A pile of .....

My dad was at one of our rural churches recently. The pastor there was so glad my dad (the regional overseer) was there because he needed help in dealing with an issue that was threatening to split the church. It seems an issue had arisen between one of the old polygamists in the church and the pastor’s mother. The pastor’s mother and a few other ladies were re-plastering the mud walls of the church. Part of the plaster recipe includes some cow manure to make it stick. Well the ladies had gotten the cow manure for the plaster from a friend down the road rather than going to the polygamist for his manure. Mind you, this is a major offence that has grown until it threatened to split the small congregation.
Some of you know that look my dad gets. A little twinkle in his eye, a tiny smirk under the beard. Finally he asked: “now, let me get this straight, this is all about cow manure?” The irony hit everyone in the meeting…except the polygamist. Makes you wonder how many church splits and relational conflict really boils down to a load of c__p.