In Case of Emergency

Three times this week I called a church in order to get in touch with a minister. Each time, it was after hours. Three times this week, I was answered by machines. Three times, I was given an emergency number for just the situations I was in. Three times I called those emergency numbers, only to reach more answering machines. One time, I was called back the next day (nice, but a bit late given the surgery had long since been over). The other two, never called back.

Maybe the message should have been "In case of emergency, just leave a message here. We probably won't get to it until tomorrow when it's way too late to do you any good, but calling our emergency number has the exact same result, so please don't waste your time. We don't really care that much about your emergencies, so just calm down, and if you or your loved one dies before we get there, sorry. Hope purgatory isn't as bad as we've led you to believe! Guess you're screwed."

IF I ever am a pastor in a church (and that is a BIG "if"), I hope to leave an emergency contact number. And if I do, I plan on actually answering it.