Sometimes I feel that I live in two worlds.

First, there is the SBC world. It is big, powerful, and tribal. SBC world is so big that you can live your life in that world and never know there is a broader Christian community. In that world, almost every pastor would know who Junior Hill is, but I am guessing many of my non-SBC readers do not.

Second, there is the broader Christian world. And, there are some movements in that world that impact the SBC world. More on that in a moment.

This week is a mix for me and it prompted this blog post.

I know it would be alliterated if it said, "Friday is for Friends." However, I am always behind a couple of days. Here are a few friends, new and old, from the last week.

David Dockery and Union University

I heard from David this week. He is president of Union University. I have written before about Union and its recent tornado damage.

I was very impressed with the Canadian National Church Planting Congress today.

I had a small part of a much larger program. I did one session with Canadian denomination leaders, one panel about reaching Quebec, and a keynote session tonight with the whole group. It is simply amazing that all these denominations come together to work on the common agenda of planting churches throughout Canada.

Tomorrow, Alan Hirsch, Cam Roxburgh, and I will lead a panel on missional church issues.

I will write more soon.

One more post before we turn to tomorrow's research.

Last week in class at Indiana Wesleyan University, Rick Champ, one of my students, presented a good summary of The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch. You can find the PowerPoint here.

I believe Alan is a good thinker and has been challenging us all about the purpose and structure of the church, God's mission, and the gospel. We've developed a friendship-- and have even argued about a few things. But, we share similar passions-- and I know few Christian leaders as gracious and thoughtful as Alan.

I think his analysis of cultural distance and the western church is very helpful: