Pizza or Serie A, tagliateli or Lazio, Juventus and AC Milan, Italy is probably best recognized in this country for food and football, but then, of course, there’s the culture, with Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michaelangelo, et al. Italy’s rich history has been followed by a turbulent 20th century and there have been 50 governments in 60 years. The Roman Catholic Church is no longer the state church and has lost members by the millions, Italians have turned to the New Age and the occult and there are now more magicians than priests.
Present Work
About 47 brethren missionaries work in Italy alongside many national workers. The Italian missionary group, OMEFI has developed recently to promote mission outside of Italy. The work includes:
Pioneer evangelism: church planting and evangelistic outreach, literature distribution (eg. Distributing a Gospel of John to every home in the Fuorigrotta and Pozzuoli areas of Naples), market bookstalls, personal evangelism.
Church based work: teaching, leading, training and discipling. Pastoral care and counselling, including visiting and encouraging lone Christians. Support of small assemblies.
Youth and children’s work: camp work, children’s classes, Sunday schools
Needs
Couples willing to work with Italian workers
Pastors
Bible teachers
Evangelists
Specific needs in Santa Maria a Vico, Procida, Sala Consilina
Statistics
Population 57,369,000
Principal cities Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Genoa
Languages Italian
% Evangelical 1.01%
Assemblies 230