Didn't see that coming... I stopped to talk with two men who were running their dogs (17 beagles flushing out rabbits) — what I learned from these two men (one married 50 years, the other married 55 years) about dogs was totally pertinent to our churches today.

The husband and I had walked a few miles in southern Johnson County today and heard the dogs running and barking like they do when they're running after a rabbit. Curious, we stopped and talked to the owners for awhile and asked them lots of questions.
I noticed they were conferring because they'd hear the dogs barking and then watched the pack chase a rabbit across an open part of the road. One or two small beagles couldn't keep up and they could hear it barking away from the others....they knew which dog was away from the pack by the sound of their bark...."Yeah, Ruthie got left behind again...."

Even though these two men couldn't see the dogs running through the brush, they kept careful track of them -- knowing where they were and if they were "working" or tracking game by their loud group barking.

Here's the Church lesson: The eldest man noted, "when they're working, you can keep track of them...it's when they're not working you lose them. It reminded me of our churches: When the flock have a place to serve in the house of God (working) and are diligently studying God's Word in Bible Study (also working) we can keep track of them — when they are doing neither, we tend to lose them.