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TL;DR:
Pioneering missionaries who help establish churches where “the church is not yet” exemplify Paul’s vision of reaching “the regions beyond” (2 Corinthians 10:16). The legacy of Earl and Gladys Mosteller highlights the continuing need for missionaries from every continent to go to unreached peoples. Such missionaries combine cultural sensitivity, humility, and perseverance as they establish sustainable congregations and prepare local leaders to guide the work.
Needed: Missionaries to pioneer where the Church is minimally present or does not yet exist.
We need missionaries who dream about “the regions beyond” (Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 10:16) and who push the Church to go there. Nazarenes Earl and Gladys Mosteller were that type of frontier missionary.
In 1946, the Mostellers, who both graduated from what is now Northwest Nazarene University, went from the U.S.A. to Cabo Verde, a group of Portuguese-speaking Atlantic Ocean islands. The Church of the Nazarene had been planted in Cabo Verde 45 years before the Mostellers' arrival. Their role there was to strengthen and enlarge an existing group of churches.
After a dozen years, the Mostellers began pioneering work in new areas. Over the next thirty years, they helped the Church of the Nazarene enter Brazil, Portugal, and the Azores.
Earl Mosteller (1918-2015) was well-suited for initiating work in new areas. He and Gladys (1917-2016) seemed happy plowing new ground. A big man with a huge handshake, Earl flourished out on the growing edge. Future national leaders seemed attracted to him, and he to them. Fortunately, Nazarene global missions leaders recognized Earl Mosteller's pioneering abilities, and they kept him and Gladys in frontier assignments for the last three decades of their missionary career.
Each place where the Mostellers pioneered the work of the Church of the Nazarene presented unique challenges. However, the three world areas did have one thing in common: All three are Portuguese-speaking.
Brazil, where the Mostellers spent 15 years, is the world's fifth-largest country by land area. When the Mostellers moved to Portugal, they left behind Brazil's vast rainforests and its tremendous ethnic diversity. Portugal was much smaller and far more monocultural. Brazil's ever-present spiritism was replaced by Portugal's European post-Christian culture.
As the church sank roots into Portugal and began flowering there, the Mostellers were asked to pioneer Nazarene work in the Azores. Having spent their rookie missionary years in one Atlantic Ocean island group, they were to spend the last seven years of their missionary career in another Atlantic archipelago.
By 2026, the three world areas in which the Mostellers pioneered Nazarene work had a combined total of almost 160,000 members of the Church of the Nazarene. That is more than the total number of Nazarene church members present throughout the world outside North America in 1958, when the Mostellers went to Brazil.
Around the globe, a large portion of the expatriate missionary force is providing resources to and enlarging established national church organizations. Such ministry is vital to carrying out the Great Commission. Indeed, those missionaries working where the church is well established are helping national churches transition to full partnership in global outreach so that Christian missionaries will indeed be going from all six continents to all six continents.
On the other hand, Earl and Gladys Mosteller represent a much smaller group of frontier missionaries who are planting the Church where it is not yet present. Thousands of distinct people groups still have virtually no followers of Jesus and no known, sustained church-planting movement among them. To reach those groups, we need more missionary pioneers like the Mostellers. In some ways, they remind us of the Schmelzenbachs who opened the door for Nazarene ministry in multiple African countries.
— Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
Brazil is one of the countries where the Mostellers pioneered Nazarene work. In 2023, the Nazarene General Secretary's Office reported that Brazil's 631 Nazarene churches had a total of 122,259 members.
Being a pioneering cross-cultural Christian missionary means fulfilling a divine calling to bridge diverse worlds with the transformative gospel message. It involves going into unfamiliar territories, both geographically and culturally. A pioneer missionary seeks not only to preach the gospel but also to understand, respect, and embrace the complexities of various cultures, languages, and traditions. Pioneering missionaries must embody adaptability, humility, and empathy as they deal with the intricacies of cross-cultural communication. They will often face challenges such as language barriers, social norms, and religious pluralism. In the midst of these challenges, they must carry a fervent belief in the universality of the gospel message and the power of love to transcend boundaries. With unwavering dedication, they must sow seeds of hope, compassion, and reconciliation.
Fruitful pioneer missionaries are often characterized by these ways of ministering:
“The desire of missionaries to share the gospel with others around the world impacted, and still impacts, my spiritual journey. Their stories and experiences motivate and encourage me.”
Another missionary who pioneered “in the regions beyond” was Herman Gschwandtner, who helped establish Nazarene work in Eastern Europe and South Asia.