Longevity and Faithfulness Are Keys to Brazilian Pastor’s Success at Connecticut Church
“Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship; it is a consequence; . . . it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience,” wrote the late pastor, poet, and professor, Eugene H. Peterson in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society.
After nearly thirty years as the founder and bivocational pastor of Igreja Comunidade Batista de Naugatuck (First Brazilian Baptist Church of Naugatuck), in the Naugatuck Valley of Connecticut, Jose Monteiro has lived a lifetime of Christ-centered “obedience in the same direction”—on the path God set for him since preaching his first sermon when he was 12 years old.
He has demonstrated both a faithfulness to preach and a willingness to serve others in tough times where he was planted, despite the unforeseen consequences—a trait not always observed in Baptist Churches of New England pastors who move to the region from other places. “For me, every week is a challenge. If I trust in God, then God will provide for us,” Monteiro said. A native of Rio de Janeiro, he emigrated to the United States in 1990 and since then has started seven Brazilian churches in Massachusetts and Connecticut and one in Brazil.
“For me, every week is a challenge. If I trust in God, then God will provide for us,” Monteiro said.
Being the spiritual leader of a congregation of immigrants is not an easy task because many church members move away as often as they arrive in Naugatuck as they seek improved employment opportunities, closer family connections, or a better way of life in a new hemisphere. When they arrive in the Naugatuck Valley, Brazilians soon need the pastor’s help to secure identification documents, affordable housing, English lessons, education for children, a network of new friends, food that they enjoy, and steady employment.
This year Monteiro celebrated the twenty-eighth anniversary of the church he and six others started on February 2, 1995—and, on June 3, they praised God for his twenty-eight years as a pastor. Clearly, longevity is a mark of his ministry. When asked by other pastors, “How big is your church?” his profound answer is, “five small fish and two loaves of bread in God’s hands,” a humble answer that points to the miracle Jesus performed when he fed more than 5,000 people with these meager elements (Matthew 14:13-21).
“God has provided for [him] all the time, even though [they] don’t have many people” attending the church these days. Attendance has shrunk in recent years to fewer than thirty on Sunday nights.
The borough of Naugatuck, a bedroom community nestled between the capital of Hartford and the academic powerhouse of New Haven, home to Yale University, was settled in 1701 as a farming community and later transformed into a mill town; rubber was the chief manufactured product when Charles Goodyear worked downtown at his brother’s factory, and even today one of the major streets in town is Rubber Avenue.
When Monteiro started driving on weekends and Wednesdays to Naugatuck from Danbury, CT, he estimated that there were only about 600 Brazilians in the area, a number that has grown steadily as the region’s population has increased. God opened the door for Monteiro’s ministry in Naugatuck when he had a dream, and when Timothy Leggett, then pastor of Naugatuck Valley Community Church, was seeking someone to come to the area to launch a Portuguese-speaking church. Since then, Monteiro says, “new people are coming to the area.”
He still must work outside the church, formerly as a house cleaner and now as an Uber driver.
Commitment to a fixed purpose is essential when examining a pastor’s motivation and strategy. Some pastors, he has observed, are driven by the number of people in the seats and the amount of money in the budget, but eventually these transitory measures of success can slip away.
Over the years, Monteiro has discovered that “people want to listen to the Gospel.” He is motivated by three daily responsibilities: “serving God, glorifying his name, and preaching the Gospel.” When asked to account for his longevity in the same pulpit, he said, “I trust in God and pray. Many leaders don’t pray like the Bible teaches. Prayer is very important” for ministry success.
The pastor also credits the unconditional love, support, and encouragement of his wife, Neize; his son, Allan, Senior Vice President of Ion Bank and Board President of United Way of Naugatuck and Beacon Falls; and daughter, Monique, who has served twenty years in United States Air Force including the last five years at the Pentagon.
Igreja Comunidade Batista de Naugatuck owns its own building, a centrally located brick structure with a full basement, at 159 Church Street, in the heart of downtown Naugatuck. The former CVS pharmacy building is adjacent to a large public parking lot, as well as to restaurants and small shops.
The Brazilians worship Sunday nights and since January 8 they have been sharing their building with Calvary Chapel of Naugatuck, an English-speaking group that affiliates with the BCNE, the Connecticut Baptist Association, and the Calvary Chapel Global Network that started in 1961 in Costa Mesa, California, and famously played a key role in the Jesus People Movement of young adults. For many years the Brazilians shared a building with Naugatuck Valley Community Church, which closed its doors more than five years ago.
“By living a faithful life of ‘long obedience in the same direction’, he has found true joy in ministry.”
Before moving to Connecticut and starting a church, in Danbury, Monteiro was a sergeant in the Brazilian Army and a business executive for a clothing factory. When a Brazilian church in New York City asked him to start a new congregation in Connecticut, he planted First Portuguese Speaking Baptist Church of Danbury. After that he drove four hours each weekend to the Boston area to start and nurture Bible study-prayer meetings that grew into churches, in Rockland, Stoughton, and Framingham.
Tiring of the long drive each weekend, he then was a pastor in Bridgeport, CT, before planting the church in Naugatuck and later starting churches in Hartford, Brookfield, and New Milford.
In addition to his pastoral ministry and bivocational employment, Monteiro, who is 63, does whatever he can to encourage younger Brazilian pastors to start and grow new churches. “I love pastors!” he stated. To that end, Monteiro is vice president of the BCNE Brazilian pastors’ association.
He is one of the longest-serving Brazilian pastors in the BCNE and he has no plans to slow down or relocate unless God should decide to call him elsewhere. By living a faithful life of “long obedience in the same direction,” he has found true joy in ministry.
A Massachusetts native and a New England Baptist since 1970, Dan Nicholas is the BCNE managing editor.