By Mark Lemos

The Assemblies of God of Brazil is a vast, wide spread Pentecostal denomination that accounts for half of all evangelicals in the country. Because of the tremendous size of this country, finances and other obstacles, members of the thousands of A/G churches in this Portuguese speaking nation, do not have the means to attend a Bible/Theology Training School.

The Pinda Bible School is the Brazilian A/G flagship center for preparing men and women for Holy Spirit empowered ministry. Recently it launched a distance education curriculum that will have a total of 40 books. The first phase is a series of 24 books that are listed below. The students can choose to study in the comfort of their home or in a study center at a local church.

The Pinda Bible School took the following steps in order to implement the program:

An analysis of the existing curriculums available in Brazil by an independent educational consultant.

A field survey to detect the profile (age, schooling, how many books read per year, difficulties encountered in previous courses, etc..) of the public that would be interested in such a program, in the A/G and other Pentecostal churches.

A field survey with pastors in order to get their expectations of a distance education program.

The collected data was given to an educator specialized in editing educational texts, to establish a format and style in which the texts should be written.

The above educator became the coach for the Pinda Bible School teaching staff in the production of the curriculum.

The books have an average of 210 pages and have a unique aspect. The authors of the curriculum are Latin American nationals (21 books) and career missionaries (3 books) to Latin America, giving this curriculum a truly indigenous characteristic.

The first book was released in the fall of 2006. Currently 2.032 students have already enrolled and are studying in 56 study centers in 13 states and one center in London, UK. Three night Bible Schools have adopted the curriculum for their 265 students. There has been a high level of acceptance from a good number of A/G districts and the response to the material has been very positive.

Ten books have been printed, four are in the process of being printed and the remaining ten books of the first phase are expected to be printed by July of 2008. Also plans are under way to translate this curriculum into Spanish and English to make it available in other countries.

The Pinda Bible School is making a complimentary copy available to those interested in getting acquainted with the new curriculum. Just send an email to diretor@ibad.com.br with your name and complete address, and a copy of one of the books will be mailed.