Simone Marini
Founding Pastor of the Biblical Church of Christ in Cagliari, Sardinia
Simone earned certificates in preaching, theology, biblical exposition, and counseling from the Italian Theological Academy (ATI), affiliated with The Master's Academy International. He served in Messina, Sicily, and then Rome, sitting on the ATI Board of Directors and overseeing publishing. Simone served as an elder at Messina Bible Church, helped plant a church in Rome, and now leads the Biblical Church of Christ in Cagliari.
The Marini family returned to Cagliari, Simone's hometown on the beautiful island of Sardinia, where the church was established with a team of two men. A former professional soccer player, Simone uses his many contacts in the sports world for evangelism and has devoted his life to pastoral ministry, training, and discipling men for the local church. He also founded L'Isola nel Cuore, an association fostering fellowship and collaboration among scattered churches across the island. Simone has been married to Adriana for three years; they have three daughters — Mia, Naomi, and Alma.
Read Simone's call to faith and ministry below.
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The beginning of the Biblical Church of Christ in Cagliari
PRAISE & PRAYER
- For our church: Pray for the planting and establishing of the Biblical Church of Christ in Cagliari, Sardinia. These have been months of great growth and fellowship for our entire church—months that have cemented our relationships and strengthened our unity. We hold Sunday worship services and Wednesday gatherings which are intentionally less formal to encourage non-believers to participate and allow us time after Bible study to eat together and enjoy fellowship. We are very encouraged, even as we long to see new conversions and are praying earnestly for this.
- For the island church network: We have formed a network of partner churches on the island with whom we maintain regular contact and hold meetings to edify and support one another. Although we have some doctrinal differences, the goal is to encourage and foster friendships and unity rather than divisions. This is the sad reality that characterizes the church throughout Italy. As believers, we are few in number but still quite divided. Please pray for this fellowship of churches, that God will bless our efforts and cause the Sardinian church to grow and to reach the lost.
- For our family: Please pray that our Lord will bless and keep our family—my wife, Adriana, and daughters Mia, Naomi Isabella, and Alma Grazia. Mia, our eldest daughter, is almost 14. Please pray that she can come to a personal faith in the Lord Jesus. She is listening and very gentle and respectful about faith. Pray that she will be protected from a school and social environment that is completely hostile to faith. I am so grateful to the Lord for the efforts my wife has made over the past year in devoting herself entirely to our home and our daughters, while I have divided my time between home, church ministry, and a secular job to provide for our family financially. We are so grateful for the Lord’s grace and providence throughout this time.
- For our evangelism: Four people have been attending our services for several months now, asking important questions about their faith, but have not yet made a public confession. Pray for their salvation and that they may join our church. Their names are Geremy, Milagro, Amir, and Consuelo. Pray also for the connections we’re making with children and their families through sports. We’re currently in a sports-themed summer camp with about fifty children ages 4 to 13. It’s having a great impact, and the parents, once skeptical, now (thank God) see their children in a healthy, supervised environment where they have fun while maintaining order and respect. This is breaking down the barriers adults put up when we say we’re evangelical Christians. Pray that we can overcome those prejudices and have liberty to preach the gospel to non-believers.
- For the publishing house: Through our association with Biblical Ministries in Mission, we have launched a publishing house dedicated to translating Christian books that will be a resource for churches. In December 2025, we released our first translated work, titled Preparing for Eternity, by Mike Gendron. It is very useful for preaching the Gospel to those who are enslaved by the errors of Roman Catholicism. Please pray that this important publishing ministry will continue and have an impact in Italy.
- For Simone: Finally, pray for me. Pray that the Lord will grant me wisdom to lead the church and to prepare and train the other two men who work alongside me and aspire to be future elders. They are faithful men and are a great help to me in my ministry. Pray also that I will not neglect my primary mission—my family. I know that the results of ministry belong to the Lord and that it is up to us to be faithful and rely on His strength. But sometimes, overwhelmed by so many commitments, it is easy to lose sight of this.
CALL TO FAITH & MINISTRY
LIFE BEFORE CHRIST
My name is Simone Marini, and I'm a former professional soccer player. My life was soccer. For as long as I can remember, soccer has always been my reason for living, and I was very talented from a young age. At the age of 17, this talent led me to make my professional debut in what was then considered the most competitive league in the world: Italian soccer. From there, money, independence, and even public recognition began. What seemed like the beginning of a glorious career soon turned into a downward spiral that had little to do with sport, but was marked by immorality, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and casual sex. It was the classic story of a wasted talent who nevertheless continued to proudly pursue earthly pleasures.
AN UNEXPECTED WITNESS
At age 30 and toward the end of my career, I returned to play in my homeland, Cagliari, Sardinia, after 13 years of wandering. At the time, I was living with a Brazilian girl who told me her father was a Pastore. I had no idea what a Pastore was, and I no longer believed in anything or anyone except myself. I was disillusioned with life, having experienced firsthand the baseness of the human soul. At the time, my girlfriend had to return to Brazil to care for her father, so she left me free and happy to do what I thought best.
But it was precisely during that time away that I found myself on a team with a believer. We traveled to training with three other guys, but I had no connection with him, as he never joined in our conversations about women, wild nights, and gambling. One day, I found myself alone with him on the trip because everyone had been sick. I felt a bit awkward, not knowing what to talk about. I remember him mentioning his Bible reading (which was very unusual for me), so to get the conversation started, I told him that my girlfriend had read it and that I, too, intended to read it someday.
A few days later he gave me a Christian calendar, the kind where you read a verse followed by a short story or explanation. I remember starting to leaf through it when coming home drunk after a night of excess. When I woke up the next morning, the words of the verse I'd read the night before would come back to mind, and my curiosity about the Bible grew.
I went back to my teammate to ask for further explanation. He told me he was participating in a small Bible study. I asked to join, and then he also gave me a Bible. I continued my normal life, however, and from time to time I'd open my Bible at random, as if it were a magical book, reading little passages here and there. I didn't understand much, but there was always something that struck me.
CONVICTION & CONVERSION
I also attended a few Bible studies with my teammate, but with the sole intent of finding error in the people who brought the message. I constantly interrupted with questions, but people always responded with biblical references. My biggest problem was with the Catholic priests and clergy because I knew how hypocritical they were. Not knowing the Bible, I justified myself by thinking that if God considered those people righteous and approved of them, then it meant that He didn't really know how things were and that there was no justice in God. Therefore, I was not accountable to Him or anyone else.
But when I found myself reading in the letter to the Romans that “There is none righteous, not even one” (Ro 3:10), in an instant I realized that God was not as I thought. He saw things righteously and objectively, and my justification before Him was no longer acceptable. Now it was clear to me that I had a serious problem before this God because of the life I was leading; I began to wonder how He could forgive a sinner like me who had mocked Him for years.
This paved the way for me to receive the gospel shortly thereafter. It was so clear and sweet to understand that what I could never have done to save myself from God’s just wrath for my sin, He had already accomplished through the work of Christ on the cross (Rom. 3:23-26). I thank the Lord for the answer my teammate gave me to the question I asked him after realizing this. I asked, “Now what do I have to do?” He replied, “Nothing, you don't have to do anything, you just have to believe in what He has done.” I felt completely freed from my sins, as if a boulder that was weighing me down had been lifted from me.
A TRANSFORMED LIFE
My life changed completely, almost overnight. This entire process took just over three months. I began talking to everyone about my faith, and even my family thought I was crazy or that my conversion was another of my eccentricities. I abandoned all my sinful habits and suddenly found myself alone because my friends were mostly companions in my vices. But shortly thereafter, through my testimony the Lord attracted another teammate of mine who converted. And now, after 10 years, he is joining me in planting a church in Cagliari.
MINISTRY FORMATION & VISION
The Lord gave me a hunger for His Word and a growing desire to serve Him. I moved to Sicily to begin my studies at the Italian Theological Academy to prepare myself for pastoral ministry while serving the church and being discipled.
Now I find myself back where I started—in Cagliari—with a never-ending desire to establish a doctrinally sound church. Our hope and prayer is that more healthy church plants may be founded on Sardinia in the future, as the witness on the island is truly weak and superficial, and there is a great need to overcome the difficulties pastors face in preaching the Gospel. Yet when I look back and think about what the Lord has done in these 14 years, I can only describe it with one word: grace!