Ties January 28, 2008
I’m not sure how I feel about wearing ties, but I do have two very strong opinions about them. First, if I must wear them, they will be tied with a proper dimple. Second, they must be regimental stripes. I was preaching in Pennsylvania once and took this picture of my ties lined up for the meetings. I traveled with enough ties to preach nine times without repeating. You can’t be too careful about these things.
You might be interested in seeing what I have written before about this.
Beatuiful Places
A little over five years ago I met Woody Shoemaker. We were both pastors. Most recently he had pastored in the Flint Hills in rural Kansas. I had pastored in the lovely village of Fremont, Michigan. Our families both had relocated to downtown Flint, Michigan to take part in a ministry housed in a sixteen-story hotel. He headed up the college program and I was the director of the building.
While we were working together, Woody would stop by my office. I would brew coffee and we would talk theology, discuss the ministry, and compare notes. We enjoyed rich Christian fellowship. Our boys were buddies. It was a great privilege, but it was an adjustment for both of us. We both loved the outdoors and the hotel was in the heart of the city.
We both found ways to adjust. He would visit his home in Kansas from time-to-time and ride his horses. I would get away to speak at camps and churches around Michigan. When he was gone I would keep an eye open for his charges. When I was gone he covered for me. When one of us would leave we would sincerely wish the other a season of refreshment.
Once when Woody had been away for a few days, his number showed up on my cell phone. When I answered there was noise on the line. It was the wind blowing over the mouthpiece on his phone.
“Ken?”
“Hey Woody, how are you?”
“I couldn’t be better. I’m sitting on a knoll and I can see for miles in every direction. I am on horseback. I have the wind in my face and the sun on my back. I can get a little reception here and I wanted to call and describe what I am doing.”
“Hey, Woody. I couldn’t be happier for you. Everything is under control here. Take your time. We’ll save some dirty jobs for when you get back.”
A few months later, travelling to a speaking engagement in west Michigan I scheduled a day on the Leelanau Peninsula and an afternoon hike out to Pyramid Point. The sky was clear, the lake was blue, and the islands were emerald green in the fresh air of spring. I stood high over the water and drank in the beauty. I called Woody and described the scene before me. He rejoiced with me and assured me that everything was under control.
Woody and his wife Gail and Lois and I would go out to eat from time-to-time. It was always lively, good, Christian fellowship when we were together. If I had known what that last year and a half would bring I would have gone out to eat with them more often.
We went our separate ways, Woody back to Kansas by way of Indianapolis, and Lois and I to a pastorate in Michigan. Gail got sick last year with cancer and just a few months ago went to heaven. She died gracefully, leaving a good testimony behind, a husband who loved her, three sons and three daughters who are walking with the Lord. The first thing I thought when I heard she had gone to be with the Lord was—I wonder how she would describe it if she could call us on the cell phone right now.
If she called I would want a full description and I would tell her that we will all get together one day and continue our long-suspended conversation.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
January 27, 2008
A Sad Story January 21, 2008
Russell Williams told me a sad story one day. Russell has a beautiful Christian family. He has devoted his early retirement to tireless Christian service, living in Christian community and serving others with his many skills. He is a man of ringing Christian character. He is a loving husband and father. His prayers are rich and sincere. His bright eyes are full of life. He is an intelligent man. He has the kind of sense of humor that I love. I’ve seen him laugh until tears come to his eyes. He and his wife have labored tirelessly and lived sacrificially to raise a beautiful Christian family. He is a sincere, principled, Christian man.
He once told me that when he was a young man in the Navy on shore leave he was eager to fellowship with a group of Christians. He was many, many miles from home and family, but his heart longed for Christian fellowship and a place to worship God with others. On Sunday he made his way to a church, but when he arrived an usher met him at the door and he was not allowed to enter the building. He was told that he would have to watch the service through a window, because he was a black man.
I had known and loved Russell for a couple years before he trusted me with this story. My heart grieved to think of my friend, as a young man, un-welcome in a Christian church because of the color of his skin. I wondered if the people of that church knew that Jesus was not a white man. I wondered if the church supported missionaries to Africa. I wondered what they thought when they read passages like Revelation 5:9;
And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Today would be a good day for each of us to get on our knees and repent of the times we have allowed prejudice to dishonor the One who custom-made every man and every woman, whose Son shed his blood on the cross to buy out of the slave-market of sin men and women from every tongue and tribe and people and nation.
Worldly Churches January 15, 2008
Do you ever feel the pressure the make sure your church is “worldly” so people will be attracted to it? If not I wonder what planet you live on. The pressure is on to make the church into an ecclesiastical version of the David Letterman Show or worse. This is epidemic in our time but it is not something new. Spurgeon felt the pressure to make the church “worldly” to make it effective in his day. Phil Johnson blogged an interesting quote on the subject recently.
John MacArthur has written powerfully on the subject. In Ashamed of the Gospel he compared the Seeker Movement with the Downgrade Controversy of Spurgeon’s day. More recently he has evaluated the Emergent Church in The Truth Wars.
How do we reach the world and love the world without being conformed to the world? John Piper addresses this in a message on Romans 12:1-2
Godward Nudges January 14, 2008
I believe and I must believe in Godward nudges. Let me give you three examples of what I mean:
Tony told me that there was once a pastor who asked him the question; “If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and He were to ask you, ‘Why would I let you in my heaven,’ what would you say?” Tony acted as if the question had no effect on him and left the pastor’s house but years later, soul-searching in the middle of the night, he remembered the question, turned on the television and became a devoted follower of Christ. The pastor had asked him a question that nudged him Godward.
Ken was a young man in the naval reserve from Ohio. He was stationed on Grosse Ile in the downriver Detroit area many years ago. Experimenting with his new-found freedom as a young man he went out with buddies and did some drinking. It was a Saturday night. He spent a restless night fighting off dark guilt and unhappiness. He got up early the next morning to attend chapel on the station. He was the only one there. The chapel was conducted by a local pastor who volunteered because there was no station chaplain at the time. The young man would not find the Lord for a few years, but that experience was a Godward nudge.
Keith attended the funeral of a friend. While the pastor was trying to eulogize his friend he got to thinking about what it would be like when he died. What would the pastor have to say about him at his funeral? It turned his life around. The funeral was a Godward nudge.
Tony never told the pastor the effect his question had on him. Ken was eventually converted and entered the ministry but never met the pastor on Grosse Ile again. Keith never told the humble country pastor about what happened to him at the funeral of his friend but God used him to nudge him Godward. People write books about profound things, overt miracles, the out-of-the-ordinary—but the thing that keeps me plugging away in ministry is the potential of Godward nudges.
Maybe someday in heaven we will hear the stories of how God took our feeble attempts at ministry and worked wonders in the hearts of people that we never imagined. I want to be there some day when the Lord shows my faithful Mom and Dad how many multitudes he fed with the loaves of fishes they gave to him through their many years of faithful ministry. I believe in Godward nudges. If I didn’t I might get discouraged and give up.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
January 14, 2008
God on the Mountain January 5, 2008
I thought you might want to see this. We all have enjoyed Tracey Dartt’s song for years. The girls are planning a trip to Eastern Kentucky this summer to sing and serve there. They will have their own site up soon so you can ask them to sing at your church or festival.
Ken's new book - Sunset On Summer, now available for order, $13.95 each.