The Christian's Walking-Stick

If "words are the bugles of social change" it is time for the church to trumpet a different tune than "planning" and "programming." Today''s church is called to rediscover the spirited discipline (i.e., "walking stick") of preparedness.

In 1989 President Bush challenged the community of public educators to join with him in rescuing our failing system of teaching our children. By 1991 neither the national governing bodies, nor the local educators had yet agreed on what kinds of measurements (tests, programs, numbers) they should use to begin investigating what was wrong with the system. That's not getting stuck in the starting blocks that's getting stuck in the driveway before even leaving for the competition.

"Long-range planning" is in vogue today as it has never been before. More companies and schools and agencies and churches know what they are going to be doing five years from now better than they know what they are doing next week. Part of this love-affair with planning comes from our arrogant confidence in the surety of our own futures. Of course we will still be here, plodding along just the same, years from now. Thus we'd better figure out what we will do with all this time. Besides such cock-sureness is our ...