MAY 2023
Rev. Vincenzo Coluccia (left), myself, and Rev. Mike Cuneo (right)
Dear prayer companions,
We are grateful to God for your constant support in so many encouraging ways and for your enthusiasm for the witness of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia. In the last couple of months, we have had a number of gracious encouragements, not least the joy for me as a pastor to start preaching through the book of Psalms. What a comfort praying the Psalms as the voice of Christ (vox Christi), as the voice regarding Christ (vox de Christo), and as the voice to Christ (vox ad Christum)!
Attending the Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference
In April, Rev. Vincenzo Coluccia (Lecce), Rev. Mike Cuneo (Passignano sul Trasimeno), and I attended the Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference in the UK. About 350 men gathered together for four days to give thanks, make intercessions, and attend to the exposition of the Word of God in order to learn to be better ministers of the new covenant. I was particularly comforted and challenged by two addresses on “Why Public Worship Is To Be Preferred to Private Worship”, from Psalm 87:2, “The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob”. (See Banner of Truth’s article, Public Worship is to be Preferred to Private Worship).
Meeting with evangelical Pastors in Perugia
Recently, Rev. Cuneo and I met with three missionaries from the US who are laboring in Perugia by leading and planting Baptist churches. A couple of these men spent many years in Perugia and the third has been laboring in the area since 2015. Our meeting lasted for two hours and we had an encouraging conversation about the spiritual needs of this area. We had the joy of spending time in intercessory prayer for our region and for the witness of Christian churches in these difficult areas. Hopefully, we’ll start having a monthly or bi-monthly fraternal meeting to encourage one another through some study of theology and church history followed by a time of prayer.
Meeting of the Elders of the Communion of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in Italy
From April 30 to May 3, the delegates of our churches met in Perugia to continue the work for the formation of our Italian denomination of reformed churches. Rev. Mike Brown from Milan preached in the evening service to open our time together. On Monday morning, we did consider a number of matters and in the afternoon, we met for discussion with the delegates of a Presbyterian church in Northern Italy that has shown some interest to join our communion of churches. On Tuesday, we worked and deliberated on various things and continued to expand our Italian Church Order on Wednesday. It was evident that the Lord gave us a measure of wisdom and we pray that we may remain open to that gift from above in the days ahead (James 3:17).
Teaching on Preaching
At the beginning of 2023, I contacted evangelical ministers in Perugia inviting them to meet as colleagues and fellow laborers. On February 6, we had 14 people gathered together in our church building and I took the opportunity to give each of them a free copy of Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon by Brian Chapell, which is available in Italian. Following that, one Pentecostal church organized a meeting in early May to discuss Christ-Centered Preaching and I was invited to speak to about 20 people for one hour about what is expository and Christ-centered preaching. It seems that there might be an open door for more meetings like this in the future and for more opportunities to humbly share the riches of Reformed theology with other ministers and churches in our area.
Please, pray with us for the following prayer requests:
for Cristina and myself, and that I may be a faithful Christian, husband, father, grandfather, church member, and minister;
for the blessing of God upon the preaching of the Word;
for the efforts being made to reach out to other evangelical pastors in our area;
for the evangelistic outreach of our church.
On behalf of all the members of the Chiesa Riformata of Perugia, I express a felt sense of gratitude for your faithful prayers and generous support. Those of Italy greet you (Hebrews 13:24) ☺
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Pastor Andrea Ferrari