Are you that busy?

Here's a little glimpse into one of my personal values that is driven by a personal pet peeve: I almost always return phone calls and emails personally within 24 hours. Yes, I drop one on accident every once in a while, but the chances are good that if you email me or call me today you'll have a response by this time tomorrow.

Sounds easy, right? I'm shocked at how many of my friends in ministry are flat-out pitiful at returning phone calls and messages. I can't even talk to several of my friends any more. They're not dead, or sick, or angry with me (though they may be after this post). They've just told their secretary that they can't be bothered by people. So the admins correspond with me on their pastor's behalf now.

I understand the rationale for the "gatekeeper" philosophy for administrative assistants. Some people will take advantage of your time, call you every day, ask you meaningless questions, and take up your time. But isn't it a part of our pastoral responsibility to either (1) help those people set meaningful boundaries, or (2) pass them along to the person whose ministry is responsible for helping that person grow? If a person is calling you too much, for goodness' sake have the courage to have that conversation with them... don't make your administrative assistant do it!

A year or so ago, I helped another pastor on a fairly significant project. He's an associate pastor at a very large church (like me), and is busy doing a lot of things. Funny thing is, I never once talked to him, or even received a personal email from him. I received calls, emails, and other correspondence from his administrative assistant. That communicated something to me about how I as a person was valued in the eyes of that pastor, and I made it a commitment to never, ever be the same way.

I emailed another associate pastor of a large church about two months ago about discussing the way that church organizes their Sunday morning teaching team. His administrative assistant got back to me yesterday and gave me two slots in the next month that he is available to talk with me on the phone. Are you kidding me?

When you communicate with others only through your administrative assistant, you're making a statement to those people about how much more important your time is than theirs. You're communicating that you're way too busy doing pastor-things to be bothered with their requests. And I just can't figure out how that fits the bill of godly servant leader. Have your administrative assistant take a message if you're busy, but call the person back personally. They took the time to call you, you can take the time to talk to them.

I sure hope this doesn't come across as mean-spirited, but it's something I've really become passionate about. When you get to the point that you're too busy to be bothered by people, you're too busy. Delegate something or quit something, but please don't fall prey to the notion that you are so busy doing churchy stuff that you can't be bothered by people.