Pray for Italy!

Tennessee / Italy Partnership

Italy is known for good food, scenery, history and art. But the work among the evangelical church in Italy is slow and struggling. Many towns of 50,000 or more have no evangelical witness at all. In fact, evangelicals make up about 350,000 of the over 60 million population or about half of one percent. A child born in China is five times more likely to become a follower of Christ than a child born in Italy. The challenge is sharing the Gospel with people who have more trust in the traditions of the church than the truth of the Gospel. Many Italians were taught in the Catholic tradition, but less than 15% attend mass on a regular basis. Tennessee churches are encouraged to adopt a town or a neighborhood with little to no evangelical witness. Ministry opportunities will include prayer walk teams, creative ministry teams, music, sports, and outreach teams to build relationships with nationals that lead to Bible studies. Ideally small teams will return multiple times each year to maintain relationships and do discipleship. What can you do? Begin praying now about what your church can do. Opportunities to go and do one time projects are available. Embrace an Underserved area-Come walk alongside an existing church. Make a long-term commitment to encourage the pastor; help with community outreach, VBS, and evangelism. Embrace an Unreached and Unengaged neighborhood or town. Many towns of 50,000 or more have no evangelical witness. Work with the International Mission Board personnel to discover these areas and develop a long-term ministry strategy. Churches will be encouraged to send small teams several times a year in order to build relationships and become the missionary to their community.