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Go With the Flow |
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Summer is a very strange, and sometimes discouraging time in the life of our church. Many Italians take fairly long vacations out of town during the summer, especially during the month of August. The city is hot and humid, and most are at the beach trying to stay cool. And unfortunately attending a Celebration Service in a hot, third story meeting room isn't high on the list of priorities. So rather than fighting culture and stubbornly having our Celebration at 11 AM on Sunday, we've decided to go with the flow. Our service is moved to Sunday evening, and will be combined with our weekly Life Group meeting. We'll have one less event each week, and will be able to devote more time to be with people. We're going to encourage everyone to come as they are, in their beach clothes if they want to, and enjoy a relaxed time together. We're really excited about the little adjustment for our church, and hope that by adjusting our schedule to the culture's (rather than the other way around) the summer months could even be a time of growth. |
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(Almost) Everything We Do |
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At least once a year, sometimes twice depending on how many team members are in Ancona at the time, our team has a planning retreat. Sometimes in our homes, other times away from the city, we get together to dream and plan and pray and try and find God's path for us and for the church. There's lots of evaluating and lots of vision casting. We eat together, we sharpen and challenge each other, and sometimes we play silly games. We recently finished up our 2008 planning retreat. Out of these retreats comes a pretty important document called the FMP - Field Ministry Plan. This document sums up everything we do in the broadest of brush strokes. It doesn't list every detail or day-to-day task. We want it to be short enough that we read it often, which makes it easy to evaluate and see if we're still headed in the right direction. As with any plan, everything is subject to change if we sense God moving in a different direction. Please feel free to look our FMP over. We hope it gives you a glimpse of ministry in Ancona. |
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Launch |
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We're less than one week away from the launch of our new Celebration Service. There are several little details to be worked out, but everyone feels that the new service is going to go great. The other side of the new Celebration Service is our newly-revised Life Groups. We're looking forward to seeing how God uses these two revamped ministries. Please be praying, and make sure to check back for details after the launch! |
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Field Coordinator Visit 2007 |
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Our team's field coordinator, Wayne Meece, visited Ancona with his wife, Greta. We had a nice, encouraging time with them, talking through how the ministry is progressing, how the transition is going as the GoVerona team continues to move forward and regarding some of the latest organizational changes and updates from International Services, in Louisville. Thanks to Team Expansion for assigning each team with someone older and wiser to lead, pastor, and communicate with us! |
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Changes |
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In our planning meeting in August, one thing we all felt strongly about was the desire to tweak our Life Groups slightly. We want them to be just a bit easier to invite friends and family to. At the same time, we felt like the culture here may make it diffuclt for an Italian to see a bible study at someone's home as "church." As a result, beginning September 30th, we will beginning a weekly Celebration Service. Instead of meeting in our homes for a worship service, we will meet at our church's building, La Via . Then, during the middle of the week, our Life Groups will meet together for a more informal meal, some prayer, and perhaps a short discussion on what was discussed during the previous Celebration Service. Perhaps the most exciting part of this desicion, is how much our core Italian group was a part of this decision. Everyone was fully behind the new format, and in fact was eager to begin. We really felt God's leading. Please be in prayer for us, and especially be in prayer on September 30th. |
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