1115. Siri is the new church Secretary.

(It’s guest post week at SCL since my wife and I are in Vietnam!  Today’s post is from Elizabeth Hyndman, an Administrative Assistant and grad student living in Nashville, TN.  She blogs at edyndman.com and tweets @edhyndman. If you want to write a guest post for SCL, here’s how!)

Siri is the new church secretary. By Elizabeth Hyndman

I’m sure you’ve heard all about Siri, the new virtual assistant that comes with the iPhone 4s. She answers questions, researches things, schedules stuff, and even calls and texts people for you. Amazing, right?

It is amazing, but even more amazing is that I’m pretty sure Apple stole this idea from Christians. Christians have had this kind of know-it-all assistant for a while now. We call them church secretaries or “the most powerful person in church.”

Think about it. The church secretary not only has access to every church member’s address and phone number, she probably has quite a few of them memorized. The church secretary can also find the address and phone number for the pastor-that-was-there-15-years-ago-we-called-him-Brother-Tom?.

The church secretary keeps up with the youth pastor’s schedule. He also knows the church calendar for December. If you don’t think that’s impressive, you have probably never met a youth pastor or seen a church calendar during December (musicals, angel trees, shoeboxes, parties, candlelight services…that month is a mess).

Another thing church secretaries know how to do? Use Google. Just like Siri.

As a church secretary myself, I have often fielded calls and visits from people just looking for answers. They were seeking the truth. They weren’t looking for Jesus, though. They were looking for the number of the Seventh Day Baptist Church that meets “somewhere around there” or wondering which doctors are covered under their health insurance plan. The questions were Googled, the answers were given, and the truth set those people free…to call that church and to see a doctor, respectively.

Maybe Siri could answer those questions. Maybe she could provide a map to the church and the doctor as well. But could she also add your name to the church prayer list, offer a “Bless your heart,” and let you know if the music minister is available with his truck to move your piano on Thursday? A church secretary can.

Have you ever opted to call the church secretary, rather than use Siri or Google?

If you are a church secretary, what is the strangest request you’ve received?

(For more great stuff from Elizabeth, check out her blog!)