Each day I receive via email a little excerpt from the writings of John Stott, a free service which you can sign up for here. I highly recommend it. Stott’s wisdom is worth heeding.

When Paul and Barnabas set out into the unknown on the first missionary journey, they found (as Abraham, Joseph and Moses had found before them) that God was with them. That is exactly what they reported on their return (Acts 14:27; 15:12). Indeed, this assurance is indispensable to mission. Change is painful to us all, especially when it affects our cherished buildings and customs, and we should not seek to change merely for the sake of change. Yet true Christian radicalism is open to change. It knows that God has bound himself to his church (promising that he will never leave it) and to this Word (promising that it will never pass away). But God's church means people not buildings, and God's Word means Scripture not traditions. So long as these essentials are preserved, the buildings and the traditions can if necessary go. We must not allow them to imprison the living God or to impede his mission in the world. [From The Message of Acts (The Bible Speaks Today series: Leicester, IVP, 1990), p. 143. Stott Daily Thought 14 Sept 09.]