1 Chronicles 12:32:

"Men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."

What do we know about our times?

Just 30 years ago, the American Church was carrying the Great Commission torch into all the world.

The Church in Europe had carried the torch for a long time, but was on a long, steady decline. American missionaries had traveled around the globe with the gospel.

Fast forward to today, and times have changed; the Church in America is stagnant. In countries like Costa Rica, China, Indonesia, and many parts of Africa and the Far East, the Church grows by more than 8% a year.

In the U.S. it is a violation of the separation between church and state to present the
gospel in schools, whereas in countries like Swaziland or Peru, missionaries are invited to make presentations and see hundreds of converts.

At a time in history where the greatest concentration of Christians ever to populate the earth live in America and many of them possess unbelievable wealth and spend it on crystal cathedrals and family life centers, I know a church in Iquitos, Peru that devotes over half of their meager budget to evangelizing the tribes in the nearby Amazon jungle.

This is the same church where, when I preached to its congregation, challenging them concerning the ripeness of the harvest, nearly the entire congregation - about 300 people at the time - went forward to commit themselves to go out into the streets, canceling church and going out that very night to preach in a park. Attendance is now well over a thousand.

Are we like the men of Issachar? Do we know what to do? Are we taking advantage of the new technologies, our increased wealth, and access to travel to win the world for Christ? Or are we watching on the sidelines as other churches with far fewer resources surpass our efforts?