Do you have FUN where you work? Are you dreading going in everyday? I am so blessed to have fun and enjoy what I do. One of the things I enjoy about my job at Middle District is all the new friends I have made along the way. For example, Dr. Joe McKeever, a pastor and former Director of Missions in New Orleans. I met him at my first National Church Secretaries Conference as he was one of my workshop facilitators and a Caricaturist. He drew my picture along with almost everyone else in the place and it was so fun to watch him create and have a blast doing it. We have kept in touch through the years, and I recently asked him if he would be a guest author on this blog from time to time. He agreed and I am so pleased to share with you his article below! Enjoy!
By Dr. Joe McKeever: July 2021
The times I have spoken at the national gatherings of SBC secretaries/administrative assistants, I have enjoyed telling about my friend Barbara Smith. A retired schoolteacher, Barbara has for forty years played the piano for worship services at FBC Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
For the last several years, she has also been receptionist for the church. And this is where her sense of whimsy has made her legendary.
Barbara sends out a daily email with the hospital list and announcements about goings-on in the church. But she doesn’t stop there. She gives the mailing her own unique spin, sometimes with a joke she has picked up, something funny she heard on the radio driving to church this morning, something she thought while in the drive-through at McDonald’s.
That last one–the drive-through–shows up regularly in her mailings, for it turns out Barbara is addicted to the fresh cookies from “Mickey D’s.” So, she will tell us what the lady at the window said this morning. Once she told of being pulled over by a traffic cop who thought she was messing with her cell phone while driving. No officer, I was just eating these chocolate chip cookies.
Oh, I forgot to say that I’m on the mailing list for Barbara’s email.
Just because I treasure the lady and enjoy her sense of humor. Once in a while I’ll reply to something she says.
Here are a few of the fun notes she dropped into her daily email (that I made note of)–
–Once she announced that at some point that week she intended to use the word “quagmire.” No idea whether she did.
–When she was a child, her mother Mrs. Summerlin, listened as Barbara said she intended to be a teacher when she grew up. Her mom said, “Honey, be a hair stylist. Because no matter how poor people are, they will always want their hair to look good.”
–Barbara doesn’t mind telling on herself. Once, she said, in Red Lobster, she ate all six of the garlic biscuits before the rest of the people in her group even knew the waiter had brought them.
–Barbara confesses, “I’m just a person standing in front of a bran muffin, asking it please to be a Krispy Kreme Donut.” You’d have to know her.
If you decide to do something similar for your email, I’d suggest you go easy at first, get the okay of your supervisor, and make sure your humor is appropriate for your audience.
People who make the church office a fun place to work have job security, for my money!
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