Tuesday’s RNS report includes a story about relations between the Vatican and China-the world’s largest church and most populous country, respectively. Stacy Meichtry reports that: Since the death of the late Pope John Paul II a wave of optimism has been building over the possibilitythat decades of icy relations between China and the Vatican were beginning to thaw. That wave broke Saturday (Sept. 10), when the Chinese government appeared to reject Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to four Chinese bishops to join him in Rome for an upcoming synod, an international congress of Roman Catholic bishops.

Frank Bentayou writes about church growth and the combination of qualities that enables a Protestant church to grow, especially when research indicates that eight of 10 American churches are barely maintaining or are declining in their attendance. Bentayou looks at evangelical consultant and author Thom Rainer’s new book, “Breakout Churches” (Zondervan), in which he examines what makes them work and how they have distinguished themselves from the common run of evangelical congregations.