When telemarketer's hang up on you

Ever since I graduated from seminary and started working as a bank teller, I've begun to see how little people understand or think about the Church. Actually, I don't quite know how to describe what I'm experiencing. All I know is that I'm leaving people speechless when I tell them I'm going into ministry.

Today, I had a quintessential (and quite humorous) example. I was at home on my day off, and shortly after noon the phone rang. Thinking it was a friend, I picked it up. Brief silence. But before I could hang up the phone, the telemarketer clicked on ...

"Is Mr. Kendall available?"
"Yes, this is him."
"Sir, I'm calling on behalf of SBC, and I wanted to let you know a couple of new deals we are offering for you in your area."
"Okay."
"SBC is now offering an even lower priced high speed internet service; is that something you'd be interested in?"
"Possibly."
"Well, it says here that you have dial-up service. Is that correct?"
"Yes, it is."
"I don't want to be reading your mail, Mr. Kendall, but I bet that gets pretty frustrating waiting for your pages to download and such."
"Yup."
"How would you like to have SBC cable or DSL for as little as $14.95 a month? What are you paying right now?"
"Over $20."
"Yeah, so you could be listening to streaming audio and downloading pages in seconds with DSL. How does that sound?"
"It sounds pretty good, but I've already looked into this. My question is how long is the contract?"
"The contract is for 12 months."
"Well, that's just the problem. I can't gaurantee I'll be here for 12 months."
"Why is that Mr. Kendall?"
"I'm currently looking for a job, which could take me anywhere in the country."
"So you don't really know where you could be. What kind of job are you looking for?"
"Well, I'm going into ministry, and I really don't know where that will take me."
"Oh, ... [silence] Well, it's good talking to you Mr. Kendall, and thank you for using SBC."

That was it. Bam. For the first time in my life, I felt like the telemarketer was more anxious to get off the phone than I was. So bizarre, and yet so telling. What other job could I be pursuing that would create that reaction? Drug dealer, gang lord, circus performer? No, there would probably be a little more interest.

I don't think the telemarketer was offended or upset by my answer - simply stunned. I can almost see his mind turning when I told him I was going into ministry: "Is he celebate ... Does he believe the world is going to end in the next five years ... Is he going to preach to me ... Is he going to tell me to go to church?" Cause when you tell someone your going to be a minister, well, that changes things. They start acting like you knew what they were doing on Friday night. The start telling you how much they like church and why they haven't been able to make it for the last five weeks. They start ending phone conversations in the blink of an eye.

So, anyhow, if you really need to get off the phone with a telemarketer, tell him you're starting a church.

Wes