Pizza. Pasta. Art. Football. Cars. Fashion. Gelato. There is much to love about Italy, a long mountainous peninsula that dominates the central Mediterranean.
With sixty million people, Italy is the fifth-most populous country in Europe. Despite being home to the New Testament “church at Rome” and various Anabaptist and Protestant groups throughout history, Italy is still a country that desperately needs the gospel.
The Roman Catholic Church has its headquarters in Rome and continues to exercise much influence over the Italian people. 74% of Italians identify as Roman Catholics, though some studies have shown that at most 15% faithfully practice Catholicism. Other belief systems such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Satanism, and those with no religion abound.
Operation World estimates that only about 1.1% of the population are evangelical! The North American Mission Handbook records a drastic decline of Baptist missionaries from North America, from 57 in 2003 to only 16 in 2009!
Despite the challenges, Italy remains a strategic place for gospel outreach for the following the reasons:
Please pray for laborers to be ready like Paul “to preach the gospel to [the people] that are at Rome also” (Romans 1:16).
Pray for church planters to plant churches in the following urban areas in Italy:
If you are interested in mission and church planting work in Europe, get in touch with Vision Baptist Missions.
(Much of the information in this article was taken from Wikipedia.)