A Formação de Liderança UrbanaNuma Perspectiva Missional e Pastoral:Estudo de Caso de Seminário Teológico Batista Nacional,Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil

Abstract

The formation of urban leadership in a missional and pastoral perspective: case study of the National Baptist Theological Seminary in Goiania-GO-Brazil. In the urban context, the educational process of Christian leadership formation presupposes a theological instruction that offers a double theoretical focus, namely missional and pastoral. The research shows that most of Brazilian theological seminaries focus on pastoral formation and that the missional approach is an exception. As the single approach on either, or pastoral or missional, results in dysfunctional formation, the proposal is to focus on both kinds of approach: missional –know how to reach the non-God’s people –and pastoral –know how to nourish the God’s people faith and give them tools to the missional work. The Theology of Integral Mission (TMI) was chosen as our theoretic and theological (missional/pastoral) framework because the National Baptists have chosen it as ecclesiological axis and reference point to the pastoral and missional church’s activities. For many, the TMI was born in Latin America, from Latin American theologians. It has roots in the missionary movement of North America and Europe in 19thand 20thcenturies, also in the classical theology and evangelical movement. The creation and expansion of TMI has, as grounding facts, the Latin American Congress of Evangelization (CLADE), the first in 1969, the beginning of the Latin American Theological Fraternity (FTL) in 1970, and World Evangelization Conference in Lausanne –Switzerland in 1974. Three bases were extracted from TMI in order to cooperate for theological education with pastoral and missional bias, in leadership formation from the urban context. They are: (i) principle of integrity of human being, (ii) principle of contextualization, and (iii) principle of mission. The cultural and biblical anthropology are the most suitable anthropological framework (missional/pastoral). It is so because the cultural anthropology helps the understanding of the web of meaning that weave the homo urbanely. It also guides to build links of understanding on missional and pastoral actions and thoughts, both from the city, where the drama of human existence has its locus. And yet the biblical anthropology also offers us fundamental tools for the missional and pastoral actions and thoughts. Starting 13on biblical anthropology of Pauline leadership, biblical principles of Christian leadership formation are extracted. It’s done by analysing Paul’s letters and the book of Acts, keeping in mind Paul’s cultural and familiar background, his converting experience and called, his way as disciple and leader, as missionary, pastor and theologian. In each and all of these aspects, we have four auxiliary principles for the theological education of leadership formation that, from de urban context, meet the demands, which are: (i) anthropological, (ii) pedagogical, (iii) ecclesiological, (iv) strategic. The Metropolitan Area of Goiania (RMG), with more than 2 million citizens, is the historical and geographical area of research approach here. The city of Goiania started on October 24th, 1933 as Capital of the State of Goins. At that time it was one of the five Brazilian cities well planned. It was created in order to be head in the national integration process from Midwest on. The new capital creation was contributed by four factors: (i) the national economical groups, mainly with headquarters in São Paulo, wanted expand their bounds because of 1929 Economic Depression in USA; (ii) the Revolution of 30ies, when Giulio Vargas created the West Occupancy Program, known as “Marche para o Oeste” [“March to the West”]; (iii) The political scene in Goins, since Dr.Pedro Ludovico Teixeira, Auditor of the State was political enemy of the oligarchy of the Caiados, that dominated politically and were installed in the old capital of Goiás; (iv) the old capital did not meet the conditions of being a metropolis due to several factors, among them the topography and the insalubrity, pleaded since the 19thcentury. The original layout of Goiania was inspired by Versailles in France and had as its ultimate goal the construction of Brasilia as federal capital. Goiania has become a regional leader in several areas, such as third sector, medicine, education and culture. Its location made it a national strategic point between South/Southeast and North/Northeast as well as for the entire Brazilian Midwest. The webs of meaning that form the cultural ethos of the homo urban us Goianiense, with their peculiar characteristics resulting from the process of city formation, are: urban/rural conflict and attachment to the religious. In several areas, especially in music and architecture, it’s possible to find out the Goianiense homo Urbanus characteristics. In architecture it was the city where the attachment to the neo-colonial occurred for longer, and in music became the capital of Brazilian country music. In the last years it was the 14attachment to the religious and the rural that lost field because of secularization and urbanization. In architecture it lost field by the option of modernist styles, and in music by the adoption of the university country music. The general characteristics of the homo urban us Goianiense, urban stress caused by traffic, unwanted conurbation, and violence affect the life of the city. From the cultural ethos of the present urban world we find in the homo urban us Goianiense some characteristics, such as: the sense of impermanence, generated by the strangulation of the traditional family and by immigration; the culture of sensations, generated by an individualistic and materialistic worldview. Unemployment and competition are facts that affect the Goianiense daily life, making urban life even more individualistic and generating immense personal and structural conflicts. Other two characteristics present in the homo urban us goianiense are: being relational and storyteller. This research has shown that the institutional agents involved in the transformation process, through the pastoral and missionary activity and reflection in the RMG, are three: the National Baptist Theological Seminary (SETEBAN)in Goiania, the National Baptist Convention of Goiás (CBN-GO), and the eighteen National Baptist Churches of the RMG. The profile of the National Baptist pastors of the RMGis: in the totality, man; most white men; married; average of two children; and most have their own houses. All have theological formation; average age is 50 years; time of ministry 20 years. Most were born in an evangelical home and have always belonged to the CBN. The churches that herd, most have their own headquarters; with average capacity for 200 people. Involvement with mission is regular and with social issues is weak. Of the 20 cities that make up the RMG, we have churches in 6 cities. They are thirteen in Goiânia, one in Aparecida de Goiânia, one in Trindade, one in Senador Canedo (the five largest cities of RMG), and one in Inhumas. The SETEBAN-Goiânia was created in August 21st, 1982. It‟s mission is theological formation of one‟s vocation and growth propitiation of the National Baptist Churches of the RMG. It does that through orientation on National Baptist doctrine, mainly on Holy Spirit baptism issues and spiritual gifts, which points to an educational philosophy with content and functionalist bias. The Seminary educational process has a curriculum whose matrix is common to most Brazilian seminaries. The research suggests interventions in the institutions 15that are part of the process, especially in SETEBAN-Goiânia. It proposes a new educational philosophy, namely: serving in the preparation of persons dedicated to the ministry in a missional and pastoral perspective, according to Baptist principles, not leaving aside the questions concerning the Holy Spirit baptism and the spiritual gifts as realities for our days. It also proposes the execution of a Pedagogical Project, whose values are the three principles of the TIM and the four principles of leadership of the Pauline experience. Keywords: Theological Education; Urban leadership; National Baptist Convention; SETEBAN-GO.