You’ve seen them, maybe you’re one of them: pastors who must be in touch at all times. The cell phone is either in use or strapped handily onto the belt, ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice. It’s best as a Blackberry or Treo, so it can vibrate every ten minutes with news of new messages. And just in case those fail, a beeper should be handy. You can never be too wired.
I can understand why some professions would cause one to need to be accessible 100 percent of the time: firefighters, psychologists with mentally ill patients and…plumbers come to mind. But why pastors? Certainly on large church staffs it’s a venerable practice to have one of the pastors on-call at all times in case of emergency. But I worry when I see wired pastors, ubiquitous as they are at church conventions and gatherings of clergy. I fear they conflate importance with accessibility, as if being incommunicado even briefly will lead to spiritual crisis. Must we be like other professions””doctors or financiers””and have a loop around our ear at all times? Or does pastoral wiring suggest anew the loss of confidence of the clergy vocation?
The need to be constantly reachable and the need to be able to access the latest happenings suggests several possible characteristics of the connectee:
No confidence in their subordinates / An overwhelming need to control / Paranoia / No plan.
Notice I said “possible”.
I think this is actually a pretty insightful point. And I say that as a parish priest who does carry a cell phone (though I give that number out to our parish staff, family, and friends, and not to the wider parish or community). And I’m also one of those who checks his e-mail a dozen times a day. I think many of us share in our general cultural drift into the illusion that busyness is a true reflection of value and purpose. There are those who dwell at the antipodes, of course, and who hide out in some remote cave, never returning calls or messages, etc. The challenge is to find a golden mean: caring availability, but with respect for boundaries. Engaged relationships, good stewardship in fields white for the harvest–but with the space to cultivate a life of inward depth. Anyway: thanks for sharing the post.
Bruce Robison
Yes. But may I ask that the same criticism apply to parishioners who, hearing their phone ring or feeling it vibrate, walk out to the foyer in the middle of Mass to take the call? (On one occasion the call was actually taken in church, and the parishioners rounded in wrath on the miscreant.) I have said on more than one occasion: if you are expecting a call that is really that urgent, stay at home.
I have my phone at hand at all times except when I’m in worship.
Everyone in the parish knows this, and they also have ready access to the number (it’s printed in the bulletin.). To be really honest, I don’t think it’s about self-importance. It’s about being accessible to people. If my people didn’t have cellphones strapped to their heads, I don’t think I’d have to, but as it is – this is about being where people are.
In addition, I have never been sorry to have my phone on hand when a parishioner has gone to the hospital or has had some kind of crisis.