Porterbrook - Campus Bologna exams session

Tomorrow from 3.30 to 7.00 pm
we'll have the exams session for
students of the advanced years of
Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.

This meeting will be held in Nuova Vita Church and we expect about 15 students.

We'll interact with the modules of the
1st volume advanced course.

The first module is Living the Cross and Resurrection,
led by Mark Brucato, co-pastor of Nuova Vita.

This course shows how the cross and resurrection provide the pattern for discipleship in the everyday. It calls us to live out the radical implications of grace and to apply the way of the cross to every area of life. We’ll discover how the cross and resurrection empower us in Christ for a life of sacrificial service and joy. We’ll be encouraged to live a risk-taking life on mission to the world as part of a community of people empowered by the cross.

The second module is The Bible in Missional Perspective,
led by Gianpaolo Aranzulla, pastor of Forte Torre.

The bible is the story of God's plan and purpose to redeem a people for himself. This is how God wants to be known. This course will teach us to understand how the bible fits together around this theme. It will show us how Jesus fulfills God's salvation plan and how we fit into God's purposes as the Church. The course will introduce us
to biblical theology in a way that will reshape your life around
the gospel.


The third module is Missional Church and Church Planting,
led by Gian Luca Derudas, co-pastor of Nuova Vita.

This course will help you reconnect the church with mission. The church is God’s mission strategy for reaching people with the gospel. Mission is at the heart of who we are and what we do as church.
This course walks you through the doctrine of the church to discover its role in mission. It challenges and equips us to see church planting as a central missions strategy for churches and ordinary Christians.



The fourth module is A Commitment for the Context,
led by Stefano.

This module will help students to understand the culture and the context in which they live and how to engage others with the Gospel. 

Acts29 - Budrio church-plant brainstorm & Porterbrook Campus Bologna meeting

This afternoon we'll have a meeting in the café in Budrio center with Jonathan Gilmore, director of Acts29 - Italia with Gianluca Derudas and Mark Brucato co-pastors of Nuova Vita Church in Bologna, to talk about the Budrio church-plant project.


Later on Stefano and the pastors involved in teaching @ Porterbrook Campus Bologna, will have a training and feedback session with Jonathan, to prepare a new
academic year.

"Praying with Paul" - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28 - A prayer to persevere in trusting God's faithfulness

Tomorrow Stefano will continue the series:
"Praying with Paul", in which we are interacting with Paul's prayers in his letters.

For this sermon: "A prayer to persevere in trusting God's faithfulness", we'll engage with 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28.

To introduce this sermon, we'll ask ourselves: Is perseverance a virtue per se,
or it is meaningful only when we are certain to succeed? Who can give us that certainty?

These will be the headings of the sermon:
1. A prayer to grow in perseverance.
2. A prayer to grow in trusting in God's faithfulness.

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 
Brothers, pray for us."

1 Thessalonians 5:23-25(ESV)

To dig deeper with the themes 

we are engaging with in this series,

Stefano is encouraging the church 

to read and interact with the book of 

D. A. Carson:


A Call to Spiritual Reformation:

Priorities from Paul and His Prayers.


This book is also available in Italian. 

San Lazzaro Church Home-groups Prayer Meeting

This evening we'll have the monthly Home-groups 
Prayer Meeting of San Lazzaro Church.

During this meetings we pray for World Evangelism, 
and for the missionary work in China and in Senegal
in which we are involved.
 
We pray for Italy and our region Emilia-Romagna and
for the cooperation we have with different churches in
the Bologna Area and for the outreach activities we have.

This month we'll pray for the persecuted church worldwide.

We'll go through the World Watch List 2014 realized by OpenDoors.

This evening we'll pray specifically for those "new countries" added to the list:

• Central African Republic,
• Sri Lanka,
• Bangladesh

Budrio Church-Plant Sunday Lunch & time of fellowship with Tim Chester

Yesterday as ImpattoABudrio church-plant group we joined the Nuova Vita church for their service where Tim Chester preached from 1 Samuel 17:38-52.

Later we had a lovely lunch together enjoying a time of fellowship with Tim Chester and Jonathan Gilmore.

Budrio Church-Plant @ Nuova Vita Service with Tim Chester

Tomorrow morning
the ImpattoABudrio church-plant group
will join the Nuova Vita church for their service with Tim Chester preaching.
This is part of the Acts29 and Porterbrook event:
Total Church Bologna.

After, the ImpattoABudrio church-plant group will have a lunch together with Tim Chester and Jonathan Gilmore.

Tim Chester pastors The Crowded House in Sheffield (UK), is associate director of the Porterbrook Seminary and co-author of the book Total Church, published in Italian by GBU (IVP Italy).

Acts29&Porterbrook event: Tim Chester @ Bologna - Total Church

Tomorrow evening          Nuova Vita church             will host the Acts29      and Porterbrook event:     Total Church Bologna. The main speaker will     be Tim Chester, pastor     of The Crowded House     in Sheffield (UK), associate director of the Porterbrook Seminary    and co-author of the    book Total Church, published in Italian by GBU (IVP Italy).

Total Church: A radical reshaping around gospel and community 

A timely call to shape church along two principles: the gospel as content and the community as context.

Video Interview with Tim Chester @ the first 2012 Porterbrook residential in Italy

 

My Space Bologna - 2014 Rock Solid Bible Studies planning meeting

Tonight we'll have the staff meeting to plan the Rock Solid 

Bible Studies for the next months of the Bologna My Space Club.

Pray for wisdom and passion in handling correctly the Word of God to reach out kids from the Bologna area. 

Please pray specifically for Matteo & Claudia who are in charge of this ministry.

Soli Deo Gloria - Interdenominational prayer meeting for Bologna in San Lazzaro Church

This evening we'll host in San Lazzaro Church the Soli Deo Gloria - Interdenominational prayer meeting.

This monthly prayer meeting is organised in various Italian cities
by Kurt Jost, a Swiss-German missionary that operates in Italy working specifically with
literature and evangelism.

This is a really good opportunity for local churches to meet together to pray specifically for the Bologna Area.

Porterbrook - Campus Bologna plenary session

Tomorrow from 3.30 to 7.00 pm
we'll have the plenary session for
students of the advanced years of
Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.

This meeting will be held in Nuova Vita Church and we expect about 15 students.

We'll continue with the third and fourth modules of the 1st volume advanced course.


The third module is Missional Church and Church Planting,
led by Gian Luca Derudas, co-pastor of Nuova Vita.
In this session, students will interact with these units:

5. Church-planting strategy
6. Church-planting model
7. Church-planting methods
8. Church-planting - two examples
9. Church-planting practice

This course will help you reconnect the church with mission. The church is God’s mission strategy for reaching people with the gospel. Mission is at the heart of who we are and what we do as church. This course walks you through the doctrine of the church to discover its role in mission. It challenges and equips us to see church planting as a central missions strategy for churches and ordinary Christians.



The fourth module is A Commitment for the Context,
led by Stefano.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
7. Urban & Rural Contexts
8. Interacting with pop-culture
9. Co-belligerents

This module will help students to understand the culture and

the context in which they live and how to engage others with the Gospel. 

San Lazzaro Church House Groups Bible Studies on Habakkuk

This evening we'll continue in San Lazzaro Church the series of Bible Studies on the book Habakkuk for the monthly House Groups we run in three homes.
This month we'll look at Habakkuk 2:1-3.

For these studies we are using the book by Jonathan Lamb: 
From Why to Worship: Habakkuk, which is available in Italian.

Would God be enough if we were to lose everything else?
Would we be able to say, with Habakkuk, that although we had nothing  we would “rejoice in the Lord”?
This is a challenging book.
Lamb brings Habbakuk’s prophecy 
to life, showing how we can take God with us into our darkest times.


Jonathan Lamb  is on the staff of Langham Partnership International. 
As international director of Langham Preaching he works with national leaders to build local movements committed to Bible exposition and to provide training, resources and support for a new generation of preachers.

Nice memories after the New Year Camp @ Isola

After  the New Year Youth Camp @ the Christian Centre in Isola del Gran Sasso
we had a few days off,
so now we'll love to share some of the nice memories of this great camp!

The centre was beautiful and surrounded
by the Gran Sasso which is the highest mountain in the Apennines chain in Italy and a winter sky resort.

We had an amazing group of 54 lovely kids from all around Italy aged 14-19 years-old.
The theme of the camp was: Pure Love,
Stefano gave a series of five Bible Studies from the Gospel of John on Jesus' Pure Love expressed in his "I Am Sayings".
To interact with them we watched clips from MTv comedians, X-Factor, Harry Potter, Hunger Games & Twilight.
In every meeting kids had discussion groups to directly engage with the Bible.

We had a really great day on a nearby sky resort where kids had lots of fun skying, snowboarding and having snow balls fights!


We also enjoyed a good and hot Italian capuccino!

We also enjoyed a great
New Year's party with lots of theme games.

Stefano helped with the "American Room" teaching
kids the difference between
"East Coast" & "West Coast" :-)

We thoroughly appreciated this experience and we really enjoyed the fellowship with the other leaders feeling blessed by their Christian maturity and passion for the Lord.

Please continue to pray for these kids,
for what they've learned about Jesus' incredible and transforming Pure Love,
and for the ministry of this centre and the leaders from various churches in Italy!