No Cell
Ah, yes. Cell phones. That thing we all have, and all hate. A very large percentage of people these days have them on their belt or purse everywhere they go. That's not so bad, but that includes movie theaters and church.

And then there are those who just refuse to turn their ringers off.

It's not unusual to hear a phone go off in the middle of a sermon. About half the time, there a quiet panic and digging through a purse. The other half, there's an apparent denial that their "way cool" ring tone is audible through the entire sanctuary.


What's a pastor to do? Well, my wife generally takes the approach that addressing it will make the distraction worse. Most pastors I run into take that approach.

Doubly so for teenagers who spend the sermon texting away, hunched over like an adolescent Quasimodo. It's incredibly rude, but at least they're less disruptive than a ring tone.

One pastor we know would have his own cell phone with him while preaching. He, on more than one occasion, would answer it when it rang during his sermon! He paused his sermon, and from the pulpit, say something along the lines of "Oh, nothing much. Just preaching a sermon." Those conversations didn't last long.

The mind boggles at who would think it a good idea to call a pastor's cell on Sunday morning.

On a recent occasion, during a large mid-week Bible study, one person's phone rang. Not unusual. Rather than apologize and turn the ringer off, this person said out loud "Oh, it's so-n-so!" - and answered the phone right there in the middle of the group. There were multiple people saying, including my wife who was leading the study, something to the effect of "Don't answer that- are you nuts?" (only in more polite words). Didn't work. The person did walk off while having a conversation, but the study had jolted to a halt while the drama unfolded.

Now, I will say that phones are very handy- and in some cases required. My job often requires me to be on-call - thus I'm required to have it with me, but set to vibrate. And yes, I have had work related calls to deal with on Sunday morning. I quietly leave, then call back the person who buzzed me.

I'll also note that many Sundays I have my phone, the work on-call phone, and the nursery pager all on me, all set to vibrate. When one goes off, I have to spread my fingers over all of them to narrow down which evil device is calling for my attention.

To combat the cell phone problem on Sunday morning, we've inserted a friendly reminder into out announcement video. We prefer the brief and modern styles over at PowerPoint Sermons. There's some humorous skit style ones at Sermon Spice. There's many other sources of such things- those are just 2 of my favorite. (Feel free to add a comment below with other sources!)

It's hard to measure how effective the video reminders are. I have a feeling that cell phones are a problem that will only grow worse in the coming years.