Claudio Carvalhaes

Last Wednesday afternoon, I had a wonderful conversation with Claudio Carvalhaes. Claudio is Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching at Louisville Seminary. I first met him at the Louisville Seminary Lunch at the 218th General Assembly in San Jose. After he was introduced, and as he talked for a bit, he walked around the room, casually discarding his note papers as he walked and talked. He was passionate about preaching... and about worship... and about theological education... and his passion was contagious. I had mentioned a little at that luncheon what I was interested in exploring in terms of a different way of being the Church, and he came up to me afterwards and asked me to keep in touch with him. Needless to say, I knew I wanted to spend some time with him while I was in Louisville.

As we were talking, he said something fascinating to me, with which I wholeheartedly agreed, but which I hadn't heard that succinctly before. He said that, in our culture, the enemy of the church is individualism. It is the old adage of "I can do it myself, thank you very much" that is the antithesis of the Gospel where Jesus calls us into community.

I asked him about the Church in Brazil. He told me that the Church there, as the Church here, as the Church in South Africa, inherited the same model from Europe - 1 congregation, 1 pastor, 1 building, etc., etc. However, Claudio said that where the church is growing in Brazil is among the poor. And it is growing among the poor because the poor know that they NEED the church. They need the church spiritually, to be sure... but they also need the church because the church is where they go to find help with jobs, health care, food, for finding the intersection of their stories with God's stories. He then asked me a key question for the congregation that I serve to consider... for ANY congregation to consider: What are people in need of in our neighborhood, and how can we meet that need?

What do we need to do to help people be passionate about the Church and about faith? What tools are we giving people to live passionately about their faith: songs, prayers, liturgy, etc.?