Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 124
August 22, 2014
Thinking About the Rest of My Life
I’m in mid-life. I’m not at all in a mid-life crisis, but aging is sobering and thought-provoking. What am I to do with the rest of my life? At mid-life you think every day about how much time you have left to do what God has called you to do this side of the next life.
I’m a Follower of Jesus.
This I know. I am a follower of Jesus and I always will be. Whatever my future holds I will always and eternally be first and foremost a joyful, willing follower of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. He is my Treasure.
I’m a Husband.
September 8th of 1979, 35 years ago, Lois and I began to walk together in the covenant of marriage. As long as God gives us life we will walk together for the glory of God. It is my blessed duty to love her and to cherish her.
I’m a Father of Four Sons and Four Daughters.
God has “graced” us with these children. All but one of whom is now an adult. Within a month half of them will be married. By God’s grace and protection, by the month of October there will be a grand-daughter (Keira Lee Hancock), and four grand-sons; (Kyle, Oliver, and Leland Pierpont-born to Kyle and Elizabeth) and a male child born to Heidi and Austin. I know that a major part of my calling is to be an influence and example to this clan to inspire and instruct and influence them to treasure Christ and make Him known.
I’m a Pastor.
I have been a pastor for 35 years. I am about to complete my seventh year as the Sr. Pastor of Evangel Baptist Church in Taylor, Michigan. It is my duty to shepherd the flock of 600 active members, to teach them, warn them, train them, protect them spiritually, guide them into holy living by my teaching and the example of my life and family. Is it my job to lead the deacons and the staff and hundreds of volunteers in the life of the local church.
What About the Future?
This morning I woke, as I often do, thinking about how I can make the years ahead until the return of Christ or my departure to be with Him faithful and fruitful. Of course I will keep doing what I know I am called to do using the means of grace commended to us in the Scripture to nurture and nourish the body of Christ at Evangel. I will preach and teach. I will counsel, exhort, warn, admonish and rebuke. I will fast and pray. I will study and learn and listen and tell the sweet story of Christ and his love wherever I go every day. I will communicate vision to the people and train men to train others.
But this morning something else became clear to me.
I want to go immediately public with it here at www.kenpierpont.com because the site here will be a kind of record of this new emphasis. Here it is. I am going to use this tool (kenpierpont.com) to encourage, inspire and instruct others in the art of Gospel Conversation. I would like to do this through sharing tools that aid in effective gospel conversation and by telling stories of gospel conversations when I have them or when I can gather them from others.
These tools for gospel conversations and stories of gospel conversations will help you have gospel conversations of your own.
I am the Senior Pastor at Evnagel, but from today on I am going to think of myself as the Pastor for preaching, pastoral care, vision, leadership, outreach, and evangelism.
Gospel Conversations
As soon as I can, I am going to create a special section here at kenpierpont.com for Gospel Conversations. In this section:
Resources. I will point you continually to resources that will help you be more effective in gospel conversations.
Inspiration: I will point you to places to help motivate you to have gospel conversations.
Training: I will share tools so you can become faithful and fruitful in gospel conversation.
Examples: Often, I will tell stories of gospel conversations and the loving acts that lead up to effective gospel conversations.
The Lord made this very clear to my heart this morning. I hope you will visit often and share your experiences in gospel conversation with me.
Pastor Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
August 22, 2014
Here is a little motivation for gospel conversations
August 16, 2014
Looking at Pictures Together; Storytelling Podcast #15
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August 15, 2014
Is Mitford Real?
Sometimes life can just crush you. It can break your heart. Sometimes disappointment can be do oppressive that you wonder if you can go on. I’ve had a bit of pain and disappointment in my life over the years. Sometimes to buffer the pain of life I have visited the little villages of Mayberry on the old Andy Griffith television series. In the last twenty years I have returned over and over again to Jan Karon’s Mitford to try to learn and remember how to see the goodness of God in the badness of the fallen world around me.
It’s given me a hopeful picture of what life can be like where people walk with God and walk in love. I’ve carefully listened and watched and read as Jan Karon talks about her little Mitford. People often ask: “Is Mitford real?” I love the way she answers.
Lately I’ve been dealing with some heartaches–some disappointments that could knock the wind out of my soul and crush my spirit. This morning I was reading an interview with Jan Karon and she talked about Mitford. My eyes clouded with tears and my heart was filled with hope again as I was reminded how Mitford can be a real place. It’s work, but it can be done and done simply. Read on:
Is Mitford Real?
People say to me quite plaintively, “Oh, how I wish Mitford could be real.” Well, Mitford can be real. Mitford is real, but we have to do our part. Mitford doesn’t just come to us like some cute little idyllic, cozy Kincaid greeting card. We have to pitch in. We have to keep our eyes and ears and hearts open to others. We have to be willing to put ourselves out there. It doesn’t all come to us. We have to go out to it. If we go out to greet it, we will find it. Do something for somebody else. Give somebody a hug, and do it with a full heart. Listen to the humor. Watch and observe the humor in other people’s lives and in your own. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Just get out there and wade in up to your neck into that sea of humanity, which is so needy. Smile at somebody for goodness sake!
There you are. You don’t live in Mitford and neither do I but you can go out there today and smile at somebody for goodness sake!”
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
August 15, 2014
August 11, 2014
Playing When We Should Be Praying
The house is silent in sleep. The world outside still dark. It is the beginning of a fresh, new week. It’s a peaceful and beautiful time of the year where I live. We are in the lush green of late summer. In just a few weeks families will be preparing to send the children back to school. The economy is making a slow come-back. For the most part our lives are stable and prosperous. Things have been a little thin lately but we still have enough extra for our cable and internet and the electronic gadgets that bring them to us. We still have enough extra to get away and enjoy some time “Up-North” in the summer. Not so in much of the world.
In the east it is daytime and I wonder what news we will hear from Israel and from Iraq. Israel and Gaza are at war and Iraq is torn apart by a group of Muslim extremists that make Al-Qaeda seem moderate. They are practicing unspeakable brutality against any religious group but their own.
This morning I’m thinking about the fact that I have known nothing but freedom without fear all my life. I can study and read freely. I can speak and write freely. I can apply myself freely to any work or legal enterprise that I desire. Lois and I were free to have eight children. We were free to teach them at home. Most of all, we have the freedom to worship God publicly with others of like faith. Never once in all my life have I feared for my life or safety because I assembled with other believers to worship God.
That’s not the way it is in many parts of the world today. Every day the news reports another atrocity against Christians somewhere in the world. Here in America we are preoccupied with worship styles and preferences as if church was a religious smorgasbord offering a little something for everyone’s personal taste.
Will there come a time we will regret not taking advantage of the freedoms we have enjoyed all our lives? Will there be a time in America that Christians will repent in tears for their pettiness and for the self-centered consumer attitude we have had concerning church?
While our brothers and sisters in other lands lay down their lives for Christ, let’s gather in groups and faithfully pray for them and while we can. Let’s take advantage of the freedoms we enjoy while we can. Let’s put aside personal preferences and prepare to suffer for Biblical convictions.
There are those who threaten to raise the flag of Allah over the White House. They would love to destroy our churches and snuff out our faith. Professing Christians in America gossip more then we pray. Most of us are playing when we should be praying. If religious persecution comes to a “theatre near you soon,” as many in other parts of the world are warning us, we will live to regret the games we play that we call church.
Let’s not be feasting and playing when we should be fasting and praying.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
August 11, 2014
Read this and gather with believers to pray.
Pleasant Paths-Vance Havner
Years ago, while visiting Word of Life in Schroon Lake, New York I discovered a delightful little book by Vance Havner. I had heard Dr. George Sweeting refer to Vance Havner at Moody and the cover of the book looked so appealing to me. I bought a copy and read it in an Adirondack chair over-looking Schroon Lake.
Thank you, people of Loomis Park Baptist Church for funding my trip to Schroon Lake back in 1985. Thank you Dr. George Sweeting for your recommendation. Thank you, Vance Havner for your lifetime of faithful ministry and inspiring me to write.
Most of all, thank you, Lord for all the pleasant paths I have walked with you.
You can read the book on-line here.
During my time at Schroon Lake I discovered the pleasure of reading in an Adirondack Chair. Later I would come across one. Here is the story of how it came to be mine. You can read about what happened to it here.
August 9, 2014
Left Behind; Storytelling Podcast #14
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August 5, 2014
Did Your Mom Tell You This?
When I was a boy my mom always tried to force me to eat vegetables—spinach, oh my. Brussels’s Sprouts. Cauliflower. Broccoli. Squash. She was always buggin’ me to eat this stuff. I didn’t like any of it. Finally I reached an age where I could make all my own food choices. I began to eat what I wanted and walked away from veggies, except corn with butter and salt, potatoes with butter and salt, peas with butter and salt, green beans with butter, salt, and bacon fat—Oh, and fries. Other than that most days to only vegetables I cam near were the pickles on my burger. I ate my veggies, but they were fried or made with plenty of—you know—butter and salt.
Well Mom hasn’t controlled my died for many, many years. I eat exactly what I want in the portions that I want. To be honest, that has not been particularly good for me. I’ve been remarkably healthy, but now I’m at the age where my eating habits are catching up to me.
I go to the doctor. The first thing they do is weigh me. They act all professional about it and they keep bumping those weights to the right. They write on their little clip-board and they try not to act surprised. Then they check my blood pressure and my cholesterol levels. Let me save you the painful details. After I run up a healthy bill with the doctor he give me a speech that sound remarkably like the one my mother gave me with a few medical terms thrown in to justify the considerable expense of the visit.
You can take the medicine and enjoy the side-effects of the medicine and wash it all down every day for the rest of your miserable life with your orange juice in the morning or… you guessed it—you can eat your vegetables. Lay off all that fat-marbled meat with salt. Stop eating all those carbs with salt and butter and fat in its various and tantalizing forms. Ditch the junk food. Potato and corn chips don’t count as a vegetable. A Large Coke, Bacon and Cheddar Quarter-Pounder, and a Large Fry does not constitute a balanced meal. Here is what you have to do to stay off the medicine:
Walk at least 30 minutes every day and eat brussels’s sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, salad, salad, and salad with small amounts of lean meat. Meat is fine, but it is best if you consider it a garnish, not your main dish. I can save you a lot of money and embarrassment. I can save you money for drugs, weight watchers, diet pills, and snake oil.
Do what my mom told me years ago. Eat your vegetables and fruit. Get out and play a lot. Say your prayers at night. Don’t make a habit of doing wrong. When you do wrong fess up and make it right. Go to church. Did you hear me? I said go to church—I’m talking every Sunday not Christmas, Easter and when you don’t have the green to get away to the cottage. Go to church and eat your veggies.
I’m pretty sure that if you don’t eat your veggies you are likely to die young and if you know the Lord you are going to go to Heaven and they don’t have fried chicken and barbecued ribs there. You will have glorified tastes for fruit and vegetables and your mother will be sitting over there across the table from you with an “I-told-you-so” look on her face.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
August 5, 2014
August 4, 2014
Young People!
How to Be Outstanding in Your Generation:
Proverbs 30:11-14
If you are willing to be different in the power of the Holy Spirit you can be outstanding like a lighthouse in the dark danger of the generation in which you live. Here are four practical ways to do that:
1. Honor your father and mother (11) There is a generation that curses its father, And does not bless its mother.
2. Be Honest About Your Sin. (12) There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness.
3. Look for a Way to Humble Yourself Every Day. (13) There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.
4. Use Your tongue for Righteousness and Mercy. (14) There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, And whose fangs are like knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, And the needy from among men.
August 2, 2014
The Moon in the Mountains; Storytelling Podcast #13
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My Aching Heart
No one told me when we had four sons and four daughters what it would do to my heart.
Heidi and Keira came for a visit this week. They came to be a part of Holly’s bridal shower and while they were here little Keira just stole our hearts. Yesterday Heidi (who is carrying a little boy due in October) and Keira would leave to drive back around the Big Lake home. I took lunch to come home and say goodbye. Lois was taking Keira for a walk in the neighborhood when I returned. Little Keira didn’t want to stop. I don’t think Grandma did, either. She called hot dogs “meat dogs” and potato chips “chippies” and she is eager to dance with me whenever I want. She loves for me to “spin her around.” When I drove back to the office my heart just ached with love for them. They have a good and happy life over on the other side of Lake Michigan. Part of my heart is always there with Austin and Heidi and Keira and that little boy we will meet in the fall of the year.
I’m having a bowl of oats at a restaurant where Wes and I have often met before work this summer. He spent the summer working to earn enough money for a truck. Yesterday he relized his goal. I helped him as much as I could. In less then two weeks he will get in that truck and pack his things and drive away to school again. He will take my heart with him.
Holly has been with us for thirty wonderful years. It would be impossible to explain the joy she has brought to us. In mid-September the man we didn’t know but all prayed for for years will take her away with him and they will fly to Mexico for a honeymoon and then go to live in their house on the West Coast. A part of my heart will be in Oregon now every moment of every day.
When I preach on Sunday, I will often catch the eye of a beautiful young woman with dark eyes and dark hair listening carefully following my eyes. Her name is McBride now—Hannah. She was named Pierpont until a couple summers ago. We will often have Sunday dinner together. She and her husband Dale are continually and sweetly on my heart every moment of every day.
Out north of Howell about an hour northwest of here our oldest boy Kyle and his wife Elizabeth are making a home with three adorable, delightful little boys. I visited their new home a few weeks ago. My boy is bright and talented and handsome—He is full of life and hope and dreams and I really don’t know what all—but a part of my heart beats there in that home with those three delightful boys, their handsome Dad who was my little boy once and beautiful, thoughtful, sincere Elizabeth-whom I love like my very own daughter.
Out in New Mexico I follow a young lady’s Instagram posts—a beautiful young lady I have never met before. She is always smiling beautifully in the photos and she is always with a handsome, tall young man—our little Danny Boy—who is about 6 foot 3 now. He is working about 60 yours a week on oil pipelines out there this summer and met this beauty on a church campout. I’ve never met her. I’ve never spoken to her. I just look at her eyes in the pictures and wonder what is behind them. I listen to my son as he tells me about their times together and a part of my heart is present with them while the explore young love.
Every day in my town I run into someone who asks about our son, Chuk. “How is he doing? We sure miss him around here. Give him my love. When will he come back and sing at Evangel again? Can I get some of those candles again. I’m out of them.” He has moved to Grand Rapids and we talk on the phone every day. It’s not the same as hearing his jokes and his lively never-ending stream of ideas and dreams and hopes he used to share when we were at home in the family room of Granville Cottage. A part of my heart lives in an apartment in Grand Rapids.
Last night I walked through the church lobby and noticed a teen couple sitting there laughing and talking. It was our baby Hope America and her friend Tyler. They are a picture perfect couple and tonight we are planning a double-date with them at the fair. Every year I take Hope to the fair and as night falls we ride the Ferris Wheel. We have done it for years. Last night she said; “We can all go together.” I don’t think so. I think I’m going to let her and Tyler enjoy the Ferris Wheel in the growing darkness over the fairground alone—but my heart will be there right with them—happy and aching.
Lois works late and comes to bed. We lie there in the night together, her head on my chest for a few minutes. We talk and pray. In those few quiet minutes before we are overtaken with sleep our four sons, four daughters, two sons-in-law and and our daughter-in-law, three grand buddies and one grand princess and a little bud of a child on the way are on our hearts. In September, after the wedding, we will go away together to the Ohio Amish Country to spend a few days in a little cottage in the village of Charm. We will be alone there for our 35th wedding anniversary, but our hearts will be scattered all over the place.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
July 31, 2014
