Got a call from a woman on the church phone this morning looking for help for her sister. This isn’t an unusual situation. The deacons and I field “benevolence requests” pretty regularly. What was noteworthy about this request was that this was the second time in 8 days that a person told me that they got our name from “a list”. Often people looking for assistance will simply go through the phonebook and call all of the churches they find, hoping to find a live person answering the phone. How do I know? I ask them.

When the person called she asked for a couple of deacons by name which surprised me, and one of the forms of the name of one of the deacons was unusual, not the one we call her by here. She first asked if these two people where here. She assumed that these were the names of people who worked in an office here, imagining this to be a large place with lots of people working and lots of funding. I explained to her that I was the only person here and that these people were volunteers who were helping people out because they wanted to. I explained that we are a small church with limited funds but we try to do what we can with what we’ve got.

I decided to pursue “the list” a little further with this woman. She said she works in a bank and got out name from a co-worker at the bank because “these people help people out”. I got the information from her and shared it with the deacons who will figure out what to do with her request. What was noteworthy for me was that you, this little church, has a reputation and enough of a reputation out there to make someone’s informal “craigslist” for people who help.

I doubt that our little church will ever be famous by making the cover of Christianity Today, but we are now famous for something else on a different kind of list. If we’re going to have a name for something, I’m glad we have a name for this. pvk