"Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen." - Bob Edwards

This one because it has become de rigueur

And this one to illustrate what I was talking about last night. I took this pic before starting up again this morning. The hole you see - about 16 inches deep and 3' in diameter - took three hours to dig. I spent another hour and a half this morning and made proportionate progress. I have to go 24" deep and the finished hole needs to be just about 8' square. The bottom looks like that because the night before I put 6" of water in the hole. I hoped that would soften the ground. Instead it turned it into a very heavy saturated clay that stuck to my shoes and was even harder to shovel. Dumb idea. But you would not believe how hard this stuff is!

The local headline said, “Best time to watch meteor shower is before dawn.”
Whew! I’m glad they told me that one, or I would have gone out there at lunchtime to see it.

Jack and I are working the issue. Pam and I decided yesterday he doesn’t know as much as we thought about the appropriate routine for certain bodily functions. We now suspect he came from a foster home with a fenced yard accessed by a regular door. That would explain why he was spooked by our slider, and why we’ve found a few...well, you understand. If he was allowed to spend extended time in a fenced yard he didn’t have to learn to signal his need for relief.

I’ve decided to approach this as one would with a puppy, minus the newspaper stage. As we did with puppies we’ve had in the past, I take him outside often and we walk the small area designed for his relief. If he does anything (rare) I give him half a biscuit I put in my pocket before we go out. Hopefully, he’ll learn to associate relieving himself at the time and place of my choosing with reward. He LOVES going outside because up until now it has always meant a walk of a mile or more, so these 2-3 minute forays have him a bit confused. But he’ll catch on soon enough. It’s not like he’s a Cocker Spaniel.

Note: he shares a behavioral characteristic with his predecessor, Sir Al Fartsalot of Welk Manor. I’m thinking his formal name needs to be something like Lord Jack Fartsalot. I’ve read this is true of Greyhounds as a breed, and so far we’re two for two.

Shhhh. The palmer is really Ivanhoe, but nobody knows it yet. (I just figured it out.)

LOTS of stuff in my head today. I won’t burden you the list, but let me try this one out on you.

I think we need to differentiate between church ministries and church programs. I think those words get used interchangeably sometimes but I’d like to introduce a formal distinction. Specifically, ministries are those parts of the church’s schedule that do what God called the church to do. So, the Sunday School is a ministry (spiritual education). The music ministry involves worship and the young adult ministry fosters koinonia.

By contrast, programs (per my proposed definition) are created, designed and structured to produce those things which should happen naturally and organically within the local body but, for whatever reason, aren’t. So we create a program to increase the likelihood they will.

The church puts together an evangelism program (aka evangelism ministry) where people go out at a scheduled time and witness because doing so has been...programmed. I’m going to argue Christians should be doing that as a natural outgrowth of their love for God, their wonder at his grace in their lives and their burden for friends and family who haven’t experienced it. But when the church leaders realize their people aren’t talking to the unsaved about the gospel their solution is to put together a program.

I’m reading a book a friend gave me in which the author, a man who pastors a church of over 8,000 people, urges every church to create a discipleship program where believers are discipling those less mature in the faith. This, he says, should happen in small groups designed for the purpose. A program.

The problem with programs, I hypothesize, is that they miss the true diagnosis, treat the symptom, and almost always fall short of their intended purpose.

The proper diagnosis seems to me to center around believers who are not where they should be spiritually. Now, to be fair, the cause for that may very well lie with the church leaders who aren’t feeding, disciplining, etc. as they should. If the flock is anemic the fault may lie with the shepherd! However, let’s be fair to the leaders, too. Many (!) Christians have adopted worldly perspectives, values and activities that force Scriptural things to the back of the bus, regardless of what their spiritual leaders do.

My point is this. Maybe it’s time to take a look at some of the things the typical American church does, activities that are presented with all the enthusiasm those in charge can muster, and ask whether they are ministries or programs. And if they’re programs, why? Why is it necessary to arrange and schedule what should be happening naturally and organically in God’s people?

FWIW