He knew it would happen eventually.
After nearly two years of trying to get his ministry noticed, he was finally getting calls from churches who needed his help. There was no competition, no other ministry offering technical services and engineering on facilities, especially when the minister was licensed and certified through all the applicable authorities. There were too many buildings too long in use without basic maintenance, never mind mandatory upgrades to things like electrical and plumbing. Once word got out about his non-profit services, there were plenty of calls, and the offerings were sufficient to keep him alive and working.
But there were always those churches which just didn’t get it.
So he was now driving back toward his office with a heavy heart. He had only driven two miles from the church when his cellphone rang. He pulled off into one of all-too-numerous empty driveways of business which had closed during the depression which still hammered the region. Answering the phone, he recognized the voice of the senior pastor at the church he had just left.
“Brother, please! Tell me what happened.” It was the same famous voice many heard the radio daily.
“Pastor, your assistant was just a bit too zealous. It began friendly enough, asking questions and comparing notes on certain doctrines. In a rather short time he became rather aggressive and assertive. I have no quarrel with a man sharing his unique faith, but not to the point where it interferes with my work.”
“He interfered with your work?”
“Yes, sir. I still have two more appointments today, and I can’t slight them so one man can demand I stop what I’m doing while he makes his pitch. Given the high profile of your congregation, I seriously doubt anyone in the state hasn’t heard of you folks, and is not acquainted with what you teach. If I were interested, I’d have joined your congregation long ago…”
“So you felt it was a little insulting my assistant questioned the validity of your faith?”
“Not at all pastor. This is not about my feelings, but whether I can carry out my testing and assessment of your infrastructure. He kept insisting I stop working and give him my full attention, even to the point of physically interfering with what I was doing.”
“Oh.” The voice paused a few moments. “Do me a favor, please. Wait just a few minutes there where you are. Don’t drive any farther away. Let me call you back in five minutes. Can you wait that long?”
“Sure pastor.” The call ended.
He stared off into the distance. The lower layer of clouds were drifting far more quickly than the heavy blanket above. This was the time of year when storms struck with shocking fury and little notice. The coming winter promised to be even harsher than the last, and this particular church’s heating system had already proven unable to cope with the increasingly harsh winters they had been having.
His reverie was broken by fresh ringing of his cellphone. The display told him it was the church again. The pastor’s voice was a little less commanding this time.
“Tell me what we need to do so you can come back and finish your work. Do you need some apology or something?”
“No, sir. Again, my feelings aren’t the issue. What we need is for your man to remove me from his target list. All he has to do is pretend I’m a fellow servant of the Lord for a half-hour while I complete my survey. Then you can turn him loose on the fund-raising program you’ll need to pay for the upgrade. So far, it appears something we can do with volunteer labor from your congregation, so we can keep the costs to a minimum. I still need to check the ducts in the ceiling, so if someone can just show me how to get up there…”
“Deal! Come on back, brother. I’ll make sure it happens that way.”
