Historical Summary of the
Ministério Internacional do Salvador – MIS
(International Ministry of the Saviour - MIS)

Primeira Igreja Batista de Periperi – Igreja Batista Comunidade da Praia) (First Baptist Church of Periperi – Beach Community Baptist Church)

As a fruit of the vision of the late pioneer and founder of churches, Pr. José Jacinto da Silva, the First Baptist Church of Periperi was organized on 2^nd October, 1955. It began as a joint work of three churches: Dos Mares Baptist Church, Plataforma Baptist Church and Cruz Cosme Baptist church, nowadays, called Filadélfia Baptist Church. These churches are from Salvador city, in Bahia state, Brazil.

The organizing council members were the following: Chairman – Pr M G White; Secretary – Pr Hercílio Aranha; Preacher – Pr Valdívio de Oliveira Coelho; Churches Covenant Reader – Pr Epaminondas Borges da Silva; Reading of Psalm 23 – Reverend J. E Lingerfelt; Voters: Pr. Antônio Rodrigues Lopes e Pr. José Batista Guimarães. And the first board of the new church was: Pastor: José Jacinto da Silva; First Secretary: Itamar Costa Lima; Second Secretary: Célia da Cruz Barreto; Treasurer: Raimundo Nonato de Lima.

In May of 1965 Pastor Leonardo Pacheco de Melo started pasturing the church. Three years later, in May of 1968, the church split due to doctrinal reasons. And as a result of it Monte Hermom Baptist Church was organized. This one is part of another Convention, the National Baptist Convention. Pr Antônio Nascimento Filho became the interim pastor in order to lead the pastoral succession. Nowadays, according to our reading, intolerance to what was new was the root cause for that crisis, once the reason for that schism was hand clapping, for instance, and now it is not a problem anymore in the so called conservative churches.

The restoration of the unity within the church was worked out by Pastor João Luís de Sousa, starting it on 13^th December, 1968. The main characteristic of his ministry was stability and leadership training with Christian service and cooperative spirit. And it is not by chance that his five children followed his example: The first born, professor França Célia Borges de Sousa is a psichologist and an active leader in her church; the second, Pr Sóstenes Borges de Sousa, is a pastor; the third, Dr. Ágabo Borges de Sousa, is the principal of Northeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Pastor of Avenida Baptist Church, in Feira de Santana city, and a member of the Science Academy in New York; the fourth, Géter Borges de Sousa, is a leader in his church in Brasília and a Parliamentary Adviser in Brasília, the capital of Brazil; and the youngest, Dávia, is an entrepreneur and leader in her ministry and the wife of pastor Jônathas Gusmão.

Along his 25 years of ministry in Periperi, Pr João Luís de Sousa was greatly blessed by the ministry of his lovely wife teacher Lélia Borges de Sousa. She worked as a leader of women in the state of Bahia, she developed a remarkable ministry with the families, and to this day, she is a hard working pastor. In 1974 Camaçari First Baptist church was organized and several other Missions were also started in cooperation with other churches.

In 1990, once Pr João Luís de Sousa understood that the time for his ministry in Salvador city was completed, he began the process of pastor succession. The church heard nine pastors, invited three to be its pastor, but they declined the invitation. And, as God used the church to insist, it invited Pr Sóstenes Borges de Sousa, who became the pastor of the church on 9^th January, 1993.

As soon as he became its pastor, he changed all the departments into Twelve Ministries.

The new pastor, then, stated his vision for the period of 1994 to 2000. His vision was: to organize a new church every year. Churches that were self governed, dependant on the Holy Spirit, self supported and self multiplying. To become a 1000 member church, in which everyone exercised with pleasure: fellowship, discipleship, the works of the ministry, faithfulness, prayer life, Bible reading, and personal evangelism.

As a fruit of Pr João Luís de Sousa and teacher Lélia Borges de sousa’ s pioneer work, on 2^nd November, 1994, Barra do Pojuca First Baptist Church, was organized, in Camaçari city, with 44 members.

On 16^th November, 1995, Vista Alegre Baptist Church was organized, in Salvador city. Its leader was the couple Pr José Bonfim Santos Vitória and Celma Cristina Santana Vitória.

On 28th December, 1996, as the fruit of Pr Carlos alberto da Purificação Carvalho and his wife and teacher Sandra Maria Pina de Carvalho’s pioneer work, it was organized Cabula Baptist Church in Salvador city, today called Nova Aliança Baptist Church.

In October, 1997 Praia Grande Baptist Church was organized, under the guidance of Pr Francisco Carlos Carvalho and his wife, teacher Lúcia Pinho de Carvalho.

On 8^th December, 1998, with ten attendants, a mission started. Later it was organized as Comunidade da Praia Baptist Church, that along with Periperi First Baptist Church, are now the Ministério Internacional do Salvador (International Ministry of the saviour), MIS.

In December of 1999, Pr Sóstenes Borges de Sousa, then the principal of Northeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, got in touch with René Terra Nova’s ministry, who was a pastor then. This knowledge improved his vision of ecclesiological organization a great deal. He already had a vision of cell groups and it transitioned into a more biblical strategy, with its focus is in making disciples, as it is Jesus’ model.

Considering the three years of transition, we were in 2006, four years living the Cell Vision in the model of the Twelve. It has made us a very happy and prosperous ministry. We have grown since then about 1000% in number of disciples. We have acquired an area of 25,000m². We have blessed other ministries with fellowship and as we share our experiences. We have pastors from other ministries in Salvador, London, São Paulo, Campinas, Porto Seguro, Camaçari, Cabrália, Hortolândia, Mogi Guaçu, Rio Claro, Juqueirópolis, who got close to us in order to learn, what we ourselves have learnt from the Apostle René Terra Nova, and multiply this extremely biblical vision.

We have not left our theological and biblical foundation. However, we have considerably broadened our vision of the kingdom.