The parson had been contacted by Charlie Chambers, a pastor at a church in a city halfway across the state, to serve as a consultant to determine why the church was not as effective as Charlie thought it should be. The parson had asked Charlie to shoot him an email in which Charlie would list some of the obstacles to ineffectiveness as he saw them. Following that the parson suggested the two get together to discuss a timetable for the parson to meet with some key laity and then the task force.
The parson had hoped to begin the process before the month of May. His calendar was a bit full during that month. He anxiously awaited Charlie’s response. When it didn’t come the parson re-sent the email. This time he contacted the denominational offices to get Charlie’s official church email address. This time he sent it to the same address Charlie’s superiors used to communicate with him. He also copied Charlie at the personal email address Charlie had given him.
After another week the parson had yet to receive a response to his epistle. This time he called Charlie on his cell phone. Charlie didn’t answer and the parson left a voice message requesting a call back. The parson was getting a bit frustrated now.
He called Charlie’s church office. It was two days before the month of May. He got a recording that said: “The church office will be closed until January 4th. If you would like to leave a message for Pastor Charlie push ‘1’.” The parson did. There was a second recording: “Hi, this is Charlie. The church office is open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. At other times leave a message.” The parson left a message.
Later in the afternoon, Charlie called. “Hello, Parson, Charlie here. You been trying to get me?”
“I was Charlie. We were going to get together to work out a timetable for the consultation.”
“Oh, yeah, when did you want to do that?”
“How about Thursday? I could meet you any time between 10:00 and 2:00.”
“You said Thursday? Ah, actually Parson I’m I need to be around the house Thursday. I’m expecting some folks to put a new floor in the kitchen.”
The parson thought a moment, then replied, “Well, I tell you what, Charlie. Give me a call when you have some time and we’ll work on trying to locate the cause of the inefficiency.”
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