In addition to church planting through the MDA structure (cell groups and discipleships), each individual PAZ church has it’s own ministries, such as youth, children, worship, drama & arts, ushering, counseling, etc. To be involved in any of the ministries within a PAZ church, you have to be involved in cell groups and discipleships. In many cases, you need to be an active cell group leader to be eligible to serve in a ministry. There are also special ministries that the local churches coordinate and oversee. These ministries are making a big difference in the community as well as the church. Here we highlight a few.
The Congresso da PAZ ("Congress" or "Meeting") is an olympic-size evangelistic event, spanning 3 days and packing the stadium in Santarém with thousands upon thousands of people. The Congresso draws the largest crowd of any event all year in Santarém and all the buses in town are re-routed to go by the stadium.
Hundreds of people make commitments to Christ as Pastor and Missionary Abe Huber preaches
What makes the Congresso such a draw? Certainly, the music and preaching of the Congresso are second to none, as it pulls in the most anointed pastors, missionaries and musicians from around the world. And the immense sets and huge dramas are impressive in scale. There’s also amazing choreographies, costuming and fireworks that go into the event to make it truly unique. But more than all of these things, people come to see God work.
At the last Congresso da PAZ, tens of thousands of people witnessed an amazing move of God: over 1,400 people made decisions to follow Christ! MDA is put in action, and each person is invited to a church and cell group close to where they live and a discipler is assigned so that these new believers continue to grow.
The Congresso is coordinated by Igreja da PAZ Central and involves several PAZ churches in Santarém. Many other PAZ churches have Congressos on a scale fitting to their areas, and it is a wonderful avenue in which we see God working powerfully.
The people of the Amazon suffer from high illiteracy rates and generally lack the skills they need to get good jobs. Poor education is one of the great underlying causes of poverty here.
To bless the Brazilian children both spiritually and academically, PAZ has several schools in operation, most of them only offering preschool and kindergarten. Our most developed school goes through the 8th grade, with plans to create a high-quality K-through-12 Christian education program—first in Santarém, and then at our other bases.
A PAZ school
PAZ churches coordinate several conferences a year to help train and equip leaders and Christians. The conferences generally start on a Thursday and culminate on Sunday. Here are a few of the regular conferences:
Over 1,000 pastors and leaders from 81 different denominations attended the MDA conference in 2007. This conference trains, equips and encourages leaders to make disciple-making disciples. The days are packed with top-notch preaching and workshops. The conference culminates with a river trip to a little river village to see first hand how God is transforming lives and to excite pastors and leaders about missions. It’s hard not to catch the MDA vision as you see how God is using it here in the Amazon jungle.
Pastors from all over Brazil converge on Santarém to learn the powerful MDA Model
To help teach biblical family values, several family conferences are held. Many of the Christian Brazilians are first generation Christians, not having grown up in a Christian home with biblical values. These conferences provide a healthy way to learn biblical principles on discipline, finances, roles within the family, intimacy within marriage and raising up a new generation of solid Christians.
This conference is very near and dear to our hearts, and is actually coordinated by Project AmaZon (as opposed to the churches that we plant). Once every two years in January, we bring all the Brazilian pastors, church planters and missionaries in from across the Amazon for an unforgettable week of celebrating the harvest together. It is a time we can serve and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ who are themselves serving on the front lines. The spirit of the conference is always one of thankfulness and excitement as these dynamic people get together. It is a sight to behold: hundreds of simple men and women making a huge difference for God.
Celebration of Multiplication: A great harvest is something to celebrate!
Held in conjunction with the M.D.A. Conference, this is a huge 3-night celebration of cell group multiplication. People dress up in the color of their region and enjoy fun contests, games, fireworks and live worship.
This conference is simply an extended time to seek and worship God through music. Some of Brazil’s top worship leaders are brought in to lead us to the Throne. In addition, worship workshops are held for our local worship leaders and musicians.
Camp Shalom is a camp that Luke Huber originally established in the beautiful beach town of Alter do Chão. Today it is operated and maintained by Igreja da PAZ Central and is used almost every weekend for encontros, retreats (youth, missions, couples) and conferences. The camp is also home to our National Missions Conference and is constantly being expanded to accommodate the ever increasing amount of people using it. Many other PAZ bases have camps in which they use for their events.
A National Missions Conference at Camp Shalom
Some of the larger churches have social assistance programs that provide food, dental care, medicine, counseling and eduction, among other services, for the needy. Medical Missionaries with PAZ work there when they are not traveling on the rivers.
The church staffs an emergency hotline for anyone to call when a emotional/spiritual crises develops. The social assistance program of Igreja da PAZ Central (Central Church) have had a large impact in our community, generating a good name for the church in the city council and among residents of Santarém. Now Liberdade Church, another large PAZ church, is building it's "Grace Center" for social assistance. Already several work teams have donated time and muscle in helping this project go forward, and many have donated towards this noble project.
