Saints and Sinners: Preachers and office hours

Should ministers have regular office hours like everybody else — a certain period of time each day when anyone could pick up the phone and be certain of catching the clergy at the church?

Or when people could walk in off the street and know they would find a minister to talk to?

I have seen signs at gas stations that say, “Mechanic on duty.” But I have never seen a church with a sign on the lawn that says, “Minister available daily except Sunday from 9 to 10 and from 5 to 6 (which would be when men and women on their way home from work might want to stop in).

I am not talking about ministers being available in emergencies. Clergy can usually be located in those situations. And I know if you leave a message at the church, most ministers will call you back later. And I know you can make an appointment with any minister for a conference.

What I am talking about is clergy being available for people who feel the urge to talk to someone now or to cry on somebody’s shoulder now. They might not call to make an appointment because the problem doesn’t seem big enough or momentous enough.

The problem may even be gone tomorrow but right now it is causing pain or creating anxiety. There are many people who are hurting in little ways and who feel desperately in need of a listening ear, a word of counsel and encouragement or a prayer together.

But for various reasons, they don’t want to give their name to a church secretary or “set up an appointment.” Churches that insist on callers going through such formalities lose many an opportunity to be of help.

Most ministers rebel at the idea of fixed hours for themselves. They don’t want to be pinned down.

Their reasons are usually not very convincing. The most often heard excuse is, “What if an emergency comes up during the time I am scheduled to be at the church office?”

(Answer: Attend to the emergency but leave word at the church that something unexpected has come up that demands your attention. Emergencies don’t come that often anyway).

I knew an Episcopal minister who would stand in the church parking lot on Sunday morning as the fathers were dropping their children off at Sunday school.

The men were intending to turn around and go home but they never even got their cars into reverse before the rector would thrust his hand through the open window, grab the would-be escapee by the arm and lead him to the church basement.

There in the furnace room (where a lot of men feel more at home than in church or in the well-appointed church lounge) they chewed the fat about religion and other things that interested them. They got the name of the “Furnace Philosophers.” A lot of problems were solved and needs met.

Many churches put the words, “ALL WELCOME” in capital letters on their outdoor bulletin boards and feel that does the job of telling those who pass by that the church is interested in them. Actually those words have about as much heart as “THREE BARBERS — NO WAITING.”

I knew a minister who made a deal with his congregation. He would be in his office, available to all, from 9 to 12 every morning.

For their part, the people would promise not to call him at his home in the evening except for emergencies.

It made everyone happy.

George Plagenz is an ordained minister and veteran newsman based in Columbus, Ohio.