Estonia

Sep 11th 2008

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.