Mission Milan Newsletter June 2023

The Priority of the Local Church
A biblical, local church usually does not appear spectacular to the world. In fact, in a land like Italy, where massive Roman Catholic cathedrals dot the horizon in every direction, it can seem rather insignificant. Each week, a small congregation gathers together in a little building and does basically the same thing: pray, sing, listen to a sermon, receive the Lord’s Supper, and spend some time together afterward. There are no fireworks, no concerts, and no celebrity personalities. It is simple and ordinary.

And yet, these simple and ordinary means of Word, water, bread, and wine are what the Lord of eternity has chosen to assemble his elect, receive their worship, nourish their faith, and bind them together as a community rooted and established in love. The local church is nothing less than a manifestation of the kingdom of God, and the place where heaven and earth meet.

Jesus said that the coming of his kingdom is like the growing of a tree (Luke 13:18–19). A tree doesn’t grow by big and marvelous events but through the slow, steady diet of sun and rain, year after year. The same is true with the kingdom of God. More often than not, it does not grow by what the world considers a mark of success: big buildings, big budgets, and big names. Instead, it grows in simple and often small services where Christ is proclaimed from all the Scriptures. It grows where believers and their children are baptized into the covenant community. It grows where repentant sinners come to a holy meal that appears tiny and insignificant. It grows where ordinary members of a congregation learn to love, forgive, and serve one another. It grows in those late-night, unglamorous meetings of the elders as they seek to tend faithfully to Christ’s sheep.

If biblical Christianity is to thrive and survive in Italy, it needs more local churches that are committed to the way disciples have been made since the Apostles planted a church in Jerusalem two thousand years ago: the slow-going, ordinary ministry of Word and sacrament, where God is raising dead sinners to life and creating a living communion of saints. Please join us in prayer, asking the Lord to send laborers into his field of the harvest to plant churches that faithfully preach the Word, administer the sacraments, and provide pastoral care.

Ordinary Means of Grace.
In our Sunday morning worship service, I am still preaching through the book of Exodus, currently in the section on the Tabernacle. For many in our church, this is the first time that they have heard preaching on this part of the Bible and how Christ is the fulfillment of the Tabernacle and Levitical priesthood. Seeing Christ in the Old Testament is a particular blessing to the believer, as we see how all of Scripture is ultimately p about Him. Please pray that we as a congregation will continue to grow in our love for Jesus and his Word, so that more and more we will seek our joy and sense of identity in Him, and long to see his fruit in our lives.

In our catechism service, we are still going through the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The ladies’ fellowship recently finished a study of the book Rediscover the Church: Why the Body of Christ is Essential, by Jonathan Leeman, and the men’s fellowship finished a study of R.C. Sproul’s classic, The Holiness of God. Please pray that more books like these will be made available in Italian. There is a great need to translate solid Christian and Reformed literature so that the saints in Italy can be equipped.