News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

The false spring has arrived, as it often does around this period. So we have a few days of sun and relative warmth, and have been taking advantage of it after a several months of mostly indoor activities. So yesterday for example there was a trip to the snow, which is always great when the sun is shining as well.

In the church, there is the annual meeting coming up next Sunday. Always a good time reflecting on God’s work in us in the past year, and talking about where we want to go with God’s leading. I am also busy with ECM business in this period, with a Skype meeting last week and one for each of the next two weeks with some of the leaders of the mission. Being the “secretary” of these groups means that I have also some work before and after these meetings to prepare them and get their decisions implemented.

This afternoon there was a two hour training conference for the churches of Trento and Rovereto. Tim Chester, director of The Porterbrook Institute, church planter in Sheffield and author of over a dozen books, was in Italy for a few days, and we managed to get him to come to speak to us on missional church, missional life style and missional leadership. There was a very good turnout from the churches, and what was said and discussed was helpful for us individual and as two churches. Of course, this commitment to training (both from the leadership of the church and from the members) is a good part of the reason why we have so many people in leadership, as I mentioned in my post last week. And I thank God for the many opportunities that we get to have important international speakers and writers to come to us, even if we are only a medium sized church. Now, if we could get just as many people to our prayer meetings, that would be good for the life of the church as well – we are not so good at that.

During the week, there was a training and coordination meeting for all the group leaders – the five Bible study groups, the four “specialized” groups (Youth, Young Adults, university students, English language) and the three Sunday School classes. I was a bit surprised when I counted them all, and arrived at 23 people. And then there is the same number again serving in other ministries in the church: welcoming, preaching, Sunday School assistants, prayer, music, our social-cultural association, and son on. Half the church mobilised for ministry in some way. When I started coming to the church, there were not even 23 people attending. So I am grateful to God firstly for the vision of the church to create an organic and flexible structure rather than institutional and hierarchical (which is what the church elder spoke about in the training part of the meeting, to remind us all of this and especially the many new leaders there are now) and to equip people to take on new responsibilities, and secondly that he has been sending people to the church who have been able to serve the church in many ways. I believe, and have seen it many times, that if God wants a church to undertake a ministry, he will provide all the resources necessary, including the people.