"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald.   Now, this might disqualify 50% of humans beings, as my wife keeps reminding me: 

"Church has changed since you were a kid."   This was the slogan of a church plant a mate of mine, Darrell Bierman, planted in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada( www.rivercitychurch.org ).   And this church was different.   Church has changed!  Not the gospel, but the way churches do ministry.  

"What a week this has been!" wrote Doug Birdsall, Executive Chair of The Lausanne Movement.   "Over the past seven days the unity, diversity, and vitality of the worldwide Church have been on dramatic display in Cape Town."   And it has been quite a week!   What stands out for me is the

What hurts God most is the disobedience and failure of his people.   Just read the books of the prophets in the Old Testament.  Here and there God addresses the unbelieving pagan world;  most often he speaks to believers.   Ever since the days of Abraham God's people have been called to be a light to the nations, a blessing to the people around them.  But the reality is that often God's people have become worse than the people around her.

In 1910 there was very little church growth in Africa.  But many people responded to the mission call to reach out to the continent of Africa.  Today, 100 years later, the church has grown by 3000%.   In 1910 it was a receiving church; today in 2010 the African church is a sending church.  They are sending missionaries to