
Members of One Another, Partners In the Gospel, Brazil
In 2011 Northside voted to join in a unique partnership with a church in Brazil in the northeast city of Olinda. The partnership “yokes” us together in the gospel as “members of the same Church.” We recognize one another as members when we travel, we pray for one another, communicate regularly, share resources, learn from one another, and best of all enjoy our time and work together.
Primeira Igreja Batista em Bultrins (First Baptist Church in Bultrins) was originally founded in a modest neighborhood between two favelas. Northside has learned much from Bultrins’ incarnational presence in the favelas and from their creative multi-generational ministries. We admire and respect their public witness and their ecumenical commitments.
The church in Bultrins has borrowed some of Northside’s traditions of worship, and they have been especially interested in our many mission partnerships in the region. We learn together about the challenges of living out the gospel in our own unique settings. We also learn about the vast beauty of God’s creation which can only be known from particular places. Here we can see the North Start at night. There we can see the Southern Cross.
A Partnership Covenant between
Primeira Igreja Batista em Bultrins, Pernambuco, Brasil
and
Northside Baptist Church in Clinton, Mississippi, USA
We, Primeira Igreja Batista em Bultrins and Northside Baptist Church, are yoked together as partners in the gospel. Through this partnership, we are sisters and brothers in Christ and members of the same Church.
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We commit to pray for one another regularly and especially on the Sundays when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper (Ceia do Senhor).
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We commit to communicate regularly - by post, email, telephone, Facebook, or by other available means - to share the celebrations and concerns of the church community.
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We commit to visit each other as often as possible - to dialogue, to fellowship, to worship, and to share in the ministries of the church.
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Finally, we commit to keep a spirit of cordiality and love, manifested in mutual care and demonstrated through practical actions, which reveal the love of God present among us.
We affirm this partnership in the presence of God, creator and sustainer of the Universe, of Jesus Christ, savior, and of the Holy Spirit, consoler. Amen.