The Naked Truth About Leaving Messages
“What’s the best way get in touch with Allan?” The owner of the business was asking in person the same question one of his employees asked me by phone yesterday. I guessed what had happened. The employee is infamous for leaving the generic message: “Hi. Call me back. Thanks.”
Cell phone address books and caller-id have almost made the “call me back” message extinct. The redundancy of this “call me” voice message is witnessed even by this old-school employee still fighting to preserve it in the wild: by not including the phone number to call back. (Even the caller knew it was on caller-id!)
I might have rolled my eyes, but since I did recommend Allan, I called him myself. When I got his voice mail; I left this message: “Hi! This is Christy. Sam wants to give you money. He has work for you. If you want money call him at…” and I held out my phone towards my visitor to repeat his cell number. Twice.
After I put my phone away, Sam asked “So you think he will…” and then looked at his pocket. It was Allan calling him. I waved good bye as he walked out discussing problems to solve and money to make.
I thought about the messages the church sign leaves for the world. Usually we offer messages they already know, our caller ID label, “GOODYEAR HEIGHTS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH”. Often we leave a judgement, “CH CH WHAT’S MISSING? U R”. Sometimes, we post a chore: “WORSHIP 9 AM”. Rarely do we leave a message that we have good news that will profit them: “THIS IS WHERE GOD IS LOVE”
Determining the gospel and life of a congregation from a signboard message is as difficult as gauging the profit potential of a generic voice message. Yet it is somewhere between depressing and tragic if folks miss the opportunity of a life of meaning and purpose because churches don’t leave a message that we have something useful and worthy of a response. After the first Easter, Jesus was revealed as the Lord not by proclaimations, puns, or pressure but by offering how to fix a basic and urgent need: filling empty fishing nets for some hungry workers.
Hope Easter leaves you a good message…one that profits you when you respond.
After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea.
- John 21:1-7
Bible quotation from The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995
by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Christy Ramsey
I changed the names in the story to “Sam” and “Allan”
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