Here’s what an native Italian missionary thinks about doing ministry in Italy
What changes when you stop asking, “What method works in Italy?” and start asking, “What is God already doing here?”
Fifteen years ago, before I came to Italy as a missionary, experienced leaders gave me some advice about what it would take to live and minister here.
Some of that advice sounded strange at the time.
Fifteen years later, I went back and revisited those five statements on the Mission Sicily Podcast. Then I asked an Italian missionary to respond.
My friend and ministry partner Stefano Longo serves Italians in northern Italy. He’s an evangelist and disciple-maker, and he’s also someone who has spent years navigating the space between Italian culture and the perspectives of people who come to Italy from somewhere else.
I wanted to hear what those same pieces of advice sounded like from inside Italian culture.
What came out of our conversation was bigger than a discussion about five old statements.
It was a lesson in cross-cultural ministry.
Learn the people before you try to change them
One of the most important things Stefano emphasized was that we sometimes use familiar words without realizing that other people hear something completely different.
Even the word “mission” can mean something very different in Italy than it does to an American missionary.
For some Italians, mission may immediately bring to mind preaching from a pulpit or handing out literature on the street. The idea of mission as everyday life—being present among people, building relationships, working in ordinary places, and living as a follower of Jesus in every sphere of life—may not be the first thing they think of.
The same can happen with words like church and disciple-making.
If we assume that everyone means the same thing we mean, we can spend a lot of time communicating without actually understanding one another.
Stefano’s answer was remarkably simple: go back to Jesus.
Learn the language. Learn the culture. Be among people.
Don’t assume that the way you have always described ministry is the way the people around you understand it.
Presence communicates before words do
Cross-cultural ministry isn’t only about what we say.
It is also about what our lives communicate.
Stefano talked about something as ordinary as housing. An American missionary may look for a particular kind of home because it makes perfect sense for an American family. But that same choice can communicate something very different to Italian neighbors.
We may think we’re simply choosing a house.
Our neighbors may be hearing a message about wealth, status, distance, or belonging.
That’s why incarnational ministry takes time. You aren’t simply learning how to translate your words into another language. You’re learning how your entire life is being interpreted by people who come from a different cultural framework.
For me, this connects directly to the advice I received fifteen years ago about credibility.
The original advice was essentially: don’t expect to have an authentic or credible voice among Italians until you’ve lived here for a long time.
Stefano agreed with the principle, although he questioned whether ten years is a magic number.
It isn’t.
The point is that trust takes time.
People eventually discover whether you are here to use them for your ministry—or whether you actually love them, their culture, and their community.
That can’t be manufactured.
Disciple-making isn’t simply teaching information
Another part of our conversation challenged some familiar definitions.
In many Christian contexts, “disciple-making” can sound like teaching a Bible study, taking someone through a curriculum, or transferring biblical knowledge from one person to another.
Stefano described something much more relational.
For him, disciple-making is life-on-life.
It happens in community. It happens around meals and conversations. It happens while serving, working, coaching, building relationships, and simply being with people.
That doesn’t diminish Scripture or teaching. Instead, it changes the context in which those things happen.
The same is true of church planting.
If church planting simply means finding a room, gathering people, and starting a service, we may be starting with the structure rather than the people.
For Stefano, healthy church planting begins with disciple-making and incarnation—being present in a community and helping people learn to follow Jesus together.
That distinction matters because a ministry model can be transferred very easily.
A healthy community of disciples cannot.
It has to grow in its own context.
Don’t bring an American template and expect Italy to fit it
One of the original pieces of advice I received was:
“We don’t need any more American churches here in Italy.”
After fifteen years, I understand that statement differently.
Stefano’s response was not that Americans aren’t needed.
Quite the opposite.
He talked about how much he values the Americans who have invested in his own life. His first encounter with Jesus came through an American who discipled him. He also acknowledged that many of the resources he uses come from America.
The issue isn’t American people.
The issue is American templates.
There can be tremendous value when Americans bring relationships, resources, experience, ideas, and a willingness to serve—and then put those things on the table alongside Italian believers who understand their own context.
That’s partnership.
The goal isn’t to make Italy look like America.
It’s to ask what following Jesus faithfully looks like here.
And that means Italians have something to contribute to Americans, too.
Cross-cultural ministry isn’t a one-way transfer of knowledge. Both sides can learn.
When methods become more important than people
That brings us to perhaps the most interesting of the five pieces of advice:
“Nothing works here—and everything works here.”
At first, that sounds contradictory.
But Stefano’s explanation made sense.
The problem comes when we become more committed to a method than to the people we’re trying to reach.
A particular approach might work for a season. Another approach might work with a different person. Something that was effective yesterday might not be the right approach tomorrow.
Jesus Himself didn’t seem trapped by a single formula.
Stefano pointed to the early chapters of John’s Gospel and the different ways Jesus interacted with different people. Jesus didn’t force every person into the same conversation.
He paid attention to the person.
He paid attention to the situation.
And He followed what the Father was doing.
That led Stefano to a question I think is worth carrying into any cross-cultural ministry:
“Father, what are You doing here?”
That is a very different question from:
“Which strategy should I use?”
One starts with a method.
The other starts with a person—and with God.
Partnership makes the difference
One of the things I appreciated most about this conversation is that it wasn’t really about an American missionary explaining Italy to an Italian missionary.
It was the opposite.
It was two friends who have been serving in different parts of the country trying to understand what they’ve learned together.
I’m in the far south.
Stefano is in the far north.
We’ve had different experiences, different cultural encounters, and different ministry contexts. But we’ve also learned that neither of us sees the whole picture by ourselves.
That’s one reason partnership matters so much in Mission Sicily.
I wouldn’t have made it through these years without Italian friends, ministry partners, churches, and people willing to challenge my assumptions.
And I don’t think cross-cultural ministry works particularly well when one culture simply arrives with all the answers.
We need each other.
Fifteen years later
Looking back, I’m increasingly convinced that the most important lesson wasn’t any one of those five pieces of advice.
It was learning how to listen.
Listen to the people.
Listen to the culture.
Listen to the local church.
Listen to your ministry partners.
And, above all, listen to Jesus.
Cross-cultural ministry requires humility because the things that seem obvious to us often aren’t obvious to someone else.
The words we use may mean something different.
The methods we’ve learned may not fit.
The structures we’ve inherited may need to change.
And sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is slow down long enough to discover what God is already doing among the people He has called us to love.
That’s part of what fifteen years in Italy has taught me.
And I’m still learning.
Listen to the conversation
In “15 Years Later: An Italian Responds,” Stefano and I revisit the five pieces of advice I was given before coming to Italy and explore them from the perspective of an Italian missionary serving Italians.
It’s a conversation about culture, credibility, disciple-making, church planting, partnership, and what it means to follow Jesus across cultural boundaries.
Listen to “15 Years Later: An Italian Responds” on the Mission Sicily Podcast.
And if you haven’t heard the previous episode, start with “15 Years Later: Were They Right About Italy?”—the conversation that set up these five questions in the first place.
Mission Sicily exists to make disciples, plant churches, and build bridges of hope in Italy.
