Acts29 Italy churches online prayer meeting

 

Tomorrow evening, we’ll be meeting on Zoom from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm for the online prayer meeting Impatto Prega, together with our family of Acts29 churches in Italy.

Sunday Service: Joshua 1:1-9 - "A New Beginnig!"

Tomorrow we'll have our morning service to worship God together and to proclaim His Word at the social center Magnolia, a well known cultural meeting point right at the centre of Budrio.

At 10.15 we will begin our new series on the Book of Joshua, exploring Joshua 1:1–9, “A New Beginning!”

We will also have our Children's Club, where children will engage with a talk on the same biblical text, followed by a programme for the different age groups.

"«For every New Testament doctrine, there is an Old Testament picture.» The doctrinal teaching of inheritance gazed upon in the New Testament letters of Ephesians and Hebrews is glimpsed in the Old Testament book of Joshua. Jesus is the hero of both the Old Testament and the New Testament... The Bible is a HIMBOOK and must be seen and understood through the lens of Christ. It was Christ who, «beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, … interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures» (Luke 24:27; see also v. 44). During Jesus’s conversation with his two disciples on the Emmaus road, after a bit, he exposited the Hebrew Bible to them. He revealed how the volume bears witness to his essence and his eventual bodily presence on earth in the incarnation. Never does the Bible foreshadow Jesus more than in the book of Joshua." Robert Smith Jr., Exalting Jesus in Joshua, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Brentwood, TN: Holman Reference, 2023), pp.3–4.

Serving & Celebrating with our community at the Onion Fair

The last two weekends of September we'll be at the Mezzolara di Budrio Onion Fair.

Italian history is full of harvest festivals, which have become the typical fairs of today' rural Italy, and which still provide a moment of community for families and friends at the end of summer. It is therefore common to see families with young kids enjoying good food and good music together, as well as parents and teenage children cooking and serving together at tables.

This reminds us of God's missional generosity, in the sowing and harvesting of both the produce of the earth and the Gospel of grace: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:10-11 

As a church family, we will be taking part in the Onion Fair in various ways: some serving at the tables, others enjoying dinner with family and friends at the food stall.

This is one of the many ways we want to serve and celebrate with our local community, make new friends and strengthen existing ones, live out and share the joy of the Gospel!

Joint Service for the Beginning of the School and Church Year

Tomorrow we'll have a Joint Sunday Service in Bologna, with these churches New Life, New Life Down Town, Strong Tower, and Anchor of Hope from Bologna; Alive in Him from San Lazzaro di Savena; The Market Square from Budrio; and New Hope from Casalecchio di Reno.

To mark the start of the new academic year, we will hear from Youth for Christ Italy, who work with teenagers, as well as IFES Italy and Campus Crusade Italy, who work with university students. This will be followed by a time of prayer dedicated to our young people.

Stefano will be preaching from Philippians 1:1–11, 27–30, exploring how, united in our missional identity as servants and saints in Christ Jesus, He sends us out as citizens of his Kingdom into schools and universities, working together across local churches as a single team for the defence and advancement of the Gospel in our region!

School Stationery Collection

Tomorrow we'll be present alongside other volunteers for the annual "School Stationery Collection": a solidarity collection initiative for school supplies organised by the Municipality of Budrio and the Subsidiarity Board, of which we are a member as church charity.

As a church family, we have been involved right from the very first edition of these wonderful community initiatives. The collected items will be distributed by the local council to support associations tackling school drop-outs and providing aid to families in need with school-aged children.

Sunday Service: Not why Jesus came! (John 3:1-21)

Tomorrow we'll have our morning service to worship God together and to proclaim His Word in Budrio.

 

As a church family, we will have three special Vision and Mission Sundays where we'll interact with the book: "Mission: Your place in God's plan for the nations" by Alan Purser, published by The Good Book Company.

Tomorrow we'll engage with Not why Jesus came! (John 3:1-21)

Why study mission? Mission is the heartbeat of the Bible. From the time of Adam and Eve’s rebellion until the promised new heaven and new earth, God is on a mission: to call rebellious people into a reconciled relationship with him. God’s plan to bring salvation to the ends of the earth was spelled out by his prophets in the Old Testament and proclaimed by his apostles in the New Testament. At the centre of this mission plan is God’s anointed Saviour King, the Lord Jesus Christ: it is Jesus who makes atonement for sin and who brings in the kingdom of God.
Our desire is that as church family we’ll be spurred on to engage in mission in our comunity; and we’ll be better equipped to support and pray for the work of mission in other cities and countries, as well as get a fresh grasp of God’s mission, and a renewed engagement in his plan for the nations.