Reasons to praise God

This document was presented to the church on March 4, 2019. It is a text aimed at fostering a sense of belonging on a more phenomenological level.

1. I celebrate God because our church is the result of his merciful choice to save and redeem out-of-covenant sinners to lead them into the realm of his wonderful light.

2. I celebrate God because our church is committed not only to God but also to the community that he willed, realized and gathered through the effective work of the Holy Spirit.

3. I celebrate God because our church is proud to be part of a history that has had its witnesses and martyrs throughout the ages and passing through the Awakenings, the Reformation, the apostolic times, can feel part of the children of Abraham.

4. I celebrate God because our church is also located on a street named after Pietro Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) and is therefore committed to valuing all those who throughout time have spent their lives for the greater glory of God.

5. I celebrate God because our church each year mobilizes for "Remembrance Sunday," an institutional appointment of the Italian Evangelical Alliance to remember witnesses and martyrs for the faith in the past.

6. I celebrate God because our church seeks to come to terms with present history by reframing all of its experience before Him in the community and seeking to interact with what is happening daily in the world rather than ignoring or disqualifying it.

7. I celebrate God because our church seeks to focus its life and choices on God, whether it is worship, study, devotion, evangelism or witness.

8. I celebrate God because our church is marked by the fear of God by having a sense of His majesty and remains restless in seeking Him and depending on Him.

9. I celebrate God because our church is found in premises functional to a worldview in which the preaching of God's Word is central and everything else depends on it.

10. I celebrate God because our church attaches great importance to the faithful preaching of God's Word and is committed not only to fostering it but also to extending and applying it.

11. I celebrate God because our church practices the Lord's ordinances, baptism and supper as signs expressing the work of the Holy Spirit.It follows that the presence of grace is the cause and ritual the effect.

12. I celebrate God because our church practices baptism by immersion as an act of witness, faith and commitment and the Lord's Supper as an expression of remembrance, obedience and hope of those who have been saved.

13. I celebrate God because our church is committed to giving even financial resources, and every believer contributes freely, liberally and joyfully.

14. I celebrate God because our church lives its worship in accordance with the simplicity of the universal priesthood of believers whereby each of the believers can express themselves in spirit and truth.

15. I celebrate God because our church encourages each person's participation in the exercise of his or her gifts according to the potential granted by God Himself in the various ministries for the common good, so that each may be edified and God honored.

16. I celebrate God because our church lives its life in a spirit of accountability so it is spontaneous to report absence at some of the various activities.

17. I celebrate God because our church feels united in prayer and fellowship when a member suffers or when they rejoice.

18. I celebrate God because our church heartily lifts up the various songs to God by emphasizing their contents thus reinforcing the truth it learns from God's Word.

19. I celebrate God because our church combines traditional songs and modern songs, both in praise and other activities.

20. I celebrate God because our church is committed to living all together in the various worship activities taking into account the presence of the various ages of people.

21. I celebrate God because our church shows real expectation for the preached Word and is committed to prolonging its consequences in daily life.

22. I celebrate God because our church is committed to cultivating true devotion through a life of prayer that manifests itself in mutual support as well as participation in the life of various prayer groups.

23. I celebrate God because our church is a place of edification, encouragement, and formation in a world that tends rather to discriminate, judge, demean and destroy.

24. I celebrate God because our church seeks to live out relationships with one another in a simple and meaningful way because it is aware that it has been called by God himself and thus also opens its home to such interaction.

25. I celebrate God because our church aspires to friendly relationships that can foster growth as individuals and as God's people.

26. I celebrate God because our church is not only committed to an inner and spiritual world, but also to the kingdom of God in its broadest sense so the goal goes beyond one church and aims for a broader mandate.

27. I celebrate God because our church encourages the multivocational growth of each person regardless of a predefined hierarchy but relating each commitment to God Himself.

28. I celebrate God because our church believes that there is no aspect of social, cultural, political, economic, educational, vocational, artistic and recreational life that escapes God's right.

29. I celebrate God because our church is aware that it is engaged in spiritual combat against principalities and powers, but it also knows that Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth.

30. I celebrate God because our church teaches freedom from idols such as superstition, liberalism, legalism, moralism and formalism and rather encourages what is real in Him.

31. I celebrate God because our church is a place of social inclusion whereby diversity of social class, cultural background, age, nationality and race are a manifestation of the polychromy of God's people and not elements of discrimination.

32. I celebrate God because our church is a place of cultural promotion whereby the study of Scripture contributes to making each person feel part of an extraordinarily rich and meaningful design.

33. I celebrate God because our church is not only committed to fulfilling God's mandate in its entirety, but is waiting for "the city that has the true foundation and whose architect and builder is God."

34. I celebrate God because our church sees men and women committed to serving without seeking their own self-interest.

35. I celebrate God because our church has families who desire to be present as such in the various activities even though this may require challenging choices for the different ages present.

36. I celebrate God because our church eschews all denominational provincialism and, commensurate with doctrinal agreement is committed to seeking opportunities for communion with all saints to embrace God's love.

37. I celebrate God because our church sees every believer engaged in seeking God's will for his or her life and seeking the counsel and accompaniment of existing ministries.

38. I celebrate God because our church carries out various community activities: worship, Bible study, prayer, evangelism, outreach, but it engages every believer for Scripture reading, prayer, evangelism and outreach.

39. I celebrate God because our church does not feel it has arrived at perfection and continues in intercession so that pastors, deacons and each one will grow in the knowledge of God and carry high the Word of life.

40. I celebrate God because our church reflects a multiplicity of nationalities that anticipates the great festive assembly that will one day be found in the presence of God himself.