About 30 years ago, we began a mission to track the growth of our church. By the Grace of God, we keep on to face challenges, joys and promises.

In 2011, we founded the Instituto Paracleto. I realize that few churches have this control tools and we have shared some tips and wisdom posts on our Blog.

The Blog Paracleto is a digital congregation of around 6 thousand visitors monthly.

Every Sunday, the Reception team counted attendance at morning (light blue) and evening (dark blue) services from 2022 to 2023.

The graph below shows this attendance and the green columns (visual test) show to the requests for cups for the Lord’s Supper.

It is not enough to be aware of frequency. Diaconia is a fundamental consultancy for healthy churches to perform their mission.

The Field is the world but the church is the sending base. Without the church there is no platform.

In addition to contributing to the church’s growth and attendance track, the Diaconia needs to have a care of members and their communities.

Since 2000, we have been monitoring the membership list, especially their housing distances rates to our church.

During the Pandemic, my daughter Laryssa Ribeiro and I visited many homes of siblings over 50 years old. Diaconia team made a close contacts of dozens of church members in that hard times.

This geospatial control is essential to build new small groups. For example, it would be hard for a new congregation haven’t at least 2 small groups (in nearby homes) providing support in its weekly area of religious services.

Colossians 3:21 – You, fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
The verse above is very similar to Ephesians 6:4 which was sent by the apostle Paul to 2 churches located very close by: Colossos and Ephesus.

In the mid-2000s, many young people left IBCA disappointed. In truth, we don’t know the causes of those departures, but today I realize that few families have their children with the privilege of worshiping in the same church. This natural (not forced) privilege has become the most important criteria for knowing whether a family is adjusted to the Word of God and Vision of local church.

In my book Mission of church: dimensions and effects, I wrote about the importance of mixing between generations in the same church. The Instituto Paracleto has followed this generational process of our church throughout history according to the age range chart beĺow.

After almost 20 years, we hear that many young people have gained good jobs, live with many likes, but have lost their marriages and perhaps are agnostics (not linked to churches) with no direction in life.

Ultimately, I think that as parents, we can offer our sons and daughters in two ways that are pleasing to God:

  1. The first, to start a family and have children to enjoy life and improve as individuals;
  2. The second, to remain a virgin in order to serve the Lord of the Church with greater dedication and loyalty.