November 6, 2005, will certainly be remembered as a truly landmark day in the life of our church, Nova Aliança Church of the Nazarene. It was then that, upon a lengthy and careful examination, Nova Aliança was officially inaugurated by our District Superintendent, Dr. Jossie Owens. Judged by that day solely it would appear that our church is just less than two years old, but a closer and more careful look will yield quite a different conclusion. In fact, Nova Aliança has a much richer history firmly rooted in the history of the two congregations that preceded her, Bethel and Emaus. As such, the emergence of Nova Aliança should not be construed as a denial or repudiation of the past, but rather it represents a creative incorporation of that past into the present. Indeed, the transformation of Bethel and Emaus congregations into one united church, Nova Aliança Church of the Nazarene, is the direct result of the implementation of a bold vision, which calls for a strong and expanding Nazarene presence within the Capeverdean community in the city of Brockton.
Also, there is no doubt that November 6, 2005, stands simultaneously both as an end and as a beginning mark. It was the culmination of a long, arduous and fruitful journey, which not only involved Emaus and Bethel churches, their leaders and their boards, but also the District Advisory Board, several district committees and two district superintendents, the late Dr. Charles Zink and our current superintendent, Dr. Jossie Owens. The importance and the magnitude of such an endeavor and its far reaching implications prompted all the parts involved to carefully examine each step in this process and to seek diligently divine guidance in every aspect and detail.
The circumstances, which led to the formation of this new church, were the following:
For over ten years the former Emaus congregation had the blessing of worshiping God in a wonderful temple in Walpole. It had truly been a real source of inspiration to notice that through all those years a large number of faithful – young and old, married and single people, youth and children – from various cities within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Chelsea, Dorchester, Milton and Brockton) overcame great distances in order to congregate in the temple of the church in Walpole. This very fact stood as a powerful testament to the believers’ devotion to God and to their commitment to His church.
But soon, it became apparent that the church’s location in Walpole constituted a formidable challenge to her mission of reaching out to more Capeverdeans and Portuguese-speaking people with the gospel of Christ Jesus. In fact, due to its location, the church could not function as a community church and, therefore, was very limited in the type of ministries she could offer. Mindful of this, the pastors of the Emaus church, Dr. João Monteiro, Revs. Carlos Tavares, Silas Almeida, and Natanael Duarte, challenged the members of the board to take some time to pray and reflect upon the church and their vision for the church.
Shortly afterwards, in a subsequent meeting, the same members were invited to share their dreams and their vision for the church. It is worth mentioning that most of them were eagerly looking forward to the day when the church would be fully established within the community. Such aspiration did not stem from any personal or selfish desire. Rather, it was rooted in a profound conviction that the church could not minister effectively in a temple outside of the community.
From that meeting there was a clear consensus that the time had finally arrived for the church to be relocated. But the question naturally arose: Where should the new church be located?
When we considered the church’s make up, we noticed that while the temple was located in Walpole, 70 percent of its members reside in Brockton. The remaining 30 percent are distributed the following way: 14 percent are from Chelsea/Cambridge/Somerville, 15 percent from Dorchester/Roxbury, and 1 percent from other localities. But in a regular Sunday morning service 81 percent of the people attending come from Brockton and 19 percent from other localities. For this reason, it became obvious that a relocation of the church to Brockton was advisable. But a move of the Emaus church to Brockton would be in partnership with the Bethel church with which she had good cooperation. The two churches had been having joined services for some time on Fridays and Sundays nights.
The leaders of Emaus church shared with the pastor of Betel church, Rev. Benedito Monteiro, the vision of the board of Emaus to relocate the church to Brockton and inquired about the possibility of working together. At that time, the Bethel church was seeking to expand her presence in Brockton. It was then that we started the arduous challenge marked by prayer, careful planning and meetings to draft a proposal that basically argued in favor of the unification of the two churches for a more effective ministry in the community.
The proposal was presented simultaneously to the boards of the two churches followed by its presentation to the congregations, and both responded with great enthusiasm.
Afterwards, the proposal was submitted to the district superintendent, Dr. Charles Zink and he made some suggestions that would be incorporated in a future draft of the same. Several months later, it was time to meet again with Dr. Charles Zink and with one of his assistants, Dr. Jossie Owens (Dr. Owen would later become the new district superintendent). In that meeting Dr. Zink informed us that he was stepping down as district superintendent and would be serving the denomination in a new capacity. It then became clear that a decision on the proposal would have to be made by his/her successor. Also, in that meeting it was established the creation of a committee composed of members of the District Advisory Board whose primary function would be to prepare and facilitate our future meeting with the District Advisory Board when the proposal would be finally submitted to that board. Meanwhile, the two congregations had the opportunity to express their opinion by voting on the proposal, and the results were overwhelmingly in favor.
Few days later, we were able to meet again with the new superintendent, Dr. Jossie Owens. Dr. Owens informed us that the District Advisory Board had chosen Revs. José Delgado and Vince Crouse to assist her in the unification process of the two churches. Indeed, we had several meetings with them and in those meetings our initial impressions were confirmed that in order for the proposal to be accepted it would have to be approved by the District Superintendent, the District Advisory Board and the General Superintendent with jurisdiction. That finally happened in the beginnings of 2005. It is important to notice that even after its approval, Dr. Owens still met with the boards of the two churches and visited the churches to hear directly from their members. Once the proposal was approved, we created several committees with the sole purpose of addressing and preempting the major challenges that we would certainly face.
Finally, we had reached the stage where two separate entities were no longer advisable. The time had arrived for the two churches to become one united church and to start implementing the vision spelled out in the proposal.
Since then, we have been blessed by God and we continue to seek His guidance and to depend on Him as we move forward in our mission of reaching out people with the redemptive gospel of Christ Jesus, our Lord.
We are especially thankful to God for our pastor, Rev. Benedito Monteiro for his leadership and dedication to God and to His church. It is our strong belief that God has raised him for such a time like this.
As we move forward, we are aware that challenges will abound and that the enemy will attempt to impede us and frustrate our work. But one thing is sure: the same God who has sustained us in these past 18 months will continue to sustain us as we put our trust on Him. It is our hope and prayer that a hundred years from now, when our grandchildren write the history of this church that it will be a history of how the church has been faithful to God and of how He has worked powerfully within her to fulfill His promises. To God and God alone be glory and honor now and forever!
Natanael Duarte, Assistant Senior Pastor
Also, there is no doubt that November 6, 2005, stands simultaneously both as an end and as a beginning mark. It was the culmination of a long, arduous and fruitful journey, which not only involved Emaus and Bethel churches, their leaders and their boards, but also the District Advisory Board, several district committees and two district superintendents, the late Dr. Charles Zink and our current superintendent, Dr. Jossie Owens. The importance and the magnitude of such an endeavor and its far reaching implications prompted all the parts involved to carefully examine each step in this process and to seek diligently divine guidance in every aspect and detail.
The circumstances, which led to the formation of this new church, were the following:
For over ten years the former Emaus congregation had the blessing of worshiping God in a wonderful temple in Walpole. It had truly been a real source of inspiration to notice that through all those years a large number of faithful – young and old, married and single people, youth and children – from various cities within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Chelsea, Dorchester, Milton and Brockton) overcame great distances in order to congregate in the temple of the church in Walpole. This very fact stood as a powerful testament to the believers’ devotion to God and to their commitment to His church.
But soon, it became apparent that the church’s location in Walpole constituted a formidable challenge to her mission of reaching out to more Capeverdeans and Portuguese-speaking people with the gospel of Christ Jesus. In fact, due to its location, the church could not function as a community church and, therefore, was very limited in the type of ministries she could offer. Mindful of this, the pastors of the Emaus church, Dr. João Monteiro, Revs. Carlos Tavares, Silas Almeida, and Natanael Duarte, challenged the members of the board to take some time to pray and reflect upon the church and their vision for the church.
Shortly afterwards, in a subsequent meeting, the same members were invited to share their dreams and their vision for the church. It is worth mentioning that most of them were eagerly looking forward to the day when the church would be fully established within the community. Such aspiration did not stem from any personal or selfish desire. Rather, it was rooted in a profound conviction that the church could not minister effectively in a temple outside of the community.
From that meeting there was a clear consensus that the time had finally arrived for the church to be relocated. But the question naturally arose: Where should the new church be located?
When we considered the church’s make up, we noticed that while the temple was located in Walpole, 70 percent of its members reside in Brockton. The remaining 30 percent are distributed the following way: 14 percent are from Chelsea/Cambridge/Somerville, 15 percent from Dorchester/Roxbury, and 1 percent from other localities. But in a regular Sunday morning service 81 percent of the people attending come from Brockton and 19 percent from other localities. For this reason, it became obvious that a relocation of the church to Brockton was advisable. But a move of the Emaus church to Brockton would be in partnership with the Bethel church with which she had good cooperation. The two churches had been having joined services for some time on Fridays and Sundays nights.
The leaders of Emaus church shared with the pastor of Betel church, Rev. Benedito Monteiro, the vision of the board of Emaus to relocate the church to Brockton and inquired about the possibility of working together. At that time, the Bethel church was seeking to expand her presence in Brockton. It was then that we started the arduous challenge marked by prayer, careful planning and meetings to draft a proposal that basically argued in favor of the unification of the two churches for a more effective ministry in the community.
The proposal was presented simultaneously to the boards of the two churches followed by its presentation to the congregations, and both responded with great enthusiasm.
Afterwards, the proposal was submitted to the district superintendent, Dr. Charles Zink and he made some suggestions that would be incorporated in a future draft of the same. Several months later, it was time to meet again with Dr. Charles Zink and with one of his assistants, Dr. Jossie Owens (Dr. Owen would later become the new district superintendent). In that meeting Dr. Zink informed us that he was stepping down as district superintendent and would be serving the denomination in a new capacity. It then became clear that a decision on the proposal would have to be made by his/her successor. Also, in that meeting it was established the creation of a committee composed of members of the District Advisory Board whose primary function would be to prepare and facilitate our future meeting with the District Advisory Board when the proposal would be finally submitted to that board. Meanwhile, the two congregations had the opportunity to express their opinion by voting on the proposal, and the results were overwhelmingly in favor.
Few days later, we were able to meet again with the new superintendent, Dr. Jossie Owens. Dr. Owens informed us that the District Advisory Board had chosen Revs. José Delgado and Vince Crouse to assist her in the unification process of the two churches. Indeed, we had several meetings with them and in those meetings our initial impressions were confirmed that in order for the proposal to be accepted it would have to be approved by the District Superintendent, the District Advisory Board and the General Superintendent with jurisdiction. That finally happened in the beginnings of 2005. It is important to notice that even after its approval, Dr. Owens still met with the boards of the two churches and visited the churches to hear directly from their members. Once the proposal was approved, we created several committees with the sole purpose of addressing and preempting the major challenges that we would certainly face.
Finally, we had reached the stage where two separate entities were no longer advisable. The time had arrived for the two churches to become one united church and to start implementing the vision spelled out in the proposal.
Since then, we have been blessed by God and we continue to seek His guidance and to depend on Him as we move forward in our mission of reaching out people with the redemptive gospel of Christ Jesus, our Lord.
We are especially thankful to God for our pastor, Rev. Benedito Monteiro for his leadership and dedication to God and to His church. It is our strong belief that God has raised him for such a time like this.
As we move forward, we are aware that challenges will abound and that the enemy will attempt to impede us and frustrate our work. But one thing is sure: the same God who has sustained us in these past 18 months will continue to sustain us as we put our trust on Him. It is our hope and prayer that a hundred years from now, when our grandchildren write the history of this church that it will be a history of how the church has been faithful to God and of how He has worked powerfully within her to fulfill His promises. To God and God alone be glory and honor now and forever!
Natanael Duarte, Assistant Senior Pastor
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