One of First Elders is Gone

Ken Henson died last Friday morning, his service was today. It was a tremendous opportunity to mourn the loss of a friend and rejoice that he is now with Christ.

I mentioned during the service that Ken proved we are never too old to be sanctified.

When Ken lost his beloved wife, Stella, three years ago, he was despondent. You could see it in his walk and in his face. He struggled to keep going. He kept coming to church, but it was obvious that he was struggling.

This kind of struggle is to be expected. But God allows these trials for a reason. They provide an opportunity to grow to depend more on God. These trials test us to see whether or not Christ is really our treasure, or whether we have placed our faith in someone else.

Then, one Sunday evening during a prayer service, Ken made it clear that he believed the Lord still had work for him to do, and he was going to do it happilly. His countenance changed. He started to smile more, joke around a bit, and not too long Ken was elected to be one of our first elders.Watching Ken work through grief, perhaps even depression, and then cast his cares on Christ as best he could was a beautiful thing.

He was a man of few words, but faithfully taught a Sunday school class since the late 1960s and discipled younger men. I had the privilege of meeting a man at the funeral who, about twenty years ago, had asked if Ken would teach him how to be a godly man. Ken agreed and they worked together through Kent Hughes's Disciplines of a Godly Man.

Ken is gone now, but he leaves behind a large, biological family behind (an 18-year-old, great-grandson shared at the funeral), a spiritual family, and a pastor that will all miss him.