About
Italy for Christ, Inc. was founded in 1983 on the initiative of Dr. Gaetano Sottile, who is the President and of his wife Sondra. The prefixed goal, since its birth, is to pierce into the Italian culture with the Christian values of the Gospel, through evangelistic crusades, conferences, retreats, literatures, TV and radio programs.
IFC’s Mission Statement
The mission of Italy for Christ is to Present the Gospel of Christ to every Italian in this generation, in cooperation with the local churches and also:
- To preserve fellowship and mutual recognition of all evangelical Christian churches, acknowledging their complete autonomy with regards to internal matters;
- And to establish and coordinate the reinforcement of social and religious projects and institutions having as their goals evangelism, instruction and diffusion of the evangelical culture, assistance and charity;
- To encourage the planting of new local churches in Italy;
- To represent Italy for Christ and our affiliated organizations to the Italian State and other parallel agencies;
- To entertain and maintain positive relationships with other national and international religious organizations.
Dr. Gaetano (GUY) Sottile, born in Messina Sicily in 1956,
Guy came to the Lord in 1979 through the ministry of Dr. Stephen Olford who became also his spiritual father.
Guy graduated in theology and social studies from Columbia International University in 1979. He received the award as “Alumni of the year” for the year 2002.
In 1983 he founded Italy for Christ of which he is the President, with offices in Atlanta (GA/USA) and Rome (Italy).
Dr. Sottile is also the General Secretary of the Italian Coalition of Evangelical Churches (ACCEI), with more than 200 churches throughout Italy, working for the recognition of these churches by the Italian State.
He was also, from 1997 to 2002 President of the Italian Evangelical Alliance (AEI), Italian branch of the World Evangelical Fellowship with more than 150 million of members in 162 nations of the world.
Since 1999, Dr. Sottile organizes the Spiritual Convivium in the Italian Parliament, with the purpose of promoting the Christian values among the political leaders of Italy. The Convivium organizes every year the Dies Memoriae, with the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, with the participation of the President of the Chamber and many Italian ministers and ambassadors.
Many Italian political leaders have been introduced by Dr. Sottile at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, where every year, from more than 50 years, there is a prayer breakfast with the President of the United States of the America.
Dr. Sottile is present on more than 50 radio networks, with the daily 90 seconds program (from Monday to Friday) Focus on the Family, with an audience of more than 1,650,000 listeners.
In the business world Gaetano Sottile is present with the weekly “Monday Manna”. It reaches by e-mail, businessmen, through meditations with a biblical relevance in the business world.
Dr. Sottile is the host of the TV program STRAIGHT TO THE HEART, on ODEON TV every Friday at 9:00pm with a share of over 500.000 watching.
Dr. Sottile is Country Coordinator for EQUIP MLM and was awarded by John Maxwell as the Country Coordinator for EUROPE in 2008.
From 2012 Dr. Sottile is member of the John Maxwell Team as a speaker, coach and teacher, and used this role to bring many business and political leaders to a personal relationship with Christ!
Since 2013 Italy for Christ represents ONEHOPE ministry in Italy and through the distribution of their literature in the public schools has reached over 1.7 million students with the message of the Gospel.
In 2017 Dr. Sottile becomes the first evangelical teacher at the Pontificia Università Lateranense (www.pul.va), known as the University of the pope!
In 2018 Dr. Sottile starts the GLA- Guy Leadership Academy (www.guyleadershipacademy.com) training and coaching hundreds of emerging leaders.
Since 2019 Dr. Sottile leads the Rome-Hub of the Global Church Network, uniting the italian churches in finishing the Great Commision.
Dr. Sottile has taught on world evangelization, Church planting, psychology, leadership, communications and family life.
Dr. Sottile has taught in Switzerland, France, Spain, Holland, United Kingdom, Austria, Poland, Serbia, Check Republic, Germany, Malta, South Africa, Singapore, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Bahamas, Libya, Canada and 42 States of the United States of America.
Dr. Sottile is recognized as one of the most influential Christian leaders in Italy, having led thousands to the Lord, trained hundreds of pastors and Christian leaders and mentored key public figures in Italy and Europe.
His passion focuses in Evangelism, Leadership development and church planting!
Dr. Sottile is married to Sondra for 39 years, who is the director of the appreciated magazine “From Woman to Woman” and Senior Producer of the TV program STRAIGHT TO THE HEART. He is father of Jennifer (36) and Naomi (33) and grandfather of Nicholas (10), Mauro (5), Siena (2), Marcello and Grant (1)
