Sunday afternoon service in Budrio - Acts 6:1-7

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have our Sunday Evening Family Time as core group of the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.






Stefano will lead this Family Time focused on God's Word.

We'll continue our series on the Book of Acts engaging with chapter 6:1-7
"A community of servants".

Together we'll see that the primary problem
in Jerusalem's church wasn't really the widows need, but the risk of disunity.

Then we'll see that the Spirit led solution proposed by the Apostles was towards building a responsible and committed "community of servants".

We'll see the complementary in the diakonia of the Tables and the diakonia of the Word, for the building up of God's people.


Are we all involved?
What is everyone calling and service, males and females,
in our Gospel Community in Budrio?

We'll see that we reflect our being in God's image, in the complementarity of our callings, gifting and ministry.


Our desire is to grow in our comprehension of the unity we have in Christ and our vision for reaching out the community of Budrio with a sense of the global reality of God's Kingdom.



We'll have a time of vision and prayer followed by a family bring&share meal together.




During this fellowship time we'll share for the first time the Lord's Supper to celebrate our union in Chrsit!

My Space Budrio - Club for teens

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have our My Space Budrio club to reach out local teens.

We'll interact with the YfC Rock Solid material following the theme: Count me in!




Together we'll explore the concept  of Community and we'll see how often,
even though you may be in a group or crowd,
you can still feel alone and sometimes even intimidated by other people which prevents you from feeling as though you really belong.
 



We'll play different games to illustrate this point such as:
Odd One Out! where young people are to spot from a list of names, which is the odd one out and why. We'll see that everyone, deep down, likes to belong to something. Being on the outside looking in can be very hard and frustrating.

Then we'll watch a clip from the movie The Maze Runner where we'll see what Thomas has to do to be part of the Gladers' Community.

Then we'll engage with Genesis 1:26-31 and we'll realise that it’s very natural to feel like we want to belong to a group because as human beings we are ‘designed’ that way.

We are made in the image of a relational God who is in perfect relationship with the three persons of the Trinity, who want to have a relationship with us and who put his Children in the community of the church, in order to reach the communities in which we live: school mates, friends, football teams, etc.

Please pray with us, that this will be a meaningful opportunity the Lord will use to call them.

We'll also say goodbye to Mim who in the 

end of January will leave us for a ministry opportunity in Mexico. 

We are sad to see her going, yet very thankful for the time she served with us, and excited to see how the Lord will use her!

First Baptismal Classes in Budrio!

This is a very excting week for us as church-plant in Budrio!

Indeed, tomorrow afternoon we're starting our first baptismal classes for Matteo and Maura, who are going to be baptised on Easter Sunday.

Tomorrow we'll look at the biblical texts to understand what is baptism and what does it mean for us to be baptised today.
In the light of Scriptures, we'll look at the issue of “rebaptism” or "first-time baptism", living in a Roman-Catholic country.
Please join us in praying for Matteo and Maura and their walk with the Lord!

Lunch meeting with Budrio's social workers

Tomorrow Stefano and Jonathan will have lunch with
Anna and Valentina, head of the social services in Budrio
and a social worker in charge of a few local families.

We are so encouraged by this incredible door the Lord is opening for our church-plant in Budrio.


Anna is enthusiastic of our presence in Budrio Community,
she's aware and appreciate the way in which we live out and proclaim the Gospel. Indeed last summer, she sent to our camp a kid from one of the families Valentina is looking after.
This kid is also fairly regularly coming to our My Space club.
So we'll love to develop an even deeper involvement with this family.

Join us in prayer for this meeting over lunch with Anna and Valentina, and that our involvement in the community will be marked by a spirit of true servant love and a clear Gospel presentation.

Fellowship service with San Lazzaro church

Tomorrow morning as
Impatto A Budrio church we'll have a fellowship service with the friends from San Lazzaro church.

Jonathan will preach at the morning service and after we'll have a fellowship lunch.

This will be a great opportunity to renew our fellowship with this church that has sent two families to be part of our church-plant, and to strengthen our common vision for the Gospel witness in the Bologna area!

Mid-week Bible Study - Gospel Change

Tomorrow evening we'll have our home-group mid-week Bible Study in Budrio.
We'll interact together with Unit 3:
Gospel change and faith of the module
Gospel Change from the Porterbrook course.

The goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29).
In this course we will learn how to apply the gospel to our everyday life.

It teaches Christians to connect the truth about God with our 'Monday-morning struggles'.
We will find out how change takes place as God’s truth is applied to the heart, and also how to effectively minster the gospel to those around us.

Meeting with the associations involved in social action in Budrio

Tomorrow afternoon as Impatto A Budrio church-plant we'll be at the second meeting organized by Budrio Town Hall with the associations involved in social action.

This round-table for subsidiarity was created in Budrio to implement the principle that when a local group, association or movement is able to perform a task well at the nearest level to the citizen needs, the local government should support their actions.

 
At the meeting will be present the vice-major Luisa and Giovanni, the new counsellor for social policies.
The main topic of the meeting will be the organisation of the second food-bank collection for the needy families in Budrio. 

We are very encouraged to be considered an active part in the community. Please pray that in all these opportunities we'll be able to serve with a Gospel attitude living out Jesus' love!

Impatto A Budrio volunteers at the 2014 food-bank collection in Budrio

 

Sunday Service in Budrio - Acts 5:17-42

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






We are glad for the Lord's provision of the main room in
Le Torri dell'Acqua, the theatre&modern art-gallery right at the centre of Budrio, well known as a cultural meeting point.

At 10.00 am we'll enjoy our family time together with a lovely breakfast.

we'll continue with Stefano our series on the Book of Acts.

Maria and Erica will lead the time with
the little ones engaging on the same topic,
looking together at Acts 5:42.

Stefano will preach from Acts 5:17-42.  
We'll engage with God's Word, seeing how in Christ we can Disobey to Obey and be Honoured in being Dishonoured!

Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men...
...Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. 

Acts 5:29, 41-42 (ESV)

Tomorrow, in following the pattern of Acts 1:8, we'll begin our service with a time of prayer characterized by thanksgiving and casting a vision for God's work in our community and globally.

We'll then begin to pray for "our home",

we'll intercede for the needs of our church-family,

for those unwell and in the spiritual and practical need.

Then we'll pray for "our neighbour", this week we'll pray for 

Budrio's TownHall and the social services,

who invited us to participate at the planning meeting 

for the next food-bank collection.

This is a great door to be present in the community living out the Gospel with Jesus' servant attitude!

Then we'll pray for "the end of the earth",
this week we'll intercede for France after the terrorist attack,
we'll pray for the families of the victims and of the terrorists.

We'll pray for the Acts29 church Eglise du Val D'Europe nearby Paris and their witness to their community in this moment.

We'll also pray for Kristin Gilmore who is soon leaving for a short-term experience serving with Arabian Gulf YfC.

My Space Budrio - Club for teens

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have our My Space Budrio club to reach out local teens.

Please pray with us, that this will be a meaningful opportunity the Lord will use to call them.

We'll interact with the YfC Rock Solid material following the theme: New Year, New Changes.

At the beginning of a New Year,
we expect that things may change in our lives,
yet some things can change for the good and some for the bad.
We'll see with kids how we also change constantly as we get older.
We change physically, but we also change mentally.
But the good news is that God is always with us and always the same!

Shakespeare had a theory that there are ‘Seven Ages of Man’: that we all go through seven distinct stages of life.
For Shakespeare, the seven ages of man were:
the infant,
the schoolboy,
the lover,
the soldier,
the judge,
the schoolmaster
and the old man!
But that was 400 years ago. We'll challenge kids to think what would the seven ages of man or woman look like today?

Then we'll all join "Bear Grylls Survival Academy"
and we'll imagine to be landed in a wild place.

What changes will we experience?
Will we cope when we’re going through drastic changes?
What tips would we give someone on how to handle change?

Then Jenny will share her experience
as a shy teen moving to a big high-school
and as an adult in moving to Italy.

In all these experiences God has been constant for her during a time of change.

Stefano will give a talk from Hebrews 13:8.
We'll see that when whatever else is changing, Jesus never does. He’s always there,
He always cares about us, and He can always help us with whatever we’re going through.
If we know Jesus, we’re never alone, and we’ll always have one thing in our lives that we can rely on to never change.
Change is here to stay, sure.
But Jesus is here to stay forever!

Bologna Pastor's Fraternal

This afternoon Jonathan and Stefano will attend the Bologna Pastors' Fraternal hosted for the very first time here in Budrio. We'll have time to share and pray for each others and our for churches. We'll also plan some common outreach events and joined services.



We are moving forward with the idea to adopt the
confessional statement and theological vision for ministry of The Gospel Coalition as defining documents for our network of churches in training and working together.

Sunday Evening Family Time

Tomorrow evening we'll have our bimonthly Sunday Evening Family Time as core group of the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.

Jonathan will lead this Family Time focused on God's Word followed by a time of vision and prayer.

We'll continue our series on the Book of Acts focusing on chapter 5:1-16.





Our desire is to grow in our comprehension of the unity we have in Christ and our vision for reaching out the community of Budrio with a strong sense of the global reality of God's Kingdom.

Part of this Family Time will be to enjoy fellowship with a bring&share meal together!

Sunday Service @ Nuova Vita Church

On Sunday morning we'll be with our
friends from Nuova Vita Church and
Stefano will preach from Philippians 1:1-11
at their new year service.  
 
 




We'll engage with God's Word, seeing how 
when every year we make "New Year wishes",
God is the one who always finishes what He has started!



"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."  

Philippians 1:6 (ESV)