This weekend I preached in South Haven. It was a perfect early autumn-like weekend. On the way over we visited my little brother Nathan’s new home and spent the night there enjoying a long talk with coffee by the fireside before bed.
[Read more…] about This Week (September 15-21, 2003)
What is A Church?
Lately I’ve been doing some thinking about church. A church is:
…a hospital for wounded soldiers
…a resting place for weary travelers
…a guide and outfitter for hearty adventurers
…a training center for disciples
…a place to wash one another’s feet
…a family reunion for brothers and sisters in the faith
…a feast for hungry children
…a fountain for thirsty souls
…a place of sacred song
…a quiet house of prayer to talk to God
…a celebration for those with happy hearts
…a comfort for those with broken hearts
…a life preserver for those in spiritual danger
…a temple for devout worshippers
…a community of forgiven sinners
…a place on the earth to get in touch with things eternal…
A vital church is a powerful thing…And what makes it so? Not brick and mortar as helpful as they are, but people, God’s people in a community of faith together. God has promised to send the blessing of life evermore were brothers and sisters dwell together in unity. (Psalm 133)
A church should be a dynamic place of spiritual vitality. It should be a place where families have been strengthened. Homes are built. Hearts are stirred for things eternal. Missionaries are sent to tell the sweet story of how Jesus loves sinners and died to offer them the gift of eternal life. May it ever be so. Since Jesus died for the church we should be willing to lay down our lives for her too.
Kenneth L. Pierpont
Riverfront Character Inn and International Conference Center
Flint, Michigan
September 22, 2003
Regrets
After Skipper and Yoder we looked for a purebred Golden Retriever. We found a breeder up near Butler, Ohio and talked him into selling us the runt of the litter. We brought her home and she never wore a lead. She never spent an hour in the dog run. She was never put on a chain. Her name was Ginger. At the time we lived on a farm in a valley on a dead-end road and Ginger had the run of the farm. She loved it and we all loved her.
[Read more…] about Regrets
This Week (September 9-15, 2003)
As I write this we are on our way home from South Haven where we preached and sang at Bethel Baptist Church. Chuck is driving so I can write and work on some messages for tomorrow. We will return for the next two Sundays to South Haven. I am looking forward to being on the west coast of Michigan for the arrival of autumn. The trees are just starting to color in a few places. Saturday night we stood on a wooden deck drinking coffee and watching sailboats come into harbor at dusk.
[Read more…] about This Week (September 9-15, 2003)
This Week (September 1-8, 2003)
It’s been an exciting week at the Character Inn. The new class of Verity students is arriving from around the country and some new Character Inn staff members are coming in. God has provided thirty-five staff members to work with us this fall. They are all young missionaries. This fall we have formed a development team to create a new program involving intense study of the lives of great Christians and the devotional classics. The program will be for college credit like a Bible Institute. We should be able to invite our first class to begin in January.
[Read more…] about This Week (September 1-8, 2003)
Grandpa’s Sacrifice
There is something about love that makes sacrifice sweet. My dad understood this. He didn’t talk about it he just did it. He may have learned that from his father. My grandfather worked all his life to buy a farm. He would love to have been able to raise his children on a farm but he was never able to do that. A few years after his last child married and started a family of his own he and grandma purchased a simple farm in the rolling Ohio farmland that he loved. As far as I know they never named it. I would have. For years we have all just referred to it as “the farm.”
[Read more…] about Grandpa’s Sacrifice
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