Johnny Gravino
Founding Pastor, Church Plant in Northern Rome
Johnny earned his MDiv and ThM degrees from the Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles. He has since served in both Sicily and Rome as director of the Italian Theological Academy (ITA), a TMAI training center dedicated to training pastors throughout Italy. Johnny has also shepherded local church plants in both Sicily and Rome.
The Gravino family is relocating to north central Rome to pioneer a church plant. Johnny will focus exclusively on evangelizing, pastoring, and training through his church. He is married to Alexandra, his partner in life and ministry for over 25 years. They have three children, Samuele, Maddalena, and Giuliano.
Read Johnny’s call to faith and ministry below.
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Our Promise To You
LifeGate is committed to fostering strong, self-supporting churches by keeping financial support proportionate to the local economy. We encourage churches to take responsibility for their own pastors and ministry needs. Churches able to stand on their own are churches that endure.
Thank you for your love, prayers, and support!
PRAISE & PRAYER
- Please pray for our family as we settle into our new home and ministry in Rome! Giuliano, our youngest, starts school again in Italy after being away for a year. Pray that he adapts quickly without falling behind.
- Samuele, our oldest, is living in the Atlanta area. Pray for Samuele’s continued faith and growth both in the Lord and in his new life in Georgia. We love hearing from him, and by God’s grace, he is thriving both spiritually and work-wise. We are so thankful! Pray that this continues!
- Ministry-wise, we have been in touch with the families from our former church plant, whom we wish to join us as we begin the hard work of church planting. We would like to begin meeting as soon as possible in September. Pray for this group.
- We now live in a small residential community on the north side of Rome. The Lord has already given us numerous opportunities to witness for Christ. It’s just wonderful! Our neighbors are very friendly and sincerely curious to know who we are and why we’re here. They seem genuinely appreciative to have us in their midst. What grace! Pray that our evangelism will be fruitful.
- Pray for ministry opportunities. A few have come my way based on past relationships and ministry. A group of former church members and disciples in Sardinia would like me to be involved with them as much as possible. A church in northern Italy, and one in the south, would also like me to assist in their own ministries. Please pray for focus and wisdom to understand where the Lord would have me spend my time.
- Lastly, pray for me. I am anxious to begin doing the work of ministry again. Yet I realize that I must trust the Lord for His strength and guidance to grow the ministry in His time.
CALL TO FAITH & MINISTRY
I was raised in Canada to an Italian family and grew up Roman Catholic. The gospel was introduced to our family through my mother who was the first to come to saving faith. I was 16 at the time. The Lord eventually humbled me and brought me to repentance and faith when I was 25.
Shortly after my salvation, I traveled to Italy on a 21-day ticket. I was a new believer of just a few weeks, and the Lord had other plans for me. I did not go back. Needless to say, it's been 25 years since that 21-day ticket, and I am still in Italy serving the Lord thankfully with my wife and children.
Now it’s one thing to go to Italy as a tourist; it's another thing to actually live there. Even though I had an Italian background and spoke the language, in Rome it's chaos—like everybody fending for themselves. That first year was really hard. I had a Canadian mindset wanting to go back. But I found work at the Canadian embassy, believe it or not, and really liked my job.
I met Alexandra and we were married. We were both attending and serving at the Chiesa Berea (Berean Church of Rome). That led to a desire to attend The Master’s Seminary in the States.
MINISTRY FORMATION
It was there that God taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life through an unexpected source— custodial work.
As an international student unable to work off-campus, I was directed to the custodial department for employment. Initially, I saw this as merely a way to earn income. But I was handed a mop, I was handed a vacuum cleaner, I was put on a crew. I thought, “What am I doing? I'm here to study God's word, I'm here to be a pastor, not to clean toilets!” So custodial became my first lesson in seminary because God used this experience to humble me and shape my character. God in His providence put me in that place to teach me to be a servant.
Custodial stretched me. It stretched me heart-wise because it worked on my pride. It stretched me life-wise because the pay was not a lot and I needed to make ends meet. It stretched me study-wise because I worried about my classes while working midnight shifts, setting up 50-60 different classrooms, and still working while my friends were studying. All that is experience that you bring to the mission field because the mission field is going to test you.
As my seminary years ended, Alex and I came to the conviction that we wanted to go back to Italy to serve Him there full time. We began to see Italy no longer as a vacation spot but as a mission field.
MINISTRY BEGINNINGS
After seminary, we returned to Italy and moved to the island of Sicily in 2009. There we served with a mission organization that had established a pastoral training center for Italian church leaders from across the country. For twelve years, we ministered in Sicily—first near Catania, where the training facility was located, and later in Messina, where I was called to pastor a bible church. So our children grew up in Sicily.
We later felt led to centralize our ministry in Rome, convinced it was time to work from a more strategic location. Along with the training, we planted a church called Imago Christi (Image of Christ) and continued the training ministry from Rome.
THE REALITIES OF MINISTRY IN ROME
We were tested in Rome. We were stretched. We were in a foreign culture—a hostile culture because Italians are either completely indifferent to the faith, or they persecute the faith. And they persecute the faith not in a sense of physical persecution - we don't face that - but the faith is constantly trampled on, ridiculed. If you're remotely trying to live according to the word of God, the Bible, you are looked at as a fool because the Italian is a Renaissance man. He is his own leader. He is not enslaved to any book. So the culture is deeply secular despite it being Catholic.
Then you have the predominance of the Catholic Church. You are surrounded by idolatry at an unbelievable measure. There are so many Catholic churches, full of statues, full of relics.
So as a missionary, you're entering this culture and the romanticism of missions is immediately removed. Now you're having to deal day-to-day with these kinds of people. Your children are growing up in this environment, and so you're praying that they will not be influenced by it. It is a difficult ministry road.
This is what I've learned over the years: No matter where you are, no matter how difficult the road, when you're in the will of God trials become surmountable by His grace because you know this is where you're meant to be. Then, God gives you a special love for the Italian people. You’re not necessarily disappointed by what you see in the culture, even though it is disappointing. You have a burden for that culture, and you're praying for the people, praying that the Lord will use you. And so you begin loving them.
FUTURE MINISTRY & VISION
As we return to Italy, we will be relocating to north central Rome to pioneer a new work. We return with leads and a few families waiting for us, but we’ll be starting from scratch. Our exclusive focus will be on church planting— loving, evangelizing, pastoring, and training those the Lord gives us. Pray that the Lord will lead us to the right relationships needed to build His church. Pray that from the small beginnings of a Bible study, a faithful team will develop that will grow step by step into a mature and fruitful church.