Rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively. Specifically, it is the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times and the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion.  In other words as a preacher, rhetoric is my job.  It started when I was a teenager.  I was a part of a singing group and every concert I had a solo…but the only reason I liked having a solo was because it gave me an opportunity to speak (right before the solo).  Then in college my major was speech-communications.  We studied rhetoric.  For me…rhetoric is a positive word.

But then along comes a political season…our most political season and when I hear the word rhetoric, it is used with negative meanings.   We listen to a politiican, or a pundit, and our immediate thought is… “ah it’s just rhetoric…I’m tired of the rhetoric.” (Or course it depends upon whether or not we agree with the candidate — then it’s not rhetoric, it’s inspiring!)

So we listen to the rhetoric.  We read the fact-checking blogs.  We try to shift through the words, the character, the truth…  I go back and forth from being entertained to being discouraged, and when I get discouraged I think… It’s just words.  It’s just words.

Okay here’s the convicting part…  This blog isn’t really about the presidential election, it’s about the church, christians and our faith.  See, the way I feel about the political process is the way the majority of non-Christians in our county — feel about the church.

I’ve been reading this book by David Kinnaman called UnChristian. The book is based on research that the Barna group did on how the mosaic generation (teens and 20’s) feel about the church.  Less than 4% have a favorable view of the evangelical church. If we have 50,000 mosaics in the Centre Region…less than 2000 have a favorable view of the church!  As I’ve been reading this book — my heart has been breaking…

This group feels that the church is too judgemental, too hypocritical, too political, hates homesexuals and doesn’t care for the poor.  In other words, they think that our faith is — just rhetoric — just words.  We can get defensive or we can listen.

I’m still not sure who I’m going to vote for — I’m wondering if we could all call Washington and ask for a Obama-Pahlin ticket.  :) — but to be honest I’m less concerned with the Washington, than I am with the church.  More on this later.

We started our second conference with Estonian pastors last night — another great group.  In this group is Leho who leads a church in Tartu and is excited about a missionary couple from our network, coming to help them with youth work.  I’m also getting a chance to know Meego, who is the president of the Baptist Union in Estonian — about 80 congregations throughout the nation.  Thomas is a quite man with 10 children and a strong heart for prayer — I think the one leads to the other!  Tovio is the director of the Estonian seminary, and a leader in Crossroads church in Tartu.  Crossroads average age is 23.  Then there is Pater and Urmas, they have a great heart for young people…tonight as we prayed at the prayer house, revival amongst the youth of Estonia was something that was very much in our hearts.

I spoke on the church without walls today…what an incredible privilege!  Well we got home from the prayer time at about midnight…so I’m off to bed.

I even wore a sweater vest!  We were at the Siion (Zion) Church in Kuressarre, Estonia, one of the largest Baptist congregations in Estonia.  We have some cool connections to this congregation.  For example, they sent four people to our Leadership Advance event; Herb McKinstry has played his trumpet in this church; folks from Calvary have painted a building that they use for a children’s camp; and it’s also the first place from which my sermon was both live over the radio and internet.  If you would like to check it out click here:  siion1

But before you click here are two very important pieces of information:  1)  It’s mostly in Estonian and I don’t come on till about 30 minutes in.  2)  The video perspective squashes me, so it makes me look larger than I really am… no really…it’s true.

So I wore a sweater vest.  I preached.  Not more than one…maybe two people fell asleep.  It felt pretty good.  Anytime we are connecting with God’s call on our lives, it should feel pretty good.  I’m looking forward to doing it at Calvary again.  My first weekend back preaching will be October 18 & 19th.  See you then if not before…

Here is a picture of the first group of Estonian pastors that we met with last week.  (An interesting note, the young man with dark hair on the far right works with college students in Tartu. Matt Saar and his brother Peep Saar lead what is probably the largest congregation in Estonia and the average age is 23!)

I think perhaps the highlight of our first conference was our drive to Meiuste prayer house.  This is a 93 year old building in the middle of a forest — devoted to prayer.  We sat by candlelight and worshipped God. We sang, Bill Ankerberg, a good friend and pastor from Whittier Community Church shared a message, then we prayed together in groups of two. Following this we laid hands on Eirki, the General Secretary of the Union of Evangelical Churches and prayed over him.  As we prayed, the tears and sobs came unhindered from his eyes and mouth.  Next we prayed over Matt Saar (Peep’s brother) who is in charge of the youth work for the Union.  The meeting closed with Eirki praying for America on this day, 9/11. He prayed that God would comfort those who had lost loved ones and those who had grieving hearts.

It was an incredible evening, meeting in this place where generations of people have prayed for Estonia.  God was pleased.  I appreciate your prayers as we start conference #2 on Sunday evening.

I spoke this morning to a group of pastors about “building a church without wall.” Great group of guys, all but one of them are bivocational, all but one of them have congregations totaling less than 50 people.  In most cases the average make-up of their congregation is over 60.  These pastors love God, love their people and like us want to see their cities reached for Christ, but they work hard against great odds.  In fact according to the website www.nationmaster.com — looking at all church attendance (Catholic, Mainline, Evangelical, Charismatic) — only 4% of Estonians are in church on any given weekend.  That’s third from last, just above Japan and Russia.  The United States ranks #11.  Nigeria ranks #1.  In addition

Calvary has been taking groups to Estonia for the last 7 or 8 years.  In fact, Lynn and I came with our whole family a few years ago.  In Estonia, we partner with 3 different congregations in three different communities.  You can’t believe what an encouragement it is to these Estonian pastors to know that they are not alone in their desire to reach their country for Christ.

Their heart is an encouragement to me.

Okay, this is a dangerous blog post.  On the other hand, what I’m going to say is something that most of you have thought, guessed or experienced anyway.  But still I’m not sure that I should write what I think I’m gonna write. You see I’m a pastor (well usually I’m a pastor, right now I’m just a guy on sabbatical) and as a pastor, my career success is — at least somewhat — defined by how many people show up to church on any given weekend. So for me, this is a dangerous blog post.

Here’s the deal.  I went to church today, but I didn’t go to Calvary.  In fact I didn’t go to a building — it was truly a church without walls.  There weren’t too many of us there, only 6.  But what we lacked in a quantity of people, we made up for with a quantity of time.  We had church for about 5 hours!  There wasn’t any sermon, or children’s ministry, or worship team, or powerpoint, etc. etc.  But if church is all about connecting with people you care about and encountering God, than church was good today.

So where did I go to church today?  Bald Eagle State Park.  A Calvary family allowed us to use their boat and our family (minus one and plus one) spent the day tubing, swimming and picnicking.  Now don’t hear what I’m not saying.  Hebrews 10:25 says “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another...”  I love Calvary.  I miss preaching, worshiping, gathering with my whole church family.  But sometimes it’s good to be reminded that you don’t have to go to 1250 University Drive to encounter God, to find joy, or to hear God speak.

Sometimes we box God up and compartmentalize Him into a weekend worship gathering, or maybe 30 morning minutes a day.  But God invades our days 24/7 and He is waiting for us everywhere we go.  Today I heard Him in my kid’s laughter and the sound of ducks landing in the lake.  Today I saw God in the way the rays of sun poked through the clouds ahead of my and glistened along the surface of the water.  I heard God as I watched Jake and John and Sarah and Josh take the risk of riding in a tube while I drove the boat.  I sensed God saying, “Dan it’s okay to risk when you know your Father is driving the boat, let your life be an adventure with me.”

In Isaiah 29 God makes a complaint against His followers, he told them that they all knew the right words, but their hearts were far from Him.  In October I will be back at Calvary — and I can’t wait — but today I experienced awe and joy at the gifts of God and my heart was not so far from Him.

My question is Where do you go to Church? And asking the question shouldn’t necessarily incline us to skip a weekend worship gathering at Calvary…BUT it could be a reminder that if God is good and God is everywhere… church can truly be without walls.

38.4 million, 37 million, 38.9 million, those are the numbers of people who tuned into Barak Obama’s, Sarah Palin’s, and John McCain’s nomination acceptance speeches.  Obviously a bit of interest in the political arena this year.  For some it’s politics; for others it’s just entertainment.  For some it’s a life and death, good vs. evil, battle; for others it’s a rhetorical farce, that always promises more than it can deliver.

I go back and forth, one day the political process seems really important.  The next it seems more like a sit-com.  Now hear me on this, in my heart of hearts, I believe that Jesus-followers should be involved in every area of life, including politics.  I love what Abraham Kuyper (the theologian/politician — yes that is a potential combination!) once said, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign,does not declare,’That is mine!’”  Through the years God has used people like Kuyper and Wilberforce to do great good through the political process.

Buuuut… as Jon Ortberg suggests… for a moment, imagine with me a scenario where in one election we elected all the “correct” people (not right because sometimes people on the right are not the correct people) to every office in the land.  President, Congress, governors, all the way down to city council and Penn State trustee board.  Let’s imagine that all those people put into place all the best possible policies, from tax codes to zoning and immigration laws, from crime bills to economic policies.  In one term, we got 100% good government.

Would that usher in the good life?

Would the hearts of the parents be turned toward their children?
Would all marriages be models of faithful love and the divorce rates plummet?
Would greed be legislated out of existence?
Would all athletes become models of character?
Would internet porn go broke?
Would you finally become the woman or man you know you ought to be?

In case you don’t know the correct answer…it’s no. It will take a different administration to see that happen.  That’s what Jesus meant when he said — again and again — Good News!  The Kingdom of God is at hand. Ultimately it’s neither “Country First” nor the hope that “We Can Do It” that will change a life.  It’s the good news of a nearby administration called the Kingdom of God.

So get involved in the political process, from the left or the right. At the very least pray.  But here’s my take-away — in the process don’t take yourself, or your party, or your candidate so seriously.  But take God very seriously.

Well, not exactly, but close. I’m with my family this week in Orlando and today it rained, so we headed to the outlets. Of course everyone headed to the outlet mall, so it was hard to find a parking spot. Finally found a parking spot and then we walked halfway around the mall before we could find an entrance. Along the way, we debated whether a definition of hell might be “getting to the outlet mall but not finding a way in” or just “getting to the outlet mall.” I’ll let you guess which side I was on.

But anyway we finally got in the mall, I went with the boys, Lynn went with the girls… the guys headed to the Nike outlet store. The place was packed…but what was really interesting was walking around trying to decipher all the languages and countries represented in this one store. French, Egyptian, Japanese, English, I think German, and Spanish…and perhaps a handful of other Asian countries that I couldn’t identify. Everywhere I turned I saw another nationality and heard another language. It was like a mini-olympics.

You know where else that happens? You don’t have to go to Iraq to meet an Iraqi. You don’t have to go to Thailand to meet a Thai. You don’t have to go to Korea to meet a Korean. You don’t even have to go to Orlando. All you have to do is hangout at PSU…or even better yet…

1) Help out at the garage give-away being held at Calvary for International students. People are needed Thursday, Friday and Saturday to help set-up and good useful household items that you are willing to donate are needed as well. Contact Bill Saxton at wjs9@psu.edu if you can help.

2) Attend the International Welcome Picnic on Sunday August 17th from 4-8pm at Penn State’s Findlay Commons (East Halls). You will have the opportunity to meet and share with a variety of international students. Who know what God might do through them for you…or perhaps even through you for them.

R.O.I. That’s return-on-investment. You remember a few months ago, a terrible cyclone battered the country where we support some orphanages. (I would rather not use the name — as even leaders in that country can google and I would rather they not read my blog! But if you are from Calvary, you know.) So anyway at Calvary we collected over $20,000 for relief help…in addition our national network of churches collected another $5000 and gave to us to distribute. I just want to give you a small report of how those funds are being put to use.

The funds are being sent to the orphanage and school leaders with whom we work. They in turn are using the funds to buy food, building supplies, seed for new rice crops, and farming machinery. They have been working (and continue to work — months later there is still so much to do and so much suffering to relieve) primarily in two different areas…one area contains seven villages, the second area contains three villages. In area one — extensive work has been done to help the villages plant new rice crops, 4 plowing machines were bought and a very important bridge was built. Without this bridge the people would have been unable to get the plowing machines to the rice fields. This fields required plowing machines to replant the rice because the land has been so contaminated by salt water and dead bodies. The building of this bridge brought out all the people, young and old from the seven villages. The village ruler said, “I’ve never seen all my villagers come together like that in such a great crowd filled with great joy and happiness.” The bridge was dedicated last weekend and one of the orphanage leaders had the chance to tell all the villagers that there is a bridge (Christ) that no storm will ever break.

Teams continue to go into the hard hit areas bringing food, burying bodies, and telling people about Jesus. That offering that we took — the largest single offering we have ever given — is being used in incredible ways…and I know that God is pleased. This is what it means to be a church without walls.
One of the leaders said this in recent e-mails…

I do not know how to thank you all. I could not express my thanks by this letter. However, let me say,” THANKS AND THANKS TO YOU ALL”. Please pass our thanks to those who participate for this projects. Your prayers, Love, Heart and especially the offer you make, you have helped us make the people’s life change from hopeless to great hope and lots of people come to believe Jesus. I praise God that the Lord Himself puts you in the best place for our ministry. I am very proud of you for He uses you to help our people in their most needy time. You save lots of live not only spiritually but also in physical. Please extend my thanks to everyone who support our ministry through you for this special time.

So I know gas costs too much…and oil is going higher as the stock market goes lower…and we wonder if the economy is going in recession, but the bottom line is that we have so much for which to be thankful — not least of which is the opportunities that God gives us to give away, what he has already given us.

One of my sabbatical goals is to read the entire Bible in 16 weeks. A few weeks ago, when I told someone what I was doing, their only response was… “Why?” Sometimes it is best to just savor a verse or two…or maybe spend a few weeks in one book of the Bible, but there is also value in getting the panoramic view. Whenever I take a panoramic view, I notice themes in a new way.

For example did you ever notice how often Jesus abused the sabbath? I mean in the eyes of the religious leaders, the Pharisees. Jesus just couldn’t stop messing with the Pharisees when it came to the Sabbath. It’s like Jesus took every opportunity he could grab to tweak the religious noses of the Pharisees, when it came to the Sabbath. Read more…