The church directory is a map of who will show up
By Ruthanne Pilcher, Contributing writer · · 2 min read
The church directory is not for finding phone numbers. Everybody has the phone numbers. The directory is for finding out who is still here.
Ours is from 2021. Spiral bound. There is a picture of every family that agreed to be photographed, and the ones who did not agree are listed in the back in smaller print, and if you know the church you know why each of them is in the back.
I keep it by the phone. When somebody is in the hospital I open it to their page, not for the number, which I know, but to look at the picture and count. How many children. Are any of them local. Is the husband in the picture or has that changed. Who is on the facing page, because the facing page is alphabetical and alphabetical is nothing, but the people in the pew behind them are not alphabetical, and I know who those are too.
That is the map. Who will bring the food. Who will drive. Who will sit with her the first night. You can draw it from the directory in about four minutes if you have been at a church long enough, and you cannot draw it at all if you have not.
When the new directory comes out next spring, I will keep the old one. The people who are not in the new one are the reason I needed the map in the first place.