Vote to Call Pastor Joao da Rocha
From Dr. Sherouse:
“Because of the weather we have postponed for two Sundays our vote to call Joao da Rocha as Pastor of the Brazilian Mission. The Personnel Advisory Committee, Missions Council and members of the Brazilian Mission met with Joao January 13, functioning as a “Search Committee.” After talking with Pastor Joao, this group brings its unanimous recommendation that the church extend a call to Joao. We intend to have that vote this Sunday. Joao has served since May as the Interim Pastor of our Mission. This vote would make him the Pastor. Joao has extensive experience and giftedness as a pastor, church-planter and evangelist. He has his Bachelors in Theology degree from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Rio de Janeiro and a Master in Counseling from Orlando Christian. He has pastored five Baptist churches in Brazil, been active in denominational work and served as President of the Baptist Convention there. After coming to the United States he worked over eight years in the Brazilian Embassy and ministered bi-vocationally in northern Virginia. He also served in Detroit in a Brazilian church plant. A copy of his resume is available on our website and also at the Welcome Center.
Nothing changes in the status of the Brazilian Mission Pastor with this call, other than Joao being “permanent” rather than interim. He has had and will have the same status that Isaias had. He is an employee of our church. Our payroll service cuts his check. I supervise him. The Brazilian Mission is a portion of our church (unlike the Slavic). They are not autonomous. They do not have the authority to call a pastor, our congregation does, and they are part of our membership. We will vote on this call and so will they.
The Brazilian offerings come to us and are placed in a designated account, out of which the pastor is paid. There have never been any budgeted personnel or missions funds that supported the pastor’s salary; only designated funds have been used. In the past, under the previous 5 year funding formula, the BGAV, Richmond Baptist Association, First Baptist, the North American Mission Board and the Brazilian congregation contributed to the designated account to fund the salary on a decreasing scale over five years. The intent was for the Brazilians to fully fund the salary at the end of the 5 years, but that didn’t happen. Because the outside funding decreased and the Mission attendance and offerings decreased instead of picking up for the decreasing outside funding, the pastor’s salary had to be decreased a bit in 2008. We are now two years past any of these outside sources of income. Second Baptist never made any commitment to funding the salary, only to housing the mission, handling the funds and supervising the pastor.
Since I have been here we have supplemented the designated account through a bequest from a will, a few miscellaneous additional contributions from the BGAV, and some individuals who have contributed. It is possible that this year the Missions Council may choose to put some mission funds into that designated account, but the call of Joao is not dependent on that. We did not budget in our personnel area to fund this position. Joao and the Brazilian members are very aware that we are not guaranteeing the salary at its present level. It might decrease, and Joao may need to take a second job. Joao will not assume other major responsibilities with this call. His responsibilities remain the same. He pastors the Brazilian Mission, visits the hospitals once a month, and attends staff meeting every week.
May God bless our Brazilian Mission. And may this vote be used to further God’s will!”
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