Marty had a situation this last week that got me thinking. A few times late in the week, we received some hang up calls at the Black Cloister. Since we have caller I.D. on our phone, we noticed these calls were all from the same caller. When we returned from church on Sunday, there was a message from this same number on our answering machine. On returning the call, Marty discovered the caller was a previous member of our congregation. She had been a member for a few years, but due to a disagreement at church she decided to worship elsewhere.
It turns out; she was calling to give Marty a piece of her mind. She was upset over a donation of technical equipment she made to the church a few years ago. At the time, the church was in need an updated computer. She graciously donated a new computer to the church office. At the time, it was a wonderful gift that was much appreciated. But as we all know (and most of us loathe) our technology is constantly in need of upgrading and replacing.
When Marty came to this parish only two months ago, he brought his own computer with him. Since it is new, it works much better than the previous computer left in his office. So, in effect, he doesn’t use this previous member’s donation.
When word got back to her that he wasn’t using the computer she had donated to for the pastor’s use, she was very upset, to say the least. And felt she had to call and personally tell Marty how he has wronged her.
Since we didn’t even know of this woman’s existence, you can imagine how blind-sided Marty was by the call.
As I was doing my evening chores, I could hear some of Marty’s side of the conversation. As I listened, I got to thinking.
- How can you avoid the pitfall when you don’t even know there is a hole? Sure, we’ve been warned about how people will watch us more closely, but being new, we didn’t know this lady existed or that she had donated the computer.
- What do you do with donations that are obsolete? In this case, it was a computer. What if it were linens that have turned yellow? Or communion ware that has tarnished? Or a piano with a cracked sound board? Most things donated are done in the memory of a loved one. They are given with the hopes that the memory will live on. But what do you do when the donation needs to be replaced?
- Should we even accept donations for things that need to be replace every few years, such as technology, knowing that it is going to upset the person that donated it?
- Here’s a good one… Should the person that donates an item to the church then feel a sense of ownership over it? Does the giver even have a right to think that because they donated it, they have a right to say how it should or shouldn’t be used?
- And here is the biggest question of all, how did the “boss of Zulsdorf” (Katherina Luther) handle it when people complained about the way her Martin did things at the Cloister?
My Marty handled it with grace. He explained his choice and apologized for the hurt feelings. He spent a considerable amount of time getting to know the woman over the phone and in the end tried to persuade her to return to her church family. As I listened to him, I was a proud wife! I would not have handled it so well.
This is one of those things that make ME go “hmmm”.
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