  Using the example of the elastic $\pi N$-amplitude, we discuss the low energy
expansion of QCD amplitudes in the sector with baryon number one. We show that
the chiral expansion of these amplitudes breaks down in certain regions of
phase space and present a framework which leads to a coherent description
throughout the low energy region, while keeping Lorentz and chiral invariance
manifest at every stage of the calculation. We explain how to construct a
representation of the pion nucleon scattering amplitude in terms of functions
of a single variable, which is valid to $O(q^4)$ and properly accounts for the
$\pi\pi$- and $\pi N$-cuts required by unitarity.
