Many Churches Fail Random Phone Test No One To Talk To During Business Hours, National Survey Finds

Let’s say I’m having a crisis and need a pastor, counselor or member of a congregation to help ease the pain.

I get the telephone number for my house of worship, or one in my neighborhood if I don’t have a faith home. I pick up the phone, dial the number and wait for a voice of comfort to hear my cry.

Chances are I’m going to be waiting awhile - unless I find comfort in a voice on an answering machine telling me nobody’s at the church, please leave a message and someone will call back.

The last thing I hear before I hang up the phone and wonder where to turn now for help is a cheerful, recorded voice telling me to have a blessed day.

If churches are supposed to be there for people, shouldn’t they at least be there to answer the telephone?

A troubling number of them are not, according to Barna Research Group. The firm’s random survey showed that researchers could not contact a person at 40 percent of the churches called nationwide during weekday business hours - even when the church was called back up to 12 times.

At 44 percent of the churches where you couldn’t find someone to talk to, there was no answering machine.

You think those national numbers are disturbing, here’s what my admittedly unscientific survey of churches, synagogues and mosques in the Charlotte, N.C., area turned up:

Picking telephone numbers at random from my directory of congregations, I called 35 houses of worship between 1:30 and 4 p.m. Monday. No one answered the phone at 21.

Of those 21 houses of worship, six didn’t have an answering machine turned on. The phone just kept ringing.

Answering machines may not even help in an after-hours emergency. One church secretary said the staff turns on the machine at 2 p.m. and goes home. They check it for messages on a haphazard basis.

I got an answering machine at another church and was told to press 1 if I had an emergency. I pressed 1 and got another voice telling me to leave a message, that someone would get back to me.

Stunned, I called the first number again. This time I got a secretary who said it was really hectic in the office the first time I called and she was unable to answer.

It was the same at many houses of worship, regardless of denomination or location. No answer. Or an answering machine giving me Sunday worship times. Or an answering machine that might not be checked until it’s too late.

The human response was inconsistent even at houses of worship with enough money to hire a secretary or enough members to line up a volunteer to answer the phone. Some lock up the office and go home at 2 or 3 p.m.

The pastor who answered the phone at one church said the office is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays, but folks know how to reach him anytime via pager, cell phone or e-mail. Other congregations make the same provisions.

But here’s my question:

If your spouse just died and you’re alone and miserable, do you want to cry out for help in an e-mail?

Or do you want to pick up the phone and find someone on the other end?