From Tomorrow until Thursday, Stefano and other pastors from Italy, will attend the Acts29 WE conference Ignition: Planting Churches in Western Europe.
The goal of this conference is
to offer a two day gathering to encourage, stimulate and equip church planters in
Western Europe, and a chance to hear
the vision of Acts29 in Western
Europe and connect with existing Acts29 church planters.
The main speakers will be Steve Timmis, Director of Acts 29 Europe and one of the elders of The Crowded House in Sheffield
and Richard Coekin, chairman of the London Men’s Convention and Senior Pastor of the Co-Mission network of churches in SW London.
In the conference we'll have sessions on Bible reading: Colossians, on Covenant Renewal - Going Global, on Continental Shift? and on Where to from here?
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 be fully pleasing to Christ",
we'll engage with Colossians 1:3-20.
To introduce this sermon, we'll ask ourselves:
Why if daily we ask our Father to give us our daily bread, we do not equally ask daily to be filled with the knowledge of his will, to fully pleasing to Christ, and to bear fruit in Him?
These will be the headings of the sermon:
1. A prayer to be fully pleasing to Christ
2. A prayer to be strengthened in Christ
"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Tomorrow afternoon we'll have a meeting of the YfC Italia staff in Bologna to plan some of the activities for this year.
We'll start planning the coming Thanksgiving week from Monday the 25th to Saturday the 30th. In these day we are invited in schools where we have already been for other projects, but also for the first time in a middles school and for 2 whole days in the High School in Budrio who booked us for every 1st and 2nd year classes.
The goal of our presentation of the history of the American Thanksgiving is to challenge students to think and discuss
about the meaning of thankfulness for today. This year we'll have with us a team from Texas with Agape Italia (Campus Crusade), and they will have an opportunity to share the ways in which they are thankful to God.
Later on, with Susan from Forte Torre Church and
Mark from Nuova Vita Church,
we'll start to plan the summer camp Exch@nge, exploring the exciting idea to organise more than one camp in the Bologna Area!
Tomorrow evening we'll start in San Lazzaro Church a new series of Bible Studies on the book Habakkuk for the monthly House Groups we run in three homes.
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.
This year the IDOP 2013 is organized in Bologna by Nuova Speranza Church and Sasso Marconi Church,
and we expect that many other Christians from the area
will join us for this prayer meeting.
Believers in countries such as Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria,
Pakistan and Vietnam face violence, imprisonment and even death because
of their faith. There are other places in the world such
as North Korea where acts of persecution take place, but we don’t see
or hear of it. IDOP is a time set apart for us to remember thousands of our
Christian brothers and sisters around the world who suffer persecution,
simply because they confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
This year our focus includes the plight of Christians in India, who
are suffering increasing persecution by militants who want a Hindu-only
India. Please watch the Free to Follow video
Tonight Tina, Elisabetta & Jenny will lead the Titus 2 Ladies Groupof San Lazzaro church, starting a new Bible studies series on women from the Old Testament. Tonight they'll look at the life of Deborah and her faith in Jesus.
The goal of this group is to challenge women from the church to
encourage one another in the fear of the Lord and to learn to be
missional in their workplaces, homes and families!
We are really encouraged by Elisabetta's help since she is taking over Jenny's leading role in the Titus2 group while we are devoting more time towards the starting of Budrio church-plant.
Elisabetta Brown (Lizzie) is an Italian missionary working alongside her English husband Chris for GBU (IFES) to reach out uni students in Bologna and they are both members of San Lazzaro church
Tomorrow we'll be in Nuova Vita Church, one of the biggest evangelical churches in Bologna.
Nuova Vita is one of the four churches we are partnering with for the training project Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.
We are also doing together the YfC My Space club for teens and the summer Exch@nge camp.
Nuova Vita is also the church we are partnering with for the Acts29 church-plant in Budrio.
Tomorrow morning Stefano will preach on John 14:1-17. To introduce this passage we'll interact with the question: "What makes "home" a house?" Then we'll answer to these two questions which will be our points:
1. Lord, how can we know the way? (Thomas)
2. Lord, can you show us the Father? (Philip)
Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". John 14:6 (ESV)
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 Forte Torre Church and we expect
about 15 students.
We'll continue with the first and second module of the 1st volume advanced course.
The first module is Living the Cross and Resurrection,
led by Stefano.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
7. Life to die
8. Resurrection promise
9. The Kingdom of God is at Hand- Eschatology and Mission
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.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
7. The method established - a people
8. Failure and remedy - one man for a people
9. The story continues - a people
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.
In November we'll start in San Lazzaro Church a new series of Bible Studies on Habakkuk for the monthly House Groups.
Tomorrow afternoon we'll meet with the six leaders of these groups to look together at the book of Habakkuk.
We'll look at the main message of the book,
at how Habakkuk fits with the whole Bible story and
how Habakkuk presents us Jesus.
For these studies we'll use 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.
Stefano will preach in the morning on Hebrews 12:1-3
"Christ the founder and perfecter of our faith".
Then we'll join the church for their monthly fellowship lunch, and this it will be a great opportunity to share their lives and to pray for them.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted."
Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV)
Friday, 25 October 2013
Tomorrow evening Youth for Christ Italia is organizing in Bologna a concert to reach out teens.
Special guest will be the Italian Christian rapper Shoek,
who has a really touching story of conversion. Thomas was born in a rehabilitation centre because both his parents were drug addicts, then his mother abandoned him to go back to heroin. He became a drug user too and there is where Chris found him and saved him.
Now Shoek is married and a father and goes around Italy sharing his testimony and presenting Jesus' redeeming power to young people.
Tomorrow evening we'll have our monthly
Home-groups Prayer Meeting.
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 specifically for the ministry of Percorsi Campus Bologna, part of the international training programme offered by the Porterbrook Network. We started the 1st year of the advanced course with 15 students from four churches. Stefano is part of the team of four tutors from the same four churches. Join us in praying God to bless and protect this fellowship we are enjoying with these churches.
Tomorrow evening Stefano will continue
the series
of mid-week Bible Studies on "Ecclesiastes: A question to which Christ is the only answer"
preaching
from Ecclesiastes 5:1-7. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.
Ecclesiastes 5:1 (ESV)
To introduce this study we'll interact with our understanding of what we dowhen we go to
the "house of God" and how this expresses a correct Fear of the Lord.
It's just a matter of what we wear?
If you are invited to visit the queen,
you dress up adequately...
...but if you are the prince and you live everyday with the queen, how you should dress up?
So what it is and how do we express a proper Fear of the Lord, since "God is the one you must fear" Ecclesiastes 5:7 (ESV)
Tomorrow from 3.30 to 7.00 pm
we'll have the plenary session for
students of the advanced years of Porterbrook - Bologna Campus.
This meeting will be held in San Lazzaro Church and we expect
about 15 students.
We'll start with the first and second module of the 1st volume advanced course.
The first module is Living the Cross and Resurrection,
led by Stefano.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
4. The life of the cross
5. The pattern of the cross
6. Power to be weak
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.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
4. The story begins - creation
5. The plot thickens - fall and fall out
6. The characters revealed - one man and a people
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.
For the Character module we'll watch and interact with these two videos:
Tomorrow with Ebenezer
the cultural association of San Lazzaro Church, we'll help
at San Lazzaro Solidale,
(San Lazzaro Care)
the food bank project
promoted by the Town Hall.
Alongside many volunteers from various associations of
San Lazzaro we'll be present with stands in front of every supermarket of San Lazzaro to collect food for the needy
in this town.
It is the very first time that as a church we are invited to participate at these kind of projects, so please pray for wisdom and vision in testifying Christ in these practical ways both to shoppers and other volunteers.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between
Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, "Till now the
LORD has helped us." 1 Samuel 7:12 (ESV)
Video in Italian about the last food collection in San Lazzaro
Tonight Stefano will attend the Bologna Pastor's Fraternal hosted in Forte Torre Church.
We'll have time to share and pray for each others and our churches, and to plan joint activities such as the coming IDOP (International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church) also known as "Suffering Sunday" and the 2014 Bologna Bible School.
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 grow and bear fruit for Christ",
we'll engage with Philippians 1:1-11.
To introduce this sermon, we'll ask ourselves:
Do we find it logical to say that because
God is at work in our lives, we are responsible to work in response to His work in us?
These will be the headings of the sermon:
1. A prayer to grow in Christ
2. A prayer to bear fruit for Chrsit
"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
The main speakers will be Steve Timmis, Director of Acts 29 Europe and one of the elders of The Crowded House in Sheffield 
