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I
was recently invited to become a part of a planning
committee in town for an annual festival that
draws upwards of a thousand persons from the
area. Because the town’s folk know I am
clergy they naturally thought I would be good
at recruiting churches to be a part of the town
event. With some reservations, I consented to
be “the religious czar” (their term
for me). Those reservations proved to be well-founded.
I
began contacting the clergy of the churches
around town. Now remember, this is rural America
and most of the churches are smallish. The largest
church, on the outskirts of town, is non-denominational
and well-staffed, but most churches comprise
one pastor and at best a part-time secretary
and at worst an answering machine.
I
began making my phone calls. Out of a little
over a dozen churches, I reached four human
beings. Of those, three were the actual clergy.
Of these, one sounded enthusiastic (and in the
end her church will play a major role in the
event). Another said he would pass the information
onto the appropriate leaders, which he did,
and his church will also participate. The remaining
failed to follow through.
And
those were just the persons I actually talked
with. Of the other church pastors who were unavailable
to my persistent phone calls over a one-month
period, not a single one ever responded to the
messages I left either with secretaries or answering
machines. In the case of the non-denominational
church, an administrative assistant promised
me she would intervene and if unable to persuade
the pastor to call me would call me back herself.
She never did.
So
here is my peeve, dear pastors. If you don’t
want to do something, simply say so. There are
an infinite number of good and even bad reasons
not to do something and because they are your
reasons, no one can argue with you. It is perfectly
acceptable to say No. But don’t not respond
at all!
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