July 17, 2026 | Moments Almanac | Chairs

Welcome to Moments Almanac for July 17, 2026. You know, most revolutions don't begin with a speech. Sometimes they begin with an empty chair. On July 17, 1883, a boy named Arthur Flake was born in the small town of Lockhart, Texas. Few Christians recognize his name today, but if you grew up Southern Baptist, there's a good chance your Sunday school classroom exists, at least in part because of him. Flake wasn't a famous preacher, he wasn't a theologian, he wasn't an evangelist filling stadiums. He was a businessman who became convinced that churches too often prayed for growth without preparing for it. When he was a layman in Mississippi, his church's Sunday school began to flourish, not because he discovered some secret technique, but because he asked simple questions. Do we have enough classes? Enough teachers? Enough space? Enough leaders? And perhaps most importantly, are we intentionally making room for the next person God sends? Those questions became what generations of Baptists would simply call flakes formula. Start new classes before they're needed. Train new leaders before you're desperate for them. Visit people before they drift away. Prepare a place before the crowd arrives. It sounds remarkably ordinary, but so does planting seeds. It reminds us of the parable that Jesus told about the master who looked at empty seats and said, Go into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in so that my house may be filled. Notice what the master cared about, not simply the feast, the empty places. Arthur Flake understood something every growing church eventually learns. People are easier to welcome when you've already made room for them. Preparation isn't the opposite of faith. Sometimes preparation is faith. Noah built an ark before it rained, Joseph stored grain before the famine, the disciples gathered baskets before Jesus multiplied the loaves. Faith often looks like getting ready for what God can do. For decades, Arthur Flake traveled from church to church across the Southern Baptist Convention helping congregations prepare for the harvest they were praying God would send them. His methods have been revised over the years. His charts have grown old, but the principle has never aged. Love plans ahead. Love leaves an empty chair. Love believes someone else is still coming. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, let all things be done decently and in order. That verse isn't about cold efficiency. It's about removing unnecessary obstacles so people can encounter Christ. You know, we all can make room for just one more person, one more invitation, one more conversation, one more chair. Because sometimes the holiest things you can do is to prepare a place for someone you've never met. Well that's Moments Almanac for July 17th, 2026. Until next time, take care. Notice the scattered moments, and share the grace.