Since January, we are being church in a new way. We got out of the building we were renting near downtown for worship services and began a process of morphing. We reorganized our congregation into four different house churches, each led by a missionary family. On Sundays, we meet in our house churches, except for the last Sunday of each month, when all the house churches meet together for worship and fellowship. We also have frequent get-togethers for men, women, and teenagers.

Why did we do this? After four years of work here, our church was fine, but already stagnating. We missionaries found ourselves still doing most of the work, even though we were trying to hand off responsibilities to our Brazilian brothers. We welcomed many new brothers and sisters into the Christian family, but saw several of these folks leave through the back door after several months. We began to pray, study the Bible intensly, seek advice from fellow kingdom workers - asking God to show us what we should be doing. We feel that God has answered by pointing us to the biblical, apostolic practice and vision of simple churches meeting in people’s homes, simple churches multiplying through each person using their spiritual gifts to evangelize, teach, encourage, and care for one another.

I think the best way to get a feel for our house churches is to introduce you to our folks, family by family. So in this post I’ll tell you about the Renato Signoretti family (from left to right: Wagner, Renato, Branda, and Guilherme)

Renato and Branda are in their early 40s and have been Christians ever since their teenage years. They came to us from another local congregation because they wanted to be part of a young and growing work. Renato is a bus driver for the military academy in Porto Alegre and Branda works in investments for the state bank of Rio Grande do Sul. Guilherme is 17 and in his last year of high school. Wagner is 15 and in his first year of high school.

Renato and Branda have become good friends of ours. Renato is quiet; he doesn't make waves in big groups, but he loves to talk with people one-on-one and he loves to use his spare time to visit friends and church members. He'll do favors when necessary, like transporting furniture or driving us to a retreat. He also makes some mean desserts: my favorite is sagu, little balls of flour that have been soaked in wine bottles and baked at high temperatures. Branda is outgoing and likes to take initiative; she is collaborating with Waleska in organizing a couples ministry, and also helps organize classes and activites for the teenagers. She is a very encouraging person and has been very supportive of us as we've made this transition to house churches.

Guilherme is trying to decide what he wants to study in college. Right now he's leaning toward physical education, but he's not really sure. He is an outstanding indoor soccer player; he could probably play semi-professionally if he dedicated himself full-time. Wagner is a goofball and likes to play practical jokes. Both boys are excellent guitar players as well.

That's the Renato Signoretti family...we are glad to have them in our house.