The Community of Good Church of the Nazarene of Sumaré, Sāo Paulo, celebrated another year in ministry with a new space and many new brothers and sisters.

Pastor Fábio Carvalho started the work 14 years ago as an evangelistic service in his garage along with three other couples. In a short time, more than 15 people were gathering regularly.
In one of these meetings, Carvalho recalled that a new person showed up to one of their services. At the end of the service, the stranger told the group that he had made a vow to the Lord and was there to fulfill it.

He had just built three small commercial halls and wanted to dedicate one to the Lord to use for God's work. The man’s brother-in-law told him to look for a home worship group in the neighborhood near the halls and offer the space at no cost to the person in charge. So, he did.

At first, Carvalho was not interested in the opportunity because he liked the lack of structure the home church had and didn’t feel called to the pastorate yet.

“My pastor at the time, Getúlio Lemes, soon encouraged me to conduct the work in the hall, seeing the hand of God in it,” Carvalho said.

In January 2019, the church started meeting in the space the man offered. After a few months, that hall became too small for them, so the walls separating the three halls were removed. The other two halls became part of the church's space as it grew to 95 people.

"Only after eight years did I feel, in fact, the call to pastoral ministry,” Carvalho said. “My heart changed, and I became aligned with God's purpose for our community. The church grew, and two years later, we moved to a new hall with 170 people. We stayed there for four years (including two pandemic years) and grew to the point of having two crowded Sunday services."

At the beginning of 2022, there were 170 members, and the church ended the year with 269. There are currently 75 people in the new member class and around 485 people regularly attend worship.

Due to the exponential growth that the church has experienced, in March, the church moved to a new space that holds 700 people per service, and already, in the first service, 605 adults were present.

The garage church was originally called the Portal Bordon Church of the Nazarene, referring to the neighborhood in which it was located, before changing its name to Community of Good.

Carvalho said the name change was due to the congregation’s understanding that they were no longer just a neighborhood church. They served the community at large and wanted to align the name with their church's mission.

“The efforts of our church are for all people to enjoy all that God is and all that God has given,” Carvalho said. “To enjoy all that God is, they need to convert. To enjoy everything God has given, they need to put themselves on the path already determined by God.

Carvalho pointed to the three words of love, serve, and disciciple as the congregation’s guide for how they want to serve the community.
“We are committed to the continuity of the implantation of the kingdom of God on earth,” Carvalho said. “We believe in the gospel for the salvation of the whole man, and because of that, we will work on the fronts of evangelization and social work.”

--Church of the Nazarene South America