Jéssica goes to the Presbyterian church and says the church helps the neighbourhood | Léu Britto/Agência Mural This text was written by Lucas Veloso, Patrícia Vilas Boas and Vagner Vital, and originally published on Agência Mural's website in May 2021. The article is a partnership with Pindograma, a data journalism website. The article is republished here in partnership with Global Voices, with some changes. Located between a house and a beauty salon, the church Assembleia de Deus Ministério Missão, a Pentecostal church, has a small entrance 2.5 metres wide to welcome worshippers. It was opened about four years ago, when followers decided it was important to have another venue in Cidade Ademar, a district in São Paulo’s outskirts, in southeastern Brazil. They were not alone. In recent years, 33 new religious sites have appeared in the neighbourhood. In Grajaú, also in the city’s south, there have been 37, and another 26 in Jardim Ângela, according to official data. In a district of Jaraguá, in the northwest, in less than one kilometre, four new churches were opened — two of them in garages with services that hold up to 10 people. Examples of this kind are spread throughout São Paulo, most of them evangelical and in the peripheries. Data from Pindograma, a data journalism site, shows that over the last decade, every six days São Paulo city has had a new evangelical church. The data points to their expansion in poor neighbourhoods, accompanied by an increase in the political participation of followers and pastors. Pindograma's figures were taken from São Paulo's IPTU (property tax) and show that in 2011 there were 1,633 evangelical churches. In 2020, there were 2,186, an increase of 34%. Among the peripheral neighbourhoods, Cidade Ademar had the most significant increase, of 200%. This phenomenon, though, comes from something which dates back before that decade, explains João Paulo Berlofa Gomes, a 34-year-old pastor of the Garage Church, known as pastor Berlofa. He lives in the city of Mogi das Cruzes, in Greater São Paulo, and notes that the rise of evangelical churches began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to him, promises such as “the church and God will solve all your problems,” “they will give you victory in all your struggles,” and ” ensure financial prosperity” gained the movement followers during a time of economic crisis in Brazil, after 21 years of military dictatorship. Twenty-four-year-old social scientist Amanda Souza agrees and points to the so-called prosperity theology. The term reflects evangelical churches’ preaching of the belief in meritocracy and success by individual merit. “They [evangelical churches] have a preaching [message] that is very close to the workers’ daily lives. In the sense that they seek resources for social mobility, in this church space they have a leader who serves as an example of what can be achieved, based on the idea that ‘everything is possible’,” she said. The increase in the number of churches in recent years is also linked to a trend among many new evangelical churches — a follower who decides to start a new church on their own, or when somebody has grown up within a religious organization and is given the mission to open a “unit” in a neighbourhood. “You open the garage in your house, put four chairs in it, a pulpit, a microphone, designate yourself, title yourself, anoint yourself pastor, it's all good, it's all ready”, Berlofa summarized. In the case of the Catholic religion, for example, there is more bureaucracy. The opening of new churches goes through a process that depends on the Vatican's approval, via the Pope. INCREASE IN EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN SAO PAULO CITY In the last ten years there has been a jump of 34% in the number of religious spaces, but in some peripheral areas it has tripled. TOTAL NUMBER OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN THE CITY Moreover, churches and other religious entities have tax exemptions guaranteed by the Brazilian constitution. On the other hand, those who attend religious centres emphasize their role within communities. A resident of Jardim Ângela, in the south, 24-year-old Jéssica Keyla Barreto Santana was once a member of the Assembleia de Deus church and is now a member of the Presbyterian Church, two traditional denominations. In a difficult moment of unemployment, she says that her family received help from other worshippers who joined efforts to collect and donate food. “They helped my mother as well as whoever needed it there in the church.” Among the most common activities, she also mentions donations of clothes, blankets and the distribution of food parcels. “There is no point in just giving spiritual bread if you forget that your brother needs food and clothes,” Jéssica said.