Going Back To Italy…2009.

Many of you know that I was a part of a missions group that went to Italy last year.  (Slam it here to read about it.)  During that trip, sponsored by Bob Kilpatrick Ministries and featuring Randy Stonehill, we presented two concurrent worship conferences in both Rome and Naples.

One of the major problems we encountered in working with the churches there last time is that there are multiple translations of the primarily English worship choruses they use.  (In fact, there were almost as many translations as there were churches!)  This made it difficult for people from different churches to worship together.  This is in addition to their differences in theology, denominational practices (like women wearing head covering), and worship style.  (For more information on this, see my blog here.)

During that trip, Bob issued a challenge to the evangelical churches — to raise up Italian songwriters who would write the next generation’s worship songs.

So we’re going back to help make that happen.

I will be joining Bob and company on a second missions trip to Italy to produce a worship CD of original Italian material, featuring Italian songwriters and worship leaders.  We will fly in, set up multiple portable recording studios, and record as many tracks as we can, to be mixed down when we get back.

As Rick Dupea, another missions team member eloquently said:

“Our overall goal is to let the Italians find and express their own voice in worship: in church, in public, and in recordings that can go worldwide. What we really want to leave behind this year is a deeper experience in public ministry, and a passion to do more through the coming years.”

Of course, we will no doubt have public ministry as well, e.g., concerts, church services, etc.  But rather than just feature us, we hope to have some combined Italian/American bands playing the concerts together.  So we will have a pretty ambitious schedule ahead of us.

Our intent is to be in Italy from May 1-10 with some travel time before and after as well.  This gives us two weekends to minister in both Rome and Naples.  Of course, I will be trying to raise support for my trip and for other incidentals, including production costs, etc.  If you would like to support our trip, either with monetary support or with prayer, please let me know. THANKS!