80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

Regional Access to UPGs

Religious Freedom

Prosperity

Current Sending Abroad

Mobilization Potential

Custom Mobilization Potential

Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges

Strategic Access

Religious Freedoms

Current Sending

This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

ADDITION

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCY

INACCESSIBLE

LIMITED MISSION FORCE

DISTANT AND FOREIGN MISSION FIELD

THE WORLD IS THE MISSION FIELD

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Prepared by God for Such Opportunity

Third Largest Christian Nation

Long considered a stronghold of Catholicism, Brazil ranks 3rd in numbers of evangelicals with more than 50 million. The evangelical church in Brazil has seen tremendous growth in the past 50 years with most new converts coming from the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church. [[3]] It is estimated that more than only 5% of Brazil was Evangelical in 1950. Today, that number has increased to around 25%.
Even with the rapid growth of the evangelical church, Brazil as a nation still receives a large proportion of foreign missionaries. In fact, they receive the 3rd most behind India and the USA as of the most recent data from 2000. [[4]] There are many who still think of Brazil as a mission field rather than a powerful mission force. Just imagine the harvest that could be brought if Brazil were to be fully mobilized for missions to the unreached!

Bridged to the Unreached

With an average Median Cultural Distance of 13.0, Brazil shares many cultural similarities with the 30 UPG nations on our list. Brazil&rsquo;s closest cultural neighbors are: Turkey (3.5), Israel (6), and Malaysia (7.5), with an additional 9 more countries less than 10 median points of distance away. Of Brazil&rsquo;s 11 Cultural Neighbors, all but one are either majority Muslim countries or located in the Middle East. In fact, Brazil is culturally closer to a majority of the 30 UPG nations than it is to almost all other Latin American countries and countries whose first language is Portuguese. This at first may seem odd, but not when you take into account the history of Brazil and the early influence that Muslim culture had on the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 400 years at the end of the first millenia.
Brazil is also a country that highly values hospitality and the role of the family in the lives of the individual. Brazilians are culturally closer to the Arab world than they are to many other countries in the Latin World. The community orientation of Brazilian culture could match up really well with cultures of those that are considered unreached. Brazil&rsquo;s closest culture neighbor is Turkey. These two countries share multiple dramatically close cultural values, but these countries couldn&rsquo;t be more different in terms of the church. Brazil has the 3rd largest Evangelical church in the world while Turkey has an Evangelical population of 0.008%.[[3]] Could Brazilian missionaries be uniquely positioned to build cultural bridges with the hundreds of millions of Muslims in need of Jesus Christ? Could these bridges lead to opportunities to build gospel focused relationships?

Low Strategic Access Poses a Challenge

With unreached populations of 119,000 in-country and 789,000 regionally, Brazil scores very low in the Strategic Access index. While there are still unreached tribes in the Amazon, the Brazilian church has little to no regional access to the unreached. This means that for the average Brazilian evangelical to have any kind of a meaningful relationship with an unreached individual, he or she would be required to leave Brazil for locations with greater access. Low Strategic Access could be a challenge for mission mobilization efforts that seek to raise up both awareness and passion for the Unreached.

Low Restrictions and Great Opportunity

According to Pew Research, Brazil has one of the lowest levels of religious restrictions and hostilities. Brazil has little to no government restriction placed upon the practice and expression of religious faith. Mission Mobilization and other Christians ministries are free to promote and carry out their work as they see fit. While some countries require different religious groups to apply for status within a country in order to legally practice, construct buildings and train clergy, Brazil does not. Religious groups only have to apply for tax-exempt status, which is a common occurrence in most countries.

Prosperity Potential to Support Sending

With a ranking of 70, Brazil scores better than average on the Legatum Prosperity Index when compared to other Mobilization Index countries. Compared to the other twenty-two Central and South American countries on the Index, Brazil ranks 10th in Prosperity. Brazil is a land rich in natural resources such as iron ore, timber, manganese and oil. Furthermore, Brazil is a major player on the world&rsquo;s economic and political stage. Along with Russia, India, China, and South Africa, Brazil is a member of the BRICS economic alliance. Collectively, these five countries, as recently as 2014, controlled nearly 30% of the world&rsquo;s GDP and make up 43% of the world&rsquo;s population. The population statistics have continued to grow, but the growth of GDP in Brazil has slowed tremendously over the last several years due to economic crises. Going from an annual growth of 4.4% down to -2.29% annual growth, or in this case decline. [[5]]
Overall prosperity in Brazil has been on the decline for the past few years. After nearly reaching an all-time high against the U.S. dollar in 2014, the Brazilian real has been steadily declining for the past few years. This decline is largely due to political scandals and corruption that have rocked the country in recent years and led to the impeachment of Brazil&rsquo;s President Dilma Rousseff.
This financial crisis and political uncertainty is no doubt having a negative impact on the financial support of Brazilian missionaries; however, this is not the first-time Brazil has seen a decline in their prosperity, they will likely recover in time. As a nation, they should still be considered a powerful sending force with ample resources in the hands of evangelicals to fully support the mission efforts with tremendous hope for the future of their missionaries!

Brazil's sending numbers have been increasing tremendously over the past few years. There are roughly 15,000 Brazilian missionaries serving cross-culturally! Their annual growth rate of sending has been growing faster than the church is growing, at about 8.2% annually. Of this 15,000, 21% work with indigenous tribal peoples, 21% among Muslims, 15% with animist and tribal religions, 6% with Buddhists, and 5% with Hindus. [[6]]
One prayer goal of the Mobilization Index is to see 0.1%, or 1 in a 1,000, of a nation&rsquo;s evangelical church mobilized for missions. That means that with 15,000 missionaries, only 0.003% of the Brazilian evangelical church has been mobilized. Imagine what it could look like to see 50,000 or more Brazilians going to places such as Turkey where the Gospel is hardly known! It would certainly be one of the biggest missions movement in the history of Christianity.
Furthermore, Brazil's mission sending numbers have increased fourfold in the last 15 years! Praise God that a movement is beginning to grow and quadruple the number of laborers that are being sent out.

Rapidly Growing Sending Numbers

The Brazilian church is massive. If just 0.1%, or 1 in 1,000 evangelicals, were to be mobilized to go to the unreached, the Lord&rsquo;s Harvest would see 50,000 new missionaries raised up! This would be one of the largest mission movements in the history of the New Testament church. Coupled with Brazil&rsquo;s close Cultural Distance to many UPG nations, Brazilians are primed now more than ever for mobilization. Their distance from UPG nations and low access could make mobilization that focuses on the unreached more difficult, but with quality prayer resources in Portuguese and a growing number of Muslim immigrants and refugees, Brazilians would have even more opportunities to participate in praying for and welcoming the unreached. On the other hand, the financial crisis in Brazil in recent years has diminished the overall prosperity of the country which means that current and potential missionaries could face obstacles in being fully funded. Brazilian missionaries would benefit from effective and biblical based support raising trainings. Furthermore, mission mobilization that gives special attention to and casts a vision for the role of sending are more important than ever.
Lastly, mission mobilization is on the rise in Brazil. Perspectivas, the branch of Perspectives in Brazil, has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. Not only are the numbers of participants on the rise, but Perspectivas had 48 classes with 3,100 participants in 2018 alone! And more then 12,000 people in 187 classes have taken Perspectivas throughout Brazil since 2009. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, Perspectivas has had to shift online, but this has not dampened their impact or reach as 2,983 students were virtually enrolled throughout 58 classes in 2020.
Like Perspectivas, there is a growing number of ministries in Brazil that have a strong mobilization emphasis and give special focus to the unreached. AMTB, Povos e L&iacute;nguas and VOCAR&Eacute; are a few examples of national level ministries. These groups are not just mission organizations but networks of pastors, mission leaders, mission agencies, churches, and denominations. As nationwide networks, they have banded together in unity for the purpose of seeing missionaries sent out to the unreached, Christ proclaimed and churches planted. This kind of coordination and national cooperation is greatly needed because &ldquo;for every church that sends a missionary, there are probably 99 that do not&mdash;and even from those churches that do send missionaries, the support is often spasmodic. The challenge is for the Brazilian Church to be mobilized effectively for world Evangelization.&rdquo;[[5]] So let us pray that the Brazilian church would be the next to take up the flag of taking the Gospel to the unreached!

Obstacles:
<ul>
<li>Brazil is geographically very far from most large populations of unreached people groups.</li>
<li>The financial crisis of recent years has dramatically curbed the growth of the Brazilian economy which could be to the detriment of the missions movement in Brazil.</li>
</ul>
Opportunities:
<ul>
<li>Brazil scores as one of the highest on the Mobilization Index in terms of religious freedoms which will allow for churches and ministries to build firm and lasting foundations at home in Brazil and launch a sustainable missions movement out to the world!</li>
<li>The cultural gap between Brazil and most of the countries with high populations of UPGs is very low compared to most countries. This presents a huge opportunity for Brazilians to impact parts of the world that no one has thought possible for decades!</li>
</ul>

Prayer:
<ul>
<li>Pray that the Brazilian church would raise up and send out 1 in 1,000 believers from their country, which would result in 50,000 new cross-cultural laborers!</li>
<li>Continue to pray for the cooperation amongst churches in Brazil. That they would form bonds and communities so that they are able to pursue the nations together.</li>
</ul>
Praises:
<ul>
<li>That God has already sent out close to 5,000 long-term missionaries from Brazil.</li>
<li>Praise God for the large growth within the Evangelical Church in Brazil over the past 50 years.</li>
<li>Praise that the government allows the free practice of religion and allows for its citizens to practice and preach freely! Because so many of our brothers and sisters are unable to have the gift of that joy.</li>
</ul>

Unravel - Iberia’s children: A short history of why Portuguese and Spanish are different

Official Country Name:The Federated Republic of Brazil

Population:211,050,000

Region:Latin America

Government:Constitutional Republic

Official Languages:Brazilian Portuguese

Religious Demographics:Catholic ±72%, Evangelical Christian ±26, Ethnoreligious ±5%, Non-religious ±3%

Brazil