The wired pastor

By Jason Byassee

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 (given recent floods in this part of the country) 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?

In response to our frenetic world, in which we can speak instantly to anyone around the world but have very little to say, I would argue pastors should be inaccessible more often than not. Part of our problem is that we get agitated if the email bell doesn’t go off every 30 seconds. Over against this, the pastor needs to teach us, to embody patience, or even silence. If my pastor, for example, is always instantly emailing me back, when is she praying for me? When is she quietly sitting in God’s presence, waiting for a word for us for Sunday? When is she nourishing her own soul in a way unrelated to her service to us, but just because God is good?

A seminary professor used to joke that church secretaries never tell callers, “I’m sorry, the pastor is unavailable. He’s praying.” Would that our cellphone voice mail messages would say the same or, better yet, that we wouldn’t have the devices at all.

Comments

[Clay Knick]

Amen! Preach it brother.

It took getting married for
me to realize I was too
accessible to the church I
was serving at the time. I
had given them my pager number, cell number, and of
course they knew how to call the church and parsonage. Now at a new
(and larger!) church I do
not have a pager and do not
give out my cell number to
everyone.

[Bo]

Umm.. you have GOT to be kidding, right? Being a pastor myself, I know my congregation needs to be able to reach me when they need me. While I do honor my personal time, I also have a system set up so that members can get me when they need me.

Perhaps you're post might have included non-essential contacts and the concern that being too-wired is also about being too-informed or too-preoccupied.. but being too-connected seems out of place given the demands on pastors by their churches.

And, as an aside, good pastors multi-task well; we can be praying for someone with our cell phones on or while reading an email asking for our prayers.

While I can read the gist of your post as a concern about being too dependent upon technology, I am glad for certain technologies that allow us pastors more of an opportunity to stay connected within the life of our congregations.

[Jenny Williams]

Jason, thanks for this. I don't have a cell phone, to the amazement of my colleagues and friends (who call me a Luddite). I already check email and land-line voice mail; I don't want to be saddled with a third form of communication. I've had a cell phone before, and in my life it created the frenzy and spiritual schizophrenia that you suggest. Perhaps one of the joys of pastoral ministry in small towns and small-membership congregations is that people do not expect me to be available all the time.

[Sarah Howell]

Although it's important for pastors to be available to their parishioners, I wonder if sometimes being so connected virtually prevents pastors from being present in...well, the present. This can be a problem not only for pastors but for anyone for whom being plugged in electronically can unplug you from your immediate surroundings. I admire pastors who can respond to emails and phone calls quickly without letting that crowd in on time spent at hospital bedsides and in face-to-face conversation.

[Paul]

So Clay...if someone answers their cell phone during your sermon, that's ok, right? Because they can multi-task?

[Clay Knick]

Sarah is spot on.

I'm not a Luddite, but I'm
often tempted.

I wonder if what congregations expect from
their pastors is what they
need? If I did what everyone wanted me to do I'd
be a wreck.

[Jason Byassee]

I am tempted to blast away at Bo, obviously. I don't think prayer can be worked in as part of multitasking while also checking email and talking on the phone. All the same the successful pastors I know manage to run enormous churches, study, do pastoral care, and email me back within a day or so. So perhaps a balance can be struck without destroying the cell phone. I just can't imagine how it's done.

[Jeff Lackie]

But Bo - what is the "hyper-wired, multi-tasking pastor" connected to? I serve two congregations, am well aware of the necessity of being available for emergent needs, yet there are only 5 people in Christendom who have my cell phone number. I make every effort to be among my people, something I cannot do when my technology surrounds me and demands my constant attention. Yes, I understand the necessity of multi-tasking - currently I am planning two funerals and two sermons for Sunday - but there is a limit to how much technology can assist - my presence at the keyboard tonight is proof, in fact, that technology has distracted me once again. "Vive la post-it note".

[Scott Johnson]

Perhaps the issue isn't the pastor staying connected - it's the pastor's need to be needed. (And no, I'm not accusing anyone who's commented here of this, btw - no flaming, please!) The pastor who cannot check caller ID and say "This is likely not an emergency - and if it is they can leave a message." is a pastor who is creating a co-dependent church. There is nothing wrong with letting folks leave messages and returning calls as quickly as possible if emergencies arise. I work in a rural area and I often remind myself that in this town 100 years ago pastors got there as fast as their horses would carry them - and yet the church still stands!

I think judicious use of all means of communication is part of the daily discernment necessary to be a healthy spiritual leader. There are times when the Blueberry in the ear can be worthwhile, and there are times when it's offensive to those present, not to mention the fact that in most instances the earpiece just seems pretentious.

Technology should assist, not distract, and perhaps the quick responses to this post shows just how fraught with peril our use of technology has become.

[Steve]

Yeah, Scott has a good point about judiciously deciding to let someone leave a message. It can always be checked and returned when convenient. I've never had a cell, but we're dropping our landline and switching to cells at the house because we can't get DSL and have to use cable for the internet at the house. The cell is cheaper and now my grown children out of state will take my calls because we're on the same plan! Free!

[Simon]

As has been suggested, how we deal with the various ways in which people communicate with us can be tricky. What's the protocol - does a mobile 'phone ringing take precedence over a face to face conversation ? Does a mobile 'phone take precedence over a land line?

However, just a week ago I was 'saved' by modern communications. On the way to conduct a wedding 60 miles from home, I realised I had left my notes and clerical collar behind. I 'phoned ahead from the car to a friend local to the wedding who offered the loan of the collar. I phoned my daughter to email the notes from home to the same friend, who printed them out and was there with them - and the collar - at the door of the church!

[Lyndon]

Thanks for the post, Jason. The place of availability is an important topic. Getting word to us of an event needing our attention is a valid reason to employ gadgets. However, I do tend to agree that technology can become another unfortunate legitimizing aspect for ministers. My main concern is how being available via too many means can create an atmosphere of a kind of clericalism - where we get to practice the tools of utility that can become the means by which we measure the success/failure of our calling . . . and therefore is how we are measured also by those we serve. Praying, reading, dreaming - these can become the victims of a drive to function by means familiar to the marketplace of our western cultures.

Would anyone care to comment about the place of blogs in the techno-environment of cell phones and blackberries? I dare say that it's not too different a issue than what this blog is currently discussing.

[Carol Howard Merritt]

Jason, I would agree. The techno-leash is often a stranglehold on our family, since my husband and I are both pastors.

But...the nice thing about the cell phone/email is that I can leave the office. I can write my sermon in the coffeehouse next door or take a walk in the neighborhood. I feel more free to wander when I can say, "Just give me a call if you need anything."

[Suzy]

I pastor (and sew tents) in a place where technology is much less prevalent, and my congregants don't have the same expectations of my availability. They've seen me protect my prayer times from all but the most urgent needs (and one symptom of our lack of technology is that sometimes the needs *are* very urgent by the time the information reaches me), and they've heard me announce that my family really tries to eat dinner together and be be in bed by 9 p.m. They know I have a prayer life, a family life, a second job that pays some of the bills.

So I don't have the cell phone/pager/Blackberry issue, which I know is very valid for most of you. Lack of technology saves me; I don't have to learn to say no. ;)

Instead, I have a nagging concern about holding myself apart. I worry that people are asking themselves, "Should we bother the pastor with this?" I've worked hard to give them the belief that they don't need me as an intermediary, that God is fully present whether or not I am. But I think it's important that we be honest about where the problem really resides: It's not with parishioners who want us present at the difficult times in their life as well as the scheduled, joyous times. It's not the technology that allows them to reach us. It's that we haven't yet found, and learned to defend, our own balance.

[Tom]

I disagree with this article because I find peace in knowing I can always be reached by friends, family and parishioners no matter where I am. I find a real freedom in knowing that I don't have to be tethered to my office all the time and I can go out and live life without worrying about what I'm missing or who I'm letting down. I can choose to answer the call or not and respond at a later time.

[reverendmother]

Your point is well taken, but I don't get irritated if the e-mail bell doesn't go off every 30 seconds; in fact I am overjoyed when it doesn't. I would guess most pastors are the same--they receive way more e-mail than they'd like, very little of it urgent or important. In talking about this with colleagues, it doesn't make us us feel more important, it makes us weary.

The key is to make the technology work for you and not be slave to it. I have a cell phone, but that doesn't mean I answer it every time it rings. I screen calls at home as well. I turned off the "ding" on the e-mail program because it had started distracting me from other work I was doing.

Lyndon asked about blogs. As a blogger myself, I don't really see the connection, except that it's another aspect of our technological landscape. But I guess in that sense it's just like anything else--when used properly, it is a great tool for communication. (And mine serves a self-care function, connecting me with friends and family.) Used poorly, or to excess, and it becomes an idol.

[jfreeham]

Is this a good model for pastoral ministry?

"...after having heard that Lazarus was ill, Jesus stayed two days longer in the place where he was...When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'" (John 11:6,17-21)

[Jason Byassee]

What a terrific comment, I've smiled all day thinking about it.