Brazilian Provisional General Conference
Nikkei Annual Conference

• Organized Free Methodist Churches: 87
• FMC Membership: 10,192
• Ordained Ministers: 131
• Ministerial Candidates: 45
• Bishop (Brazilian Provisional General Conf.): Jose Ildo Swartelle de Mello
• Missionaries: Dan & Hope Owsley
• Ecclesiastical Accountability (Nikkei Annual Conf.): FMCNA through Bishop David Roller

Origins

In 1928 Daniel Nishizumi, a Free Methodist minister, traveled from Japan to Brazil at his own expense to do missionary work among the Japanese living there. He was followed by other Japanese laymen and ministers in an influx of Japanese immigration. The first FM church was organized in 1936.

Ten years later the first board-appointed missionaries arrived, Misses Lucile Damon and Helen Voller. They, and those that followed, worked with both the Japanese and the Brazilians. A seminary was built in Mairipora and later relocated in 1965 in the city of São Paulo. Because of the differences in language and culture, the churches separated into two conferences in 1966: the Nikkei (or Japanese) and the Brazilian.

Present Ministries

After a number of years of slow growth, the Brazilian Conference in 1978 adopted a five-year plan of evangelism. New preaching points were started and conference membership doubled. Additional five-year plans have since been initiated. The Nikkei Conference is seeing growth as well. The seminary presently operates on a college level, training men and women from both conferences. The majority of the churches of both conferences are located in the state of São Paulo.

In 2003 the Brazilian conference took the important step of becoming a Provisional General Conference, electing their first suffragan bishop. In August 2004, the Brazilian Provisional General Conference reorganized with a total of five annual conferences. This conference was recognized as a General Conference in November 2007.

Outreach

The Brazilian Free Methodist Church has sent missionaries to Portugal, Italy, Japan, Hungary, a creative access country, East Timor (Indonesia), Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, and the Suruwaha tribe in the Amazon Rainforest. Furthermore, it has taken oversight responsibilities for Free Methodist churches in a creative access country and in Angola.

Opportunities to support Brazil ministries

Brazilian Free Methodist Church (Portuguese)

Brazilian Free Methodist Church, Nikkei Conference (Portuguese)

Learn more about Brazil