Last night I was watching an episode of Forensic Files.  This series chronicles the investigations of crimes and uses interviews with the actual people involved as much as possible.  One family member said when interviewed, “The moment the chaplain walked in the room I knew she [the sister] was dead”.

This automatic association that people make with chaplains and death has always concerned me because we deal with to many other issues than death.  Today I was calling potential volunteers to pray with patients.  When I spoke to a member of their family and asked to leave a message, I was able to sense anxiety when I identified myself as a chaplain from the local hospital.  So that the anxiety would not linger longer than necessary I volunteered the reason I was calling was to seek assistance in the form of people who would come pray with our patients.  I could feel the relief when the person on the phone realized I was not calling about someone they knew being a patient or worse yet possibly being dead.

Sensitivity to the impressions people have about chaplains is critical in our first thirty seconds of communicating.  We have to communicate enough about our purpose for contacting them that they know there is no reason to panic.  I was glad I was able to do that.  Out of seven phone calls today I yielded one person who is willing to volunteer to pray with our patients.  So my work was not in vain.