Wednesday, July 05, 2006

COLD CALLS

Posted by Reverend Ref + at 12:52 PM

I do not like cold calls. I've never been very good at walking up to someone on the street, or knocking on their door, or calling them out of the blue and anything from, "Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior," to, "Can I have a few moments of your time to discuss the benefits of a new and incredibly powerful vacuum." Which, in thinking about, might actually have the same percentage of success.

But I digress.

I'm not very good at cold calls. If you read two posts down, you will see that I was on the scene of a very bad and very deadly car accident. The boys killed were 17 and 18 years old.

I made two phone calls this morning.

"I'm the Episcopal priest in Sheridan and the chaplain for the Fire Department. I understand you lost your son in a car accident the other day. I don't want to take up your time or impose myself on you, but, should you or your family feel the need to visit with someone, let me offer my time to you, and feel free to contact me if needed."

Yeah ... I hate cold calls.

7 comments:

talk | 1:04 PM, July 05, 2006  

hello..blog hopping via blogger while looking for interesting blog titles..and found yours :-) Great entries...

Anonymous | 1:28 PM, July 05, 2006  

Reason #4568 I admire the clergy.

I'm guessing that the whole town is struck pretty hard. We'll keep everyone in our prayers.

Anonymous | 1:54 PM, July 05, 2006  

Definitely prayers all around.

This doesn't sound too much different to me than the role of a chaplain during a death notification (I'm thinking on the military side, rather than hospital). But in your case the parents have had time to let this sink in a bit. At a death notification, the relatives have just heard about the death when the chaplain says, "If you need anything..."

Todd, there are guidelines and suggestions and such for handling these situations out there, many of which I have. If you're interested, please drop me a line.

Anonymous | 10:04 AM, July 06, 2006  

Todd,

I would take Mark J up on his offer. There are good guidelines and suggestions out there. I imagine he knows quite a few.

You may want to get in touch with them later. Are they involved in a community of faith in the area? Do the other pastors know them?

Eh, not a good conversation for a blog comment, but know that we are praying for you here as well. It is an awful time for all involved...

Reverend Ref + | 1:44 PM, July 06, 2006  

Tripp:

Mark is sending me some stuff on a PDF, so I'll have that to look at.

One of the families said that they had their own minister with them, the other one didn't say anything specific about it.

There is not a shortage of people dealing with this.

Jim | 2:21 PM, July 06, 2006  

Holy Spirit works in ways we will never comprehend, despite all the published materials on "How To."

You may have provided the nudge for either or both of the families to do a better thing or to find some consolation.

It's a mighty big universe. Each of us has a very important part to perform. You did yours, this time.

Brooke | 12:25 AM, July 11, 2006  

I think your calling was lovely. It's good to know that even people who don't know you are concerned and willing to offer help.

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