Disabled minister buries his talent – and multiplies it
By Holly E. Nye, United Methodist News Service, April 12, 2000
ROCK CITY FALLS, N.Y. – In the parable of the talents, the master rebukes a servant for burying his talent in the ground, instead of multiplying it for good.
The Rev. Chris Mickel, 44, buried his “talent” in the ground, and it came up as pickles – and it was multiplied for the good of others.
When kidney failure resulting from diabetes forced Mickel to go on disability leave four years ago, his “Protestant work ethic” led him to think of ways he could be in ministry beyond the pulpit.
“I grew up on a farm,” he said, “and I am used to gardening. It’s also physical activity that is good for my health. I realized I could combine exercise with helping others financially.” The idea for Mickel’s Pickles was born.
Working around his three-day-a-week dialysis schedule, Mickel tends a 1,000-square-foot garden, raising organic vegetables. Because of theological concern for the care of creation, he is committed to gardening without commercial fertilizer or pesticides. He and his landlady, Tyyne Koivisto, prepare and can the vegetables: dilly beans, cucumber pickles of several varieties, zucchini pickles, vegetable soup and applesauce. They sell their produce in pint or quart jars for a nominal price of $2 to $4.
All of the proceeds go into a scholarship fund to help seminary students prepare for ministry, specifically in rural “town and country” settings.
Beginning this year, the Troy Annual Conference will award the Mickel Koivisto Scholarship, and Drew University Theological School will award the Mickel Scholarship.
“Without scholarship help, I wouldn’t have gotten through seminary,” Mickel reflected. “I’d like to be able to help other students in the same way.”
He remembered the words of Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, who instructed Christians to “earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”
This led him to a realization: “I’ve got as much as I need, even on disability pay; I need to live simply and to give.”
Mickel has been on dialysis for five years and is awaiting a kidney transplant. In addition to his gardening ministry, he is president of Drew’s alumni association and serves on the search committee for a new dean for the seminary. As his health allows, he also continues his lifelong service to the local volunteer fire department. He is not letting his talents go unused.
“The parable of the talents was a story that motivated me to go into the ministry,” Mickel said of the passage in Matthew 25:14-30. “Now I can help students pursue their own ministry, and I can also help small churches to see that there are always ways to be in useful ministry.”
His concern is not just to sell pickles and fund the scholarship, but also to motivate others to find ways to multiply their talents in ministry.
“There is always something a person or a church can do, no matter how small.”