of those new partners is the São Leopoldo pastor of Betania Church, who desires to see the body of Christ stronger in God’s will and ways. Over pizza, Moak acted according to the same mindset as he would in America.
“We need each other to help us be healthy as a church,” Moak said. “I place a high value on this phrase of ours — better together. If Converge is going to continue to be what we are, our uniqueness, we have to fight for that.”
His words resemble legends and ballads about the nomadic horsemen of the Southern Cone, men who hunted and captured large, wild herds of horses and cattle. Maybe the pizzeria owner noticed something like the passionate heart of a gaucho stirring in Moak’s chest.
“All over the world we’ve got existing churches,” he said. “I want to help where I can help and encourage where I can encourage.”
Converge is a movement of 1700 churches working together to help people meet, know and follow Jesus. We do this by starting and strengthening churches together worldwide. For 170 years, we’ve helped churches bring life change to communities in the U.S. and around the world through church planting and multiplication, leadership training and global missions.