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When I worked at a camp in northern Wisconsin, my fellow staff members often told a story about a cat that had lived on the campgrounds for many years. When the cat died, one prankster decided to have the cat stuffed, then placed it in strategic locations to startle other staff members and visitors. (I swear I am not making this up.)

Apparently, the cat appeared serenely napping on a car dashboard, cuddled at the feet of a secretary, and propped up with a sign directing visitors to the camp office before it was kidnapped (or should I say cat-napped?), never to be seen again.

I was reminded of this story when I read that actor Alan Alda, most famously of the TV show "M*A*S*H" and more recently of "The West Wing," recently wrote a book entitled, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned. In it, Alda talks about how he had a beloved pet dog when he was eight years old. When the dog died, Alda was so sad about burying it that his father decided to have the dog stuffed instead.

"We kept it on the porch and deliverymen were afraid to make deliveries," Alda recalled in an interview with Newsweek. He then continued, "There are a lot of ways we stuff the dog, trying to avoid change, hanging on to a moment that's passed."

Churches seem to have a special proclivity toward "stuffing the dog," maintaining programs, buildings, and even members in an attempt to forestall necessary change. In the short term, it's sometimes much easier to stuff a church's pets than to acknowledge their death, grieve their loss, and give them an appropriate burial.

These pets may take the form of programs that are tied more to history than to current effectiveness; they may be personal favorites, the "pet projects" and ministries of influential leaders who don't want to let go of them; or they may just be familiar mutts that everyone agrees have passed their prime, but are more familiar (or maybe just cheaper!) than a new animal.

But, like Alda's dog and the camp cat, stuffed animals might bring temporary comfort to those inside the organization, but they may actually turn off or even frighten newcomers who aren't familiar with the history and meaning behind them. Whether it's a particular worship style, a ritual, an outdated program, or even a powerful clique within the church, visitors will usually be quick to notice that something's not quite right. They may not stick around to find out what, or why.

One of the key tasks of a good leader is to acknowledge reality within the organization. In churches, this responsibility falls to the pastor. Sometimes, that means burying a beloved pet, rather than propping it up in denial of its passing, even if it's your pet.

I know a pastor who was so attached to a Sunday-evening service, he kept it propped up for years, even when flagging attendance indicated it was clearly a dying breed in our community. This pastor eventually left for another church, where one of his first actions was to resurrect (you guessed it!) a Sunday-night service.

But although it is never easy to bury a dead pet, identifying a dog that won't hunt can actually help build trust in your leadership, as it demonstrates that you are willing to take risks in the pursuit of greater Kingdom effectiveness.

I knew a college student whose parents told her over the phone that her beloved dog was alive and well, when it reality it had died months earlier, shortly after she first left home for school 2,000 miles away. Those parents thought they were helping their daughter avoid pain, but the next time she came home, they had to work through her grief and her loss of trust.

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