Sucking up (like a vacuum)

All right, I could not resist this. Bishop Schnase spoke on the 5 practices twice in my district today---at Platte Woods and then at Good Shepherd. Because I had a charge conference elsewhere, I conly made it for 10 minutes of PW, but for almost all of GS. . I heard him use an analogy I had not heard before (I sure hope it's not in the book and I forget that I had read it). He says that society, during the 50s, acted like a dump truck for the church....all the people would be swept up (or dumped in? I guess) and dumped out on our church lawn. Those of us who remember American civil religion remember when sports practice was never on Sunday and blue laws. Church was the place everybody went. Now, says rs, society is like a vacuum cleaner...sticks its hose in the church door and sucks all the folks out. This was tongue in cheek of course (I laughed loudly....somehow it REALLY struck me as humorous...after a day of being present at two good worship services at Odessa and Grace: Higginsville, and a good-spirited charge conference at Blue Springs about money and buildings, and a brief appearance at Platte Woods...it might have been some tired laughter but I still want to hoot about this analogy). Hmmm, something to think about.