It's a Good Thing God Doesn't Have Voicemail

I try to look at other broadcast church services regularly. It helps to see where we need to improve, and frankly I usually feel pretty good about what we do. Our worship service is of high quality, week in and week out. Our production values are solid, and get better each month.

Today, I decided to check out Frazer Memorial UMC's broadcast on INSP. Fraser is a big church in Alabama. Big church. Seven services big. National TV big. Own their own low power TV station big.

I'll just say that I think we look very good by comparison. Very, very good.

One thing that blew me away. Remember in "Bruce Almighty" that Bruce had an E-mail application to deal with prayers?

Fraser advertises a prayer line during their services on TV. I've thought that we should do that, But worry about how to respond during "non-church" times. I'd be devastated if someone in crisis who had jotted our number down called and couldn't get someone on the line.

So, I called the Frazer Prayer Line. Three rings.

"Frazer Prayer Line." Click, Click. "This mailbox is full. Please enter another mailbox or press zero to reach an operator."

I pressed zero. I'm guessing it was a custodian that answered. I told him the prayer line mailbox was full. He told me it would probably get more full by the end of the holiday weekend. I asked him if there was anyone there who could pray with me at that time. Long, long pause.

"Nope, probably not," was the reply.

Wow.