Bittersweet Farm
It’s dark and cold and there is a cold, sleety, slush falling from the sky at an angle in the wind as I push the dumpster to the curb this morning. Somewhere there is a resilient little bird out there in the icy, cold, darkness… singing… Give me that spirit today, Lord.
Have you heard of the failure lab? People gather in a hall and they tell stories of a time of regret or failure. I think the point of the project is to encourage people that even the most successful people in the world have had to overcome failure. I have a failure story that haunts me. It happened on a spring-like Sunday morning in May.
We lived in Fremont, Michigan, a small town famous for Gerber Baby Food. I was the pastor of First Baptist Church. Just before dawn on that Sunday morning a powerful thunder storm roiled through town and knocked out most of the power. Trees were down. Things were a mess. After the storm blew through, the sun came out it was a beautiful sunny spring day, but only a small part of the town had power.
One of my first thoughts was—“I want a cup of coffee.” First things first. I got in the car and drove out to the business strip for a cup of coffee at McDonalds. No power there. No power anywhere. No coffee. I drove to the church. The church just happened to be one of the only places in town that still had power. We could still hold services.
I consolidated the classes and we met in the auditorium for a class during the Sunday School hour. We met with a fraction of our normal congregation for the worship hour and then we went home to clean up from the storm and wait for the power to come back on. Though we held our services at the usual times, most people probably did what I did. They drove around looking for a cup of coffee and then drove back home to deal with the problems, clean up the yard and wait for the power to come back on.
Looking back I realized that way I handled that opportunity was a failure on my part as a leader. If I could take a Mulligan on that I would have organized the crew that showed up for Sunday School that day. I would have had some of them make “Free Coffee” signs and go out to stand by the main road and direct people to the church. I would have had some of them make signs to direct people a little “drive-through” place between our buildings. I would have sent the church ladies to the kitchen to brew fresh coffee. We had a perfect place for people to pull through and grab a cup of coffee without even getting out of their car. We would have served all the coffee we owned and provided a needed service for our whole town. The town was full of frugal Dutch folk, they would have admired us for our initiative.
If I had been a leader that day we would still be talking about it today. We would have created a wonderful buzz of good will and prevented hundreds of headaches all over town.
I woke up this morning with that story on my mind and I realized it has happened again. The power is out all over the town where I live. People feel powerless to fix their marriages, powerless to overcome their addictions, powerless to help their kids flourish, powerless to kick addictions—they feel powerless, but the power is on at the church. We have what people need! We need leaders to take charge and organize the church to meet the needs of powerless people all around our churches.
We just need to lead. If we don’t we will look back on this time some day with deep regret.
We have power to help people. I know we do. It’s time for leaders to lead.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 23, 2016
Here is an example of a Failure Lab talk:
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A Howling Storm
by Ken Pierpont (David Kline)
David Kline is an Amish farmer and gifted writer. In the sixties he was drafted and forced to move to Cleveland to work in a hospital since he was a conscientious objector. Born and raised in the quiet countryside of Holmes County, Ohio, the largest Amish settlement in the world, life in the city was a difficult adjustment.
“I moved to Cleveland in late November, and when I was returning after spending the Christmas holiday at home, the Greyhound bus got caught in one of the early winter snowstorms northeastern Ohio is famous for. Arriving three hours late, in the early morning hours, the city was at a standstill. The city buses, my usual mode of travel to my apartment eight miles out in the suburb (for thirty-five cents), had quit for the night, and there were no taxis running. The city was asleep.
Since I did not have enough money for a hotel room and sleeping in the bus station wasn’t an option, I walked into the howling fury of the storm. Almost immediately car lights came out of the swirling snow and stopped by the curb; the driver reached over and opened the passenger door.
“Do you need help, or a ride?” a voice asked.
“Indeed I do, but I have almost no money,” I said,
After the driver said it was no problem, I got in the car, and we headed, alone on the wide streets, for my new home. The driver, an African American with some gray in his hair said he had woken at 1:00 A.M. and hearing the storm outside could not go back to sleep. He thought someone might be in need of help, so he got in his car and drove to the bus station.
Finally, after numerous U-turns on the slippery roads, we reached the street where I lived. He did not want to take many money for the ride, but I insisted and gave him all I had. As I watched the tail lights of his car fade into the storm, my eyes welled with tears of gratitude for this angel of mercy.
That man forever changed my view of the city. I realized that love can live in the human heart anywhere.”
From about 1991 to 1996 we lived in rural Ohio. Today our home is in a suburb of a great city. But if you keep your heart open to it, no matter where you live, you will see that love can live in the human heart anywhere.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 16, 2016
What Lasts is What Matters
Revelation 11
Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, Micghian
Pastor Ken Pierpont
February 14, 2016
Since God is good and he is all-powerful, why does He allow evil? Last Sunday evening I walked the people through some answers that I have given to people over the years as they have struggled with this question.
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