Last weekend, the whole Calvary family — coming from 7 different worship gatherings in 4 different locations — gathered in 1 room.  Eisenhower Auditorium.  It was a reminder that we are ONE church.  It was also a reminder that we share a mission at Penn State University.  It was a great day.

Some thoughts on what God did…

1) God drew many people together. When I walked in a bit before start time — maybe a few hundred people in the room.  When I turned around during the second song — in true Calvary fashion — more.  So many more.  Using their little clickers the Eisenhower staff counted 2200…we’re confident they clicked a few people twice…but between the Jesus Jam at 1250 and those at Eisenhower, we figure over 2000 gathered on Sunday. Our biggest gathering ever!

2) God reminded me of how far He has brought us. When I looked out over the crowd, I couldn’t help but remember 13 years ago.  Calvary joined with 11 other congregations for a Sunday morning worship gathering.  It had the same sense of excitement, about the same number of people, and coincidently the same preacher… but back then Calvary had one service meeting in one location with about 300 people.  Over the course of 13 years, God has done so much in our midst…and it’s not just about the numbers… it’s who He is shaping us to be…a church without walls.  A church that is not perfect but is passionate, or at least growing in passion for God and a passion to help people — all sorts of people — find God’s dream for their lives.

3) God showed us that prayer matters. The 21 days of prayer were more important than the Sunday morning event.  While we were calling out to God on campus, God was enlarging the capacity of our hearts.  He was touching the hearts of people and drawing people to gather to encounter Him. Without prayer Sunday would not have been the same.

4) God touched hearts. Let me share a few thoughts from some of the e-mails I received…

“It is so hard to believe that God loves us, let alone that He loves us lavishly, extravagantly, prodigally.  Seems weird to use “prodigal” in a positive sense.  I needed that.”

“I just wanted to add confirmation to your your inspired call to “the broken” on Sunday. I believe it was not only a call to the crowd gathered but to the campus community and that the Lord will honor the call and it will bear fruit in the coming months of this academic year.”

“Standing, singing, surrounded by a few thousand people I felt God’s love as a real, tangible gift for the first time in my life.”

“I had to at least tell you just how awesome yesterday’s service was with the entire congregation (and hopefully new faces) worshiping together under one roof! It was so powerful and so special and you were right…God certainly was there!”

People experienced the love of Father God. People stood to come home.  People came forward and got some broken pottery shards.  In fact I’ve passed by people the last few days and they pulled out their shards to show me.  God touched hearts.

4) God put on my heart that last Sunday was not a culmination, it was a beginning. With all my heart, I believe God wants us to continue praying, inviting, sharing, believing for more in the valley.  More on this to come…

Last weekend Calvary’s 7 gatherings — from 4 locations — join in one place for one worship gathering.  We called it Calvary on Campus.  It came at the end of 21 days of prayer…and you know what God showed up.  For the next few blog posts, I’m going to share some thoughts and some God-stories from Calvary on Campus.  First up is the WHAM! BAM! Jesus Jam Update.  “Wham Bam” was what the kids did while the parents were doing Calvary on Campus.  Sherilyn Jameson our Kidz ConneXion leader passed on the following…

• – We had a full house with 148 kid registrations as of 8 am Sunday morning I think (it got a little crazy at the end)  and about 20 walk-in registrations as far as I can tell.
• – We had 48 adults including middle and high school students, who served in kc for the morning. Most of them arrived at 9:00, some at 8:30 and stayed until 12:30 or 1:00.  ALL were full of joy and reflected Jesus in their willingness to serve.
• – When our kc Team Members met at 9:00 for a light breakfast and prayer, one of the elementary teachers broke down during prayer as he prayed that the Lord would touch kids’ lives and transform them to become Jesus followers.  It seemed consistent with some other stories we heard of God causing His pray-ers to cry as they called on God to move among students, young and old.
• – Brett Meyers, the illusionist gave a very clear explanation of the gospel, using a magic trick that was most amazing and kids were asked to raise their hand if they prayed with Brett to trust Jesus.  Those kids were then encouraged to go to the back of the WR to meet in small groups with our elementary teachers.  29 children did so and 15 of the 29 indicated praying to trust and follow Jesus for the very first time!
• – 2 of our kc leaders for the Table are a part of the campus ministry, New Life.  They enlisted 3 others to make up a rockin’ Kids Praise and Worship team for the morning.  100+ elementary kids were jumping around singing and shoutin’ to and about Jesus and it was truly awesome worship … it HAD to make a mark on Jesus that morning!
• – On a more personal note, I invited 2 students (who are not Jesus-followers) to attend Calvary on Campus and they did, without me attending with them! (1 is a senior in HS and one is a junior at Penn State)  They came to 1250 after the service at Eisenhower to talk to me, one asked me to pray with her.  She had a bad experience with some Christians once and wants to get over that.  God is up to something in both of their lives.
• – It was a good morning and many parents expressed that their kids were begging them to get up and out the door because it was WHAM! BAM! Jesus Jam day!  =)  You gotta’ love it!

And I do love it!  Great vignettes of Jesus on the move…not just at Eisenhower, but in many different ways.  I have to say… 15 kids making a decision to follow Jesus…and another 14 recommitting their lives to Jesus… if nothing else happened last Sunday, that makes it worth it.

But so much more happened… and it’s all about what God did.

Click the link.  Watch closely…all the way through to the end.  You’ll see her twice.  Yes that’s my Lynn.  Get your flu shot at North Atherton Walmart.   Seasonal-flu-vaccine-now-avail.asp

This weekend — Calvary on Campus — we’ll be pondering the gospel found in Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son. Actually the main theme of this story is not the prodigal living of the son, it is the prodigal loving of the Father. Paul describes this love in Ephesians 3:17-19

May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

It’s not enough to know about this kind of love. We have to know it. Love is not so much meant to be studied as it is to be experienced.  That’s what Paul…is talking about…  But here’s the problem, “We Just Don’t Know… how much we are loved!

A few weekends ago at church I was talking to a new dad.  As I was talking to him, it was hard to get his attention, because it was like he couldn’t quit lookng at the daughter in his arms. God loves you like that only mre.

I remember a few years ago, I spent 4 days with city-reaching pastors from all over the world. Shaun and Jerry are from Beijing, China. During our time there we reported on what God is doing in our cities.  It was a very encouraging time. One of the questions that we have to answer is “What is the best thing that has happened in your city in the last 6 months?  I had already heard some of what God was doing Beijing — very exciting stuff happening in the house churches — so I was looking forward to hearing more.  Shaun got up…and…shared that the very best thing that had happened in all of Beijing that year was that he had finally become a daddy. I thought…wow…that’s how God loves us, only more.

I’ve talked to a few husbands who have a wife or a child going through a rough time. And they tear up, and as they are talking what you know is that in their hearts they have said, I will do anything and everything I can to help them… God loves you like that only more.

In Zephaniah 3:17, it says,

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Every once in awhile when our whole family is eating out in a restaurant, I will be looking around at my family and some song will start bouncing around in my heart and I’ll just feel the need to start singing.  Now granted I do it partially because I enjoy embarrassing my daughters…but can you imagine a God who loves you so much that he would stand up in public and sing over you.

Hear me…

• Your picture is on God’s screen saver.
• He lays awake at night thinking about you.
• Your artwork is hanging on his refrigerator.
• He’s got your number on speed-dial.
• He watches your most common repetitive acts with wonder and awe. The angels get tired of hearing about us.

Do you get it? Is the vision of Father God’s lavish love coming in focus? How much he wants to connect with us heart-to-heart?  This weekend at Calvary on Campus…we will ponder for a bit of time… the lavish love of Father God.

I remember about a dozen years ago… there was a wicked flu making the rounds…the Nold’s were just starting to get it on the weekend. People prayed and I didn’t get it, so I was able to preach that weekend. But then apparently everyone quit praying, because that Thursday it tackled me. I woke up about 3:00am, and it was wicked. A wicked flu. I won’t even try to describe what was coming out of me…or where.

That morning after about four hours huddled over the toilet, I was lying in bed, barely conscious of Jake — who was about five years old — in my bedroom. I didn’t even say hi. He rummaged around in the bedroom and the went back downstairs.

He found Lynn, and said, “Oh mom, Dad’s poor.” “What do you mean Jake?” “We’ll he’s lying up there in bed and he’s real sick and I don’t even think he knew I was in there and….” “Oh, Jake,” Lynn interrupted, “you don’t mean Dad’s poor. You mean poor dad.” “No, Mom, dad’s poor. I looked in his billfold and he doesn’t have any money!”

I was poor in more ways than one! I came into the office that morning, because I thought I just had too much to do and everyone backed away from me as I walked by. Like my own personal invisible wall traveled with me. I had nothing to offer, except my sickness.

No one would come close…except for Lynn. You see family are those folks who will get close even when it means they might get sick.

You know what? The reality is that we all carry a certain element of poverty and sickness within our hearts, all the time. It’s woven throughout our personalities. And when we allow our hearts to rub up against others… sometimes it opens our hearts to the vomit of life.

But we do it, because instinctively we know that in order to find life we need to get connected…that true life is not found behind walls, but beyond walls. So let me just ask you, “Are you connected for life?” Do you have people who will push through your junk? Are you the kind of person who is willing to push through someone else’s junk?

Somewhere along the line we started believing the lie that wealth is found in stuff. It’s not, true wealth is found in our relationships — first with God, then with people. Your relationships will look different from mine, God has shaped us in unique ways, which shapes our relationships in unique ways, but He created us all with a connection requirement.

I’ve spent some time today thinking about my relationships… Lynn, my kids, people who are on the Calvary adventure with me, a handful of pastors in town, my extended family, friends… Wow. I am blessed.

This Sunday — September 19th at 10:30am — Calvary will be on campus.  7 gatherings from 4 sites all meeting in one place at one time.  Why are we doing it?  

1) Because once in awhile it is good to be reminded that even through we (all) rarely see each other, we are family.  We are all part of the same team, one church meeting in multiple locations.  On Sunday, we are celebrating our unity.

2) Because each of our gatherings — from Traditions to Warriors Mark — has a common mission in Penn State University.  Every gathering has multiple connections to Penn State, from current students to former students, from faculty to staff, from neighbors to co-workers, Penn State occupies the center of the region.

3) Because we believe that God has a redemptive purpose for Penn State University.  Where else do we have the same opportunity to impact the world, to impact the next generation, to impact future scientists, artists, engineers, teachers, business people, mothers and fathers?

4) Closely related to #3 — God has given us an amazing opportunity, perhaps even a unique opportunity to make Jesus known to the next generation.  College students make up at least a 1/3 of the Calvary family, but less than 3% of the PSU students are involved in a church.  We want to go where they are and hopefully give them a taste of a church without walls.

5) Because being on campus — not just on Sunday, but throughout the 21 days of prayer — is allowing God to reveal to us, his heart for the people/students who are there.  This is one of the common themes I hear from so many of those of you who are prayer-walking — God is doing something in our hearts.

6) Because I believe God wants to birth faith in our hearts for a move of God among students that will overflow the Eisenhower Auditorium.

7) And finally we are doing Calvary on Campus, because Eisenhower Auditorium is just a short walk from the Creamery!  :)

I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to it.  If you haven’t had a chance to go on campus and pray, you still have Friday and Saturday.  Don’t miss the opportunity to join what God is doing.  If you haven’t invited a friend, you still have Friday and Saturday… who knows God might be doing something in that person’s heart and you will get to see someone discover God’s love…if you take a moment and invite them to join us.

See you Sunday…if not before.

Open Heaven’s. It’s a picture God gives in the Bible to describe what it’s like to live in a region or a season of uncontainable blessings.  For the last 19 days, groups of Calvary folk have been prayer-walking the Penn State campus.  For those unfamiliar with the term, prayer-walking is best described as “praying onsite with insight.” It is a practical way to take the Apostle Paul up on his challenge to prayer all kinds of prayers in all kinds of places for all kinds of people.  (I Timothy 2:1-8).

What happens when we prayer-walk?  Among other things, what I find happening is that God changes my heart. When I rub shoulders with people for whom I am praying…  When I sit in a courtyard where future scientists study… When I walk past the fields where football players practice… God does something in my heart.  He reminds me how much He loves people.  He reminds me that He has a redemptive dream for Penn State University.  He inspires my hope.

Here is what doesn’t happen. God doesn’t get manipulated.  God isn’t somehow forced to respond to our prayers because we are prayer-walking for 21 days.  God isn’t waiting for us to cover every inch of campus property in prayer before He gets to work.  Prayer isn’t magic.  Using the right words — like abracadabra — won’t make prayer more effective.  Your position — walking, sitting, standing or kneeling — doesn’t make prayer more effective. It’s not the quantity of prayer that opens the heavens, sometimes one prayer from one person is even more effective than 1000 people praying for 21 days.  Prayer is not magic…and God cannot be manipulated.

Prayer is something better than magic.  It is conversation with God.  It often feels one-way, but if we learn to listen, two-way communication is the norm.  It is mysterious, but it matters.  It makes a difference.  God calls us to pray and prayer matters.  But does it matter how we pray?

Yes it does matter how we pray, but it’s less about the mechanics or prayer and more about the heart of the pray-er.  For example…  Psalm 66:18-19 says,

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.“

In other words, the way I live my life, the way I follow God, the state of my heart will affect the effectiveness of my prayers.  Proverbs 21:13 says,

“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.“

A compassionate person will be more effective in prayer than a selfish person.  John 15:7 says,

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.“

So if I prioritize and prize my relationship with Jesus.  If I hang on his words and let them saturate my heart, my prayer life will be more vital and healthy.  I Peter 3:7 says,

“In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together.  …Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.“

In other words, the state of my relationships will shape the state of my prayers.  What all these words from God are saying is that when I pray, God looks at my heart.  Here’s the good news, Jesus’ death on the cross has made my heart new and if I confess my sin/failures/short-comings to God, He makes that new heart clean.

So, Calvary family, if you haven’t been on campus yet to pray, go.  Don’t miss the chance to say you were a part of what God is doing.  But before you go take a few minutes and ask God to take a look at your heart.  Make things right with him…then go pray…and see what God does this Sunday!

I was just driving into the church driveway a little after 9am…for a staff meeting.  I turned the radio on to hear that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I sat in the car to listen…and within minutes heard that the second tower had been hit by a second plane. I came in and told the staff… before long the phone started ringing — the pentagon, bombs, terrorism. Someone came and found a satellite news station on our dish… as I walked into the worship room… the first tower began to slowly rumble.

I will never forget that picture. The week was marked by images — snapshots of humanity etched on our minds. A couple holding hands as they jump. The pentagon on fire. A crater in Somerset, PA. Flags all over the place. 88,000 sold nationally by Wal-Mart that day. The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace punctuated by the playing of U.S. national anthem. 100’s of people on their knees in prayer at a local church. A midnight prayer vigil on Old Main with well over a 1000 students. Rescuers giving their all for a little bit of hope.

But of all the images that struck me that week, and has stuck with me for nine years… I think it was the image of…a cell phone. People on planes and in buildings; people who knew they were not going to see the end of the day; what did they do? What was their last act? They connected. They called someone they loved.

• – Barbara Olson calling her husband…
• – Jeremy Glick and Thomas Burnett calling their wives, before an attempt to overcome the hijackers…
• – Chris Mills talking to his girlfriend Danielle moments before the tower crumbled…
• – Mark Bingham receiving a final message from his wife, left on his answering machine…

They reached out to connect with people they loved — spouses, kids, friends — someone who could hear their last words.  And what were those last words? “I love you. Tell my wife how much I love her. Hug my kids for me. Don’t be sad. Take care of our daughter. I love you.”

What we were given was an intense press-pause moment to ask ourselves questions like, “What is it that carries ultimate value? Is it the twin towers of financial success and upward mobility? Or is it a relationship with someone you love?

Billions of dollars were lost.  Businesses damaged beyond repair.  Wall Street ground to a halt.  The New York skyline was changed forever.  But we were reminded that in the end people matter more than possessions, politics or pride.

In the following days — for at least a season — some things became a little less important to us. Who cares if the package didn’t get there on time? Who cares if the carpet has the kids’ Kool-Aid stain on it? Who cares if your portfolio has headed south? Who cares if your roomate isn’t quite as cleanly as you?

For a season of time, we hugged our kids a little longer and a little harder.  Wemade some calls that we hadn’t made for a while…because we just needed to their voice.  We cried with strangers, and we prayed with friends.  We connected.

Do you understand that is how God created us?  He created us to connect. To connect with each other and to connect with Him.  That’s what I remember…and the lesson still stands.

Open Heaven’s.  It’s a picture God gives in the Bible to describe what it’s like to live in a region or a season of uncontainable blessings.  In Malachi 3:10-12 God’s words are recorded…

Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

The last 12 days, we’ve been prayer-walking the Penn State University campus.  We are asking God to open the floodgates of heaven and pour out His blessing.  We are asking God to make His presence known.   We are asking God to change hearts and — as I mentioned last week — sometimes the first heart He changes, He needs to change, is mine/ours.  Here is one of the changes I see occurring — we are talking more about God.  We are thinking more about God.

Listen to what is written in Malachi 3:16-16,

Then those who feared the LORD spoke with each other, and the LORD listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him. “They will be my people,” says the LORD Almighty. “On the day when I act, they will be my own special treasure.”

Can you imagine — being treated as God’s own special treasure?  In the Hebrew this word was used to describe the treasures of Kings. The crown jewels. Can you imagine, that there is a way of life the equivalent of being treated as God’s special treasure?  Not God’s 2nd-hand 1993 Jeep, or His dirty old boots, but his special treasure.

What’s your special treasure?  Precious photo albums, a rare coin collection, old love letters, a stuffed animal, a gun your father gave you?  A person? How do you treat your special treasure?  “Well I walk on it, leave it laying around, let my kids write all over it, and once in awhile I might look at it.”  No we protect our special treasures, and care for them, and love them, and show them off to special friends.

Do you know how much you matter to God?  Maybe one of your parents left when you were little. Or someone hurt you… Or you’ve just never felt like you fit in.  Do you realize that the generation coming to adulthood now, is the most aborted generation in our history?  And we wonder why people want to know if God or anyone else cares?

Can you imagine what it might be like to live under an open heaven flooded with God’s blessings, treated like God’s special treasure?  But there’s a problem…it goes to the very heart of our problems.  Sometimes if all we think about are God’s blessings, we can miss the blessing of God. In other words sometimes we value God’s gifts over God’s presence… the ultimte blessing.

Malachi lived in a time when people’s greatest need was for an encounter with the living God, but their greatest problem was that they didn’t know their greatest need.  They had a false sense of security… that came from a false sense of God’s blessing…economy was good, unemployment was low, life was sweet in Malachi’s happy valley… they thought they were God’s favorites…on a nice leisurely walk with God.  But God said, “you’re on the run…you’re not walking towards an extraordinary destination…you’re headed for extraordinary distraction…  “Return to me.”

This week, before you go out for a prayer-walk — and I strongly encourage you to do so — spend some time “returning to God.”  Check you heart, confess your failures, ask God to forgive you and make you clean.  Tell him that you love Him…ask Him to expand your heart to love Him.  Return to him before you go out and pray for them.  You are His special treasure — live like it.

As our country grows increasingly divided regarding Muslims, and as we near another 9/11 anniversary, I have found myself drawn to understand, to gain just a little insight into his history…to find out how a man could come to hate other people so much.

He was brn in a small middle-eastern country bordering Syria.  Born to wealthy parents…educated in the finest university in the country, some suggest that he was next in line to take over the family housing construction business. Yet at some point in his life there was a significant embracing of his heritage — especially his religious heritage. There is good indication that this was passed down from his parents, but we are not entirely certain.

What we do know is that in time he became a zealous follower of his religious heritage, and he began to view Christians as dire enemies to that heritage.  He gained the support of religious and — at least to some extent — national leaders; he began to gather people whom he could influence; and he began to terrorize those who did not have the proper fear of his god.

Christians especially were terrorized, held in captivity, tortured, killed.  But not just in his land, he extended his reach even to foreign cities.  It was less through his religious convictions and more through his terroristic strikes, that he became a household name.  And now we know that he was directly involved in the killing of many innocent people.

But then one day as he traveled to Damascus, intent on the development of a new plan to instill fear in the hearts of those who didn’t follow his true way, he had an encounter with God…the one true God.  In a letter to friends he described it this way,

At noon, along the road…I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.  Everyone fell to the ground and I heard a voice speaking to me in Hebrew, “…why are you persecuting me?”  “Who are you?” he asked.  And the Lord replied, “I am Jesus, who you are persecuting. Now stand up!  For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant.  Tell the world about this experience and about other times that I will appear to you. I am going to send you…to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to the power of God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.

You may have figured it out.  His name was not Osama Bin Laden — the picture was for effect — his name was Saul…later his life was so radically re-created that he took on a new name –Paul.  Former terrorist.  Former killer of Christians.  Then God reached down in amazing grace and changed his heart, brought him on the team.

Lately we have the NYC mosque controversy; we have a church burning Korans; and we have Christians trying to figure out what they should do.  But if the goal is to do what Jesus did…don’t we already know the answer?  Is God unable to do today, what He did back then?  Is anyone still praying for Osama Bin Laden?  Is anyone praying for the Imam who is leading the NYC Mosque plans?

Pastor Terry Jones is leading the charge to burn Korans.  He said, “Radical Islam could take over the United States and the best way to fight back is by sending a radical message.”  Actually…I agree.  I just don’t think burning Korans is radical enough.  I think it will take something more like the radical message of grace, the radical message of the cross, the radical message that in Christ, God is no longer counting our sins against us.