They desire change. You can feel it when you’re there. God has put eternity in their hearts, and they want it. There is an embedded reverence in their society (both in and out of church), and we’re thankful that this reverence is pointing to the God of the Bible, and Jesus his son and our King. So many of our dearest friends are an exception to the norm. We know dozens of Catholics in Salerno who understand the gospel, study the Bible, and are living their lives to honor Christ. We know pastors of evangelical churches in and around Salerno who are tired of the “norm” for churches in Italy and desire to change. We know people that have come to Christ with a hunger to share the gospel with people around them because they’ve tasted what an intimate relationship with their creator can be like.

We firmly believe that God is beginning a culture-changing movement in Italy that will redefine what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Our hope in working there is to see Italians make an eternal difference as they seek to redefine what it means to walk with Jesus. We pray for, and desire to see revival take place in the churches so that the Gospel is made abundantly clear, and the teachings of the Bible are lived out in gratitude and not obligation or fear.

To all our Italian brothers and sisters, thank you. You have given us hope that Jesus is still at work in your beautiful country. We can’t wait to return and work together to see Jesus become famous again!

So, where does the evangelical church fit in? Some statistics might help. First off, there are few of them. In an estimated 33,500 communities throughout Italy, only 1,500 have an established evangelical presence. That’s that less than 5% of the entire country (contrasting the Catholic Church in nearly every city and community)! To narrow this down further, this only represents 1 small (sometimes 50 people or less) community within an entire city. When you widdle this down, less than 1% of Italy would consider themselves a born again, evangelical Christian. To be fair, that is a good start. IF these believers realized the potential influence they could have on the people around them, amazing things could happen. But, history has proven otherwise.

A King and his Kingdom. That is how an Italian friend and pastor has described the average evangelical community. In other words, many pastors are very protective of their “flock” from outside influence. Often with little to no theological training, a pastor can walk dangerous lines in his teaching (ranging from heavy legalism to extreme pentecostal experiences), and even exercises prophetic authority over his church. By calling himself a prophet, you can’t question his teaching. If you do, you’ll be removed from the body. This is why outsiders are a danger, as they might be able to challenge the theology of the pastor and corrupt his kingdom. This also means that most churches are very divided with each other. They believe they do it better, and don’t need to learn from others.

So, what is the result? Very few churches, in very few cities, with very little to no influence. There are a few shining examples (one of which we are very close with) that have a healthy presence, but it isn’t many. What Italy needs is a new movement, redefining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and a church committed to fulfilling the Great Commission. More on this in the next post! Have any thoughts?

What’s worse, is that the message of the gospel is difficult to find in these churches. It is dangerously clouded by misleading traditions and a misguided understanding of our justification (here’s a good, short book on the differences). In our 2 years of living in Italy, I have yet to meet a single Italian Catholic who has had an accurate understanding of the gospel, and knew that they are saved by faith alone (which is at the heart of the Biblical teaching on salvation). In my estimation, nearly 99% of the country have a false understanding of salvation, which means they would die separated from Christ. I am not speaking to whether or not the church has a false understanding at a foundational level, but I am certainly to pointing out that the people are not hearing it or understanding it. The church has lost its voice.

So, who can tell them? The evangelical church, right? In theory, that’s who should be telling them. But, they aren’t. I’ll give some insight why in a post later this week. So, hang on! Do you have any thoughts on this particular post? Please share in the comments section!

By nature of being missionaries, we must fully depend on God to meet our financial needs. And, he chooses to do this through the body of Christ getting behind us. Over the past few years, our family has expanded (tripled, actually), and we moved overseas. Also, as a result of difficult financial times, we have lost a significant amount of financial supporters. These factors combined have created a very large need. In order to remain on the mission field, we must replenish our team of faithful supporters.

Exposure is a key word for us right now. We are praying that our ministry would be exposed to as many people as possible. We’re very excited about where the Lord is taking us, and want to give as many individuals as possible an opportunity to consider joining our team.

Sensitivity would be another key word. Being aware that times are tough, we want to be careful as we approach people inviting them to give financially towards our ministry. Our hope is to invite people to give $25/month, which is an amount most people can swallow. By exposing ourselves to hundreds of people, we are hoping that this challenge will bring in the support needed to continue.

Would you please pray for us, that we would be able to meet (personally or via the web) as many people as possible and invite them to join our team? Would you also consider sharing (Facebook or Twitter) or forwarding our emails to others that you think might be interested in our ministry to Italy? It feels as if we have quite the mountain to climb, but we’re confident God will provide!

This was our most recent newsletter mailing to our friends and supporters. Click on the image above to view the full newsletter. You can also right click and “save as” to save it to your desktop.

Agape (the name of our ministry here) is the American Dream
Thirty four Americans are meeting Salerno Students
HAPPPY TO SPREAD THE WORD OF GOD

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One of the main things we try to accomplish while they are here is to find creative ways for them to interact with Italians at the University and engage in spiritual conversations that hopefully lead to sharing the gospel. So for the past two days, we’ve setup large photo exhibits that allow students to come and observe. While observing, we engage in conversation asking how these pictures relate to their life, and their relationship with God. It has opened up some neat opportunities for conversation that we would not have had otherwise. Pray for more opportunities like this in the coming weeks! Next week we will host a group of 25 from Mississippi.