Leadership 101 – An Unforgettable Checkers Game

He was the “number one” leader in the Minnesota Baptist Conference and he was coming to our church in Cokato not only to visit but to preach on a Sunday. My Mom and Dad were eagerly looking forward to the visit of the Executive Director (or whatever his title was at the time) to First Baptist Church in Cokato, Minnesota.

I was just a kid (probably in the fourth or fifth grade at the time of this visit) and already had been around lots of ministers, missionaries and distinguished leaders. It was obvious they were committed to their work and passionate about making a difference.

Many were consumed with telling their story and talking about themselves. Although not deliberate, often it was quite clear that there was little or no interest in getting to know a kid sitting around a dinner table or attending a service or an event. These visits by the majority of these prominent people were times to be endured rather than to be enjoyed.

On this particular Sunday, I once again was at home fighting my ongoing battle with asthma. I looked out the window of the parsonage and saw people coming to church but there was no way I could leave the house. It was ok with me that my folks had left me home alone while they served in their roles at church as well as facilitating the visit of this particular dignitary. There was a pot luck dinner at the church after the service. I was 100% certain I would never meet this particular honored guest. Why would he be interested in me – a sick kid at home struggling with asthma?

It wasn’t too long after the service that my Mother came home. And she brought a special guest. It was Reverend J. G. Johnson himself, the head of the Minnesota Baptist Conference. He wanted to see me!!!

“Rickie, I heard that you are a wonderful checkers player. Let’s play some checkers together.” I could not believe what I was hearing.

As we played checkers, we got to know each other and all of a sudden I had a real friend – someone I would admire up until the day he breathed his last earthly breath.

Reverend J. G. Johnson - going out of his way to take the time to play checkers with me on that particular Sunday afternoon - impacted me for the rest of my life. In a brief period of time, he modeled for me leadership 101 in action. By the way, I have no idea who won at checkers.

An Unforgettable Concert

It was a beautiful recently opened affordable housing facility located on Martin Luther King Drive in Portland, Oregon that looked like a Marriott Courtyard.

It had been a very busy and challenging site visit and I decided to get away for a little while. There was a new piano given to the facility as a gift sitting at the front of the dining room. This was a special piano that could be played as a regular piano but also had the capability to incorporate a number of other musical instruments.

So I sat down and began to play. Somehow I got fixated on playing Amazing Grace and played a variety of impromptu arrangements utilizing different instruments (violin, trumpet, etc.) each time I played.

When I got up to leave, I noticed a lady sitting in the back of the dining room. I immediately went up to her and told her that if I would have known she was in the room, I would have played a variety of songs.

She had a tear in her eye as she told me how much this time of music had meant to her. In talking with her, I learned that she was a senior adult orphan. She had no family and had no close friends who were concerned about her, were watching out for her or even had an interest in her.

She had been living day by day and moment by moment in a small room in down town Portland as part of a building that provided bare bones daily lodging and meals to those in need. But that was it.

One day, she had been put in a taxi cab and dropped off at our community. She qualified for Medicaid and was immediately assigned her own room on the fifth floor

“I’ve never lived like this in my entire life. The meals are wonderful. I have my own room with a view. The staff and volunteers really care and are like family to me. And I just got to hear this wonderful “concert.” I feel like a queen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

I never in my wildest imagination thought I was giving a concert. It is absolutely amazing to me how our wonderful Lord takes ordinary events of life and turns them into something that is greater than we could ever ask, think or imagine.