Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

What Will They Remember?

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Faith and Family, Past Ministry

Classic re-post from 2010

What memories will your children cherish when they are a long way from home one day? I like to think my children will cherish the memory of my joy in the public worship of my Savoir, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want them to remember the Lord’s Day as a special day set-apart for the honor of the Lord Jesus.

I want them to remember the Lord’s Day as a day different than any other day of the week. I want them to feel a great emptiness if their week does not include the assembly of the saints.

I want them to remember hundreds of songs and thousands of messages from God’s word that will come back to them when things are dark or hard, or when their spirits soar up in celebration of some great good.

I want them to have the memory of the kindness of the people of God toward them. I want them to know that God’s people are the greatest people on earth, the most loving, the most understanding, the most patient people they know.

I don’t ever want them to doubt that Jesus was my greatest joy and that I was loyally devoted to his church. I love Christ’s Church and I want them to love her, too.

Ken Pierpont
The Pastor’s Study
Evangel Baptist Church—Taylor, Michigan
March 26, 2010

Communion Over Comfort

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Faith and Family

Classic re-post from 2009

I duck my head into the boys room most mornings before I get prepared for the day. Their sleeping room and my dressing room are on the same level. Wesley’s bed is often empty. He is not in his bed. He likes to sleep on the floor. He has a wonderful bed with a nice mattress and box springs. He has nice flannel sheets on his bed, but he prefers the floor. [Read more…] about Communion Over Comfort

We Never Knew Her Name

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Village Parson

In high school my favorite class was always study hall, because there I could read what I wanted to read. I read books about ministry, pastoring, preaching, evangelism, discipleship, prayer, and the Christian family. I don’t ever remember reading textbooks. I had something else burning in my heart. I wanted to be used of God to influence people for Christ. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t feel that way. Today I want to share a story with you about how a woman was used to influence many for Christ in a very, very simple way. Maybe it will inspire your “people-influencing-efforts.”

Knox County is a pleasant county in central Ohio. Mt. Vernon is the county seat. Most of the county is covered with hills gentle enough to farm and beautiful enough to take your breath away on a spring morning or an autumn evening. The streets of Mt. Vernon were lined with Dogwoods when we moved there the day after Easter on April 20, 1987. It was a very, very happy day for me. I was eager to be a solo pastor. Outwardly I exuded confidence but secretly I was hopeful that I had what it would take to be a pastor.

Lois and I spent ten years of our lives living and working in Knox County. While we were there four of our eight children were born. Heidi, Hannah, Daniel and Wesley. Hannah, Daniel and Wesley were born at home during our Neo-Amish years, but that is another story.

God directed us to start a church in Knox County. I often think of that decade of our lives. We have many, many happy memories there. If I was starting that church again I would do some things differently. There is a lot we could have done better. I would have been a little more relaxed about some things. I would have been more intense about other things. It was not a perfect model of church-planting by any means at all, but in spite of all that, God worked–he worked in beautiful, lasting ways.

At the time I wasn’t sure my pastoral “career” was making much progress. I had to continually remind myself that pastoral work is a calling requiring faithfulness and holiness not an exercise in self-promotion and professional advancement. In spite of the many ways we could have improved there is no doubt that God allowed us to have a significant ministry there. To see it you would have to have spiritual discernment, but we planted some trees of ministry that still grow there on the gentle slopes of Knox County.

For some reason I think often of something that happened in early years of that church. One day a young woman showed up at our church. I think her little boy may have been with her that day. At the time I was working diligently to reach people. The church was small. I sent the bulletin on Thursday to everyone in the church. I often personally phoned anyone who missed the services. It was small. I could do that. The young woman who visited that Sunday was not someone I had ever met. No one in the church knew her. None of us had ever met her before.

After church we talked. She liked the church, which was remarkable because it was a small church meeting in an old converted Grange Hall on a country road. Our floors were wooden. We sat on metal folding chairs. It was a very, very simple affair. Nothing there to impress.

I asked her, “Dawn, how did you happen to find us?”

She said; “I work at a bank in Columbus. A co-worker invited me out for lunch. As we ate she said; ‘Dawn let me tell you why I invited you today. I’m a Christian and I am going to take all the girls in the office out to lunch one at a time so that I can explain to each of them how to be a follower of Jesus.’

At that point Dawn said, she began to cry. She said, “That is so sweet of you. I’m already a Christian. I was raised in a church, but I’ve had a lot of trouble and I’m far from God.”

“What church did you attend growing up?”

“I went to a little Baptist Church down in southern Ohio.”

“Well, why don’t you get up Sunday morning early, get dressed for church and drive around and look for a Baptist Church?”

That morning Dawn started driving out across the countryside and I am convinced that God’s Spirit guided her car to our little Grange Hall. She was not put off at all by the humble church–it reminded her of the church of her childhood.

Dawn returned to fellowship with Christ and his church. Eventually God would work powerfully in her family. She would enthusiastically invite many others. At one point I counted over fifty people that made our little church their home because of her invitation. I’ve often wondered how I could inspire other “Dawns” in churches I have served.

I don’t know the name of the young lady who invited Dawn out for lunch that day to give her the gospel. I’m sure I never knew her name, but I know that God knows her name. She couldn’t possibly know what happened as a result of her simple efforts. But God knows.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 6, 2012

A Friendly Argument

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Faith and Family

Lois took some beautiful pictures of Sue Lodico. Sue is a missionary who is leaving for South Africa on Valentine’s Day. The pictures turned out great. She tried to give Lois money but Lois wanted the pictures to be a gift. They had a friendly argument and then, like good friends do, they arrived at a compromise.

Lois gave Sue the pictures. Sue gave Lois a gift certificate to a neat little restaurant in don’t-blink-or-you-will-miss-it, Waltz, Michigan. It’s been unseasonably not-so-unbearably-cold lately. We had a nice drive out to Waltz on dry roads. We ate and we talked and we took our time and enjoyed our thoughtful gift from Sue the South African Missionary.

Lois and I enjoyed spending some unhurried time together. We’ve been together for over 33 years now.

Earlier this evening I visited the funeral home. A young mother had lost a two-year battle with cancer leaving behind her husband and two little boys. I gave the young man a New Testament and encouraged him to seek God in his sorrow.

After dinner I walked my little wife to the car. We turned up the heat and took the long way home. It was a nice evening. It’s good to have a life full of people to love. It’s good to be alive.

The old wedding vows say that marriage is designed to divine all of life’s sorrows and multiplies all of it’s joys.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 3, 2012

Why I Write

Filed Under: Faith and Family

As I write it’s Monday morning. I’ve had a wonderfully exhausting weekend, driving north and preaching five times, and a restful night. It’s a cold winter day outside. I only know because I let Hazard out for minute or two before ducking back into the warm security and comfort of our home. Now I want to write.

I realize more and more that I am probably not a writer who speaks, but I am a speaker who writes. But I do and I will write and work hard at writing for the rest of my life because there are so many people I can reach through writing who I will never have the opportunity of speaking to.

Yesterday two people in two different places wanted to meet me after I had spoken. They had been reading the Stonebrige Newsletter for years and loved the stories and wanted to meet the writer in person. Not everyone reads dense text on a page or screen but many do and for them I write. For those who I have never met and those who I will never meet I write.

I also write especially for those who I have meet and who I deeply love, many of whom share my last name. I write for my children and for the children who will be born to my children and I write for their children. I write for them so that I will pass on a rich heritage of faith and love for life and fidelity to Christ, Our Savior.

Once, years ago, when our children were all small and we were passing through deep, dangerous waters, I spent a day alone with the Lord high over some water under a pine tree writing, reading, listening to a recording–a wonderful old recording of a man’s testimony of the faithfulness and direction of God. I prayed and searched through my Bible looking for answers that would steady my soul during a time of self-doubt, self-condemnation, and self-evaluation.

I’ll save the heart of the story for another time, but on that summer afternoon the Lord directed my eyes to a passage in Isaiah that I seized upon as a personal promise to me. “All your children will be taught of the Lord adn great will be the peace of your children.” (Isaiah 54:13) It is one of the soaring prophetic future kingdom promises to Israel. My heart so longed for it to be true of the children the Lord had given to Lois and I. Four sons taught of the Lord. Four daughters taught of the Lord. My soul longed for that to come to pass. My heart believed that it would come to pass. I may have had a simplistic understanding of how to apply the Scriptures that afternoon, but it seemed that the Spirit had directed my eyes down the page in a specific answer to the longing concern of my soul.

“Lord,” I prayed that afternoon, “What about my children. What about them. I’m serving you and you have given me assurance that no weapon formed against me will prosper. You have given confidence that you will condemn any voice that rises against me in judgment. (Isaiah 54:17) I believe it. But because of my weakness and failure and abrasiveness and because of the depravity of others I fear that my children will be harmed. I fear that they will be turned away from serving you.” I looked away from my Bible and out over the water and prayed aloud, “What about our children?”

I glanced back down and my eyes focuses on verse thirteen. My hopeful heart seized upon it as a promise from the Lord. The passage seemed to be saying, ‘I will teach them myself and they will have peace.’ All your children will be taught of the Lord and great will be the peace of your children.”

And so I write. I write so they will read of the works and the wonders of God and pour themselves into our grandchildren so they will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments–(Psalm 78). I write so all our children will be taught of the Lord and know in personal experience what it means to live at peace with God.

I’ve written Sunset on Summer, collection of family stories. I’ve written over a thousand other essays and stories. I’m near finished with a collection of stories clustered around the theme of my grandfather’s old central Ohio farm and I will keep writing. I will keep writing for my children and their children and for you and your children.

May Jesus Christ be Praised and may all your children be taught of the Lord.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
January 30, 2012

Why I Write

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Faith and Family

As I write it’s Monday morning. I’ve had a wonderfully exhausting weekend, driving north and preaching five times, and a restful night. It’s a cold winter day outside. I only know because I let Hazard out for minute or two before ducking back into the warm security and comfort of our home. Now I want to write.

I realize more and more that I am probably not a writer who speaks, but I am a speaker who writes. But I do and I will write and work hard at writing for the rest of my life because there are so many people I can reach through writing who I will never have the opportunity of speaking to.

Yesterday two people in two different places wanted to meet me after I had spoken. They had been reading the Stonebridge Newsletter for years and loved the stories and wanted to meet the writer in person. Not everyone reads dense text on a page or screen but many do and for them I write. For those who I have never met and those who I will never meet I write.

I also write especially for those who I have meet and who I deeply love, many of whom share my last name. I write for my children and for the children who will be born to my children and I write for their children. I write for them so that I will pass on a rich heritage of faith and love for life and fidelity to Christ, Our Savior.

Once, years ago, when our children were all small and we were passing through deep, dangerous waters, I spent a day alone with the Lord high over some water under a pine tree writing, reading, listening to a recording–a wonderful old recording of a man’s testimony of the faithfulness and direction of God. I prayed and searched through my Bible looking for answers that would steady my soul during a time of self-doubt, self-condemnation, and self-evaluation.

I’ll save the heart of the story for another time, but on that summer afternoon the Lord directed my eyes to a passage in Isaiah that I seized upon as a personal promise to me. “All your children will be taught of the Lord adn great will be the peace of your children.” (Isaiah 54:13) It is one of the soaring prophetic future kingdom promises to Israel. My heart so longed for it to be true of the children the Lord had given to Lois and I. Four sons taught of the Lord. Four daughters taught of the Lord. My soul longed for that to come to pass. My heart believed that it would come to pass. I may have had a simplistic understanding of how to apply the Scriptures that afternoon, but it seemed that the Spirit had directed my eyes down the page in a specific answer to the longing concern of my soul.

“Lord,” I prayed that afternoon, “What about my children. What about them. I’m serving you and you have given me assurance that no weapon formed against me will prosper. You have given confidence that you will condemn any voice that rises against me in judgment. (Isaiah 54:17) I believe it. But because of my weakness and failure and abrasiveness and because of the depravity of others I fear that my children will be harmed. I fear that they will be turned away from serving you.” I looked away from my Bible and out over the water and prayed aloud, “What about our children?”

I glanced back down and my eyes focuses on verse thirteen. My hopeful heart seized upon it as a promise from the Lord. The passage seemed to be saying, ‘I will teach them myself and they will have peace.’ All your children will be taught of the Lord and great will be the peace of your children.”

And so I write. I write so they will read of the works and the wonders of God and pour themselves into our grandchildren so they will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments–(Psalm 78). I write so all our children will be taught of the Lord and know in personal experience what it means to live at peace with God.

I’ve written Sunset on Summer, collection of family stories. I’ve written over a thousand other essays and stories. I’m near finished with a collection of stories clustered around the theme of my grandfather’s old central Ohio farm and I will keep writing. I will keep writing for my children and their children and for you and your children.

May Jesus Christ be Praised and may all your children be taught of the Lord.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
January 30, 2012

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