Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

A Biker With An Attitude

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

Processed with VSCO with f2 presetYoung man is waiting tables at a steakhouse last week. He’s assigned a couple rough looking bikers. Tatoos. Leathers. The whole deal. They gave him a hard time.

After a while one of the bikers said; “Man, I’m just messin’ with you. I’m a pastor and I work with people who are struggling with addictions.”

He gestured across the table and said; “My friend here just got out of prison. He was there because of his addictions. If you know anybody who is having trouble with addictions you can give them my number. That is my specialty.”

When the bikers left the young waiter discovered that they had left a tip of almost 50%.

God has his people. Thank God, He has his people out there seeking the lost. This guy was not sitting in an office waiting for nice tithing choir members to show up and fill his pews, he’s out there looking for trouble, for Christ’s sake and for the gospel.

Thanks be unto God.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
September 22, 2016

Val’s Story

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Discernment, Past Ministry

DCIM102GOPROI read this story this evening from pastor John Van Pay. He is the pastor and founder of Gateway Christian Fellowship in San Antonio, Texas. It broke my heart and stirred my soul…

“I met Val when we were both picking up our daughters from school and discovered we had common ground in a love for mountain biking. We struck up a friendship and shared rides together. A few months after meeting him, he told me he couldn’t ride with me anymore. A nurse practitioner at a local hospital, Val had a brain tumor. When he told me, I said; “Hey Val, do you mind if I pray with you. He said; “I’d rather you not.” He told me if he ever made a decision to follow Christ I would be the first to know.

I visited Val in the hospital while he was having a CT scan. During the scan, he had a brain seizure and never recovered. A couple of days after his death, his wife, Debra, asked me to officiate his funeral because I was the only minister they knew. She handed me a stack of journals he wrote in. The second to last entry disclosed his confession of faith in a metaphor of a ship coming back to harbor. I shared Val’s story at the funeral.

Debra invited everyone who came to the funeral to our church. 41 people excepted her invitation. 18 of those friends gave their lives to Jesus at our grand opening service on February 10, 2008. They had Val cremated and his wife gave me a vial of ashes in a necklace. Sometimes I wear it as a reminder to everyone in this community needs to know Christ and life is way too short. From the start, our church wanted to pursue people just like Jesus pursued us.”

God help us to build relationships with hundreds of people to are still far from God.

I Care About Your Preferences

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Past Ministry

sadnessI am a pastor. I like people. Good pastors are like that. I want to make people happy. I like people to like me. Most good pastors are that way. In churches people all have preferences. Extra-biblical opinions and likes. Preferences in the pew and in the pulpit. We all have them.

Since I like people I care about their preferences. Here’s the deal, though. Most churches don’t really grow and they don’t really shrink. They just swap sheep. The professing believers in an area just shift around… often on the basis of their preferences.

So I care about that because I like people… but there is something I care about more than people’s preferences. I care about the eternal souls of people. I care about people who don’t know their right hand from their left spiritually. The Bible has a name for people like this… they are called perishing. Perishing. Multitudes are perishing and they are all around us and we do little to befriend them and pray for them and reach them—often because we spend our time and energy on protecting our religious turf and defending our preferences. Many who are faithful in church attendance are more interested in maintaining museums than they are in establishing missions.

That’s just a fact. So, yes I care about your preferences. I like you. I want you to be happy. I want you to like me. I want you to be in my church—but not if I have to tell the rest of the community to go to hell. See what I mean?

More tomorrow.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
September 20, 2016

Memories in the Doughty Valley; Story Podcast #63

Filed Under: Story Podcast

This painting is by John Sloane
This painting is by John Sloane

Every day you are making memories. Often you can control if they are good memories or bad memories. I like to live in such a way that, as often as possible I am creating good memories. I’ve included a cluster of memories on this little story podcast.

37 Years Ago Today-Solo Deo Gloria

Filed Under: Faith and Family

wedding-day

lois-and-kenIt was 37 years ago today that Lois and I were married.We married at her little church in Ypsilanti. After a modest reception in the church basement we got in our lime-green Plymouth Duster with a broad white racing stripe and headed south down Interstate 75 toward our apartment in Ohio where we would begin our life together. We ate our first meal at Bob Evans in Lima as the sun set on our first day as a family. She had country ham. I had a bowl of chicken noodles. On those first autumn nights the cool breeze would billow the curtains and carry the aroma of growing things off the fields around us into our room. We learned to live together for the glory of God by the grace of God.

Today after 37 years, four sons, four daughters and eight grandchildren, I can say with deep gratitude and humility, Solo Deo Gloria—to God alone be glory. God has providentially protected us, provided for us, guided us… What David said is true, The Good Shepherd has led us beside still waters into green pastures, restored our weary souls, set an abundant table before us in the presence of our enemies. For his name’s sake he has led us in paths of righteousness. Even when we have passed through difficult times he has comforted us and chastised us as his cherished lambs. We can say with full hearts that our cup runs over with blessing. His goodness, and mercy have followed us all the days of our lives…. God has allowed us to have years of ministry with hundreds, even thousands of people and given us the desire of our hearts.

We are making plans for a special time together when our schedules allow us a couple quiet days. We will go somewhere beautiful. We will hold hands across the table as we have done thousands of times, our eyes will pool with tears and the memory of the great goodness of God and we will look down a bright winding road into a golden future because the path of the just is like a shining light that get brighter and brighter until the full light of dawn. Solo Deo Gloria.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
September 8, 2016

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