Pastor Criag Clapper (Google him–interesting guy)
It’s crisp and it’s clear this morning. It’s cool and colorful. It’s the kind of morning you think about when deep into the hot and humid swelter of summer you imagine an autumn day.
I’m nursing a coffee and enjoying some conversation at Starbucks. I’m doing some writing and getting ready for a long string of meetings with people today. Many of the local pastors cycle through here and you get a unique mix of news, opinion and ecclesiastical banter unavailable anywhere else. Chuk is the early-morning shift manager here and has that special gift of making wherever he is feel like home. I have a coffee-shop story to tell you today.
True story. Two pastors frequented a coffee house. One of them studied with the kind of ear-protection you would wear if you were operating a jackhammer or industrial lawn mower–big, orange headphones. He buried himself in his study, a large study Bible and his sermon preparation. He didn’t take off the headphones, even when he went to the men’s room. He was orthodox, Bible-believing, sound in faith, truth-teaching and out of touch with the world around him.
The other pastor knew everyone’s name. He would breeze in every day with a smile on his face and a kind word for everyone. He genuinely cared about people. At Christmas time he would come in for his regular coffee and drop a one hundred dollar bill in the tip jar.
I want the be like the second pastor. Around Jesus were men and women with every imaginable need and he didn’t walk through his world with headphones on.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
October 9, 2013
