There’s an old story about a small church out in a rural area that needed a pastor to fill in for a time. So they contacted a nearby seminary. The seminary sent a student who had never been outside of the city. When he arrived at the church, the student preacher was shocked to see a hound dog seated on the second row next to the church’s lay leader, a crotchety older man who was known to run off young student pastors.

In a heat of righteous indignation the young preacher headed straight toward the dog. He screamed at it and drove it out of the church. The startled congregation held its breath, to see what the lay leader would do, but nothing happened.

After the sermon everyone quickly scooted out the side door and waited for the older man to come out. When he graciously greeted the young…