I walked through the door of my office this morning and found this message waiting for me on the church's answering machine...
"You know what? You’re never there. What the #@&* is your problem? You’re supposed to be a preacher. You are never there. What is your problem…is what I want to know? God would be there. You wanna *&@#*!& be there for people? You’re never there. Goodbye."
That has to be by far the most interesting message I have ever had on my machine. What makes it more interesting is the time of day it was left. I was chewed out and cussed out because I wasn't in my office at 9:44pm!?!?! Kind of a strange time to be calling the preacher and expecting him to be at work. I am NEVER (ok...seldom) there at 9:44pm! I am usually at home getting ready for bed at 9:44pm.
I hope this person calls back, because I already embarrassed myself by calling the person I thought it was. They assured me they would never do such a thing. Hmmmm. I guess it will remain a mystery. I'll just pray for them. You can too.
P.S. Be nice to your pastor. He can only be one place at a time. Trust me on this. He is human. If he doesn't answer the phone at the church, it's because he's either (a) visiting the sick, bereaved, hurting, lonely, etc., (b) enjoying a day off, (c) in the bathroom, (d) at home with his family or (e) dead.
6 comments:
Speaking from the perspective of a person who has been on both sides of the fence...a business person and a pastor, I find this somewhat amusing and sad...particularly when you see when the message was sent. You don't have to pastor very long to find some pastors are extremely difficult to reach in the office, while at the same time some people expect them to be more than they can be. Mike, I'm sorry you had to be on the blunt end of those tasteless and offensive remarks. Obviously, this person has deeper issues than not being able to get a hold of his/her pastor at 9:45 pm. Thayne
I will admit that I am sometimes difficult to catch even during business hours. I try to keep regular hours, but ministry and life keep happening. I can't be where people are if I'm always sitting at my desk. Thanks for the encouragement Thayne.
Wow. I hope you find out who it was, and what they needed. I've never been to your church, but just knowing what I do of you, you seem like a wonderful Pastor. If my family ever were to need a new church home, yours would be the first place we would go:)
Dawn
i know whoever it was they were hurting. i wish they had tried to contact me at home. i was there.
There has got to be a way that we get people to understand that pastors are not GOD (ie they are not omnipotent or omnipresent). It is a sad commentary on the Body of CHRIST, the church(es), the pastorate as a whole when some one cusses out a man and then in the same message states that 'God would be there'. This shows that there is really not a great grasp on understanding who GOD is. We must all remember that GOD has given us Pastor/leaders, but they are not GOD...HE is. peace peace
let me come to the defense of the hurting person this story is about. unless i'm off on who they are, and i'm pretty sure i'm not, this person is NOT a member of the body of Christ. they do not go to church anywhere. i have talked with them on the phone twice since this incident. both times they denied it was them. so i ask you just to pray for them and their wounds.
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