The Present of a Rubber Hose Factory

Or musings about communication:
Maybe it was a blessing, maybe a cruel joke but I was given – for a wedding present – a 3 month job in a rubber hose factory. I really needed a job for the summer as I was newly married and would not begin my career in Christian education until the fall. So it was a blessing, but as a Yankee in a small southern town I had my share of challenges which is the cruel joke.

I was to work in an area of the factory called maintenance. Most of the fellows in the department had routines and scheduled tasks to perform, but as the new guy I needed to constantly ask a foreman for an assignment.

After the first day, I had little dealings with the department manager. All of my communication took place with a foreman, George, who was a black man from the county. In 1977 this was unusual and he had difficulty with his confidence in ordering white men, and I had difficulty understanding him.

Now a southern drawl is not all that difficult to understand, but people from the rural parts of the county where I was had more of a dialect than a drawl and with the droning of rubber processing machines and the beating of boilers and that George would always turn his head away from me when he spoke caused me much difficulty in perceiving what he desired me to do. Usually I needed to ask him to repeat himself several times. I could tell that this caused him severe emotional uneasiness.

Returning from lunch break one afternoon I was motioned by George to follow him. This was unusual as he had never lead me to a task; he simply sent me. After a short walk I found myself in a boiler room. The booms of turning machinery echoed off the concrete walls and George spoke with his head in his southern-black country drawl and with his head turned for several minutes. I studied the situation’ could think of nothing I could possible do; so I followed him as he left. He did not seem concerned. For the next 30 minutes we walked around the factory, stopping several places and he spoke at each. Sometimes there was another person present and perhaps the instructions were for them or maybe for me, I just didn’t know.

I can imagine you think it strange that I didn’t stop and inquire of the foreman, “Hey, am I supposed to do something here.” But you were not part of the culture of the factory. Not that I totally understood but I did realize that I was not to ask questions. I was an outsider – my name had been changed to “Damn Yankee” or perhaps that was my title? Anyway no one really wanted to interact with me more than they had to. George, the foreman, also had culture mores that he could not break. He was unable to relate as a boss to a white man. I guess I am slow as I did not realize this was an issue until I observed him with fellow black employees. My questions, which came from the communication problems always made him nervous and he would become very self-conscious. The awkwardness that followed was enough to keep a 23 year-old quiet.

Regardless, after following him around for a while, we came to a place where I understood something to do and stayed there completing a task after he walked away. To this day I do not know if this was the one and only place he requested I work or if he just kept assigning until I accepted one.

After 53 years of church attendance in evangelistic churches with 30 plus years in some position of leadership I wonder if we communicate in a similar manner as George and the culture of the factory. How many are in our sanctuaries and simply due to cultural differences become treated like a “Damn Yankee” in a “good ‘ol boy” Southern factory.

Are we afraid to look into the face, eye to eye, because we are afraid of what we may see? Or is it that the person is different from us? So we turn away and speak a language that is almost understood, but causes confusion – our “Jesus-speak”.

I wonder how many are ready and willing to carry out the mission of Jesus and his kingdom but are following leaders and never quite understanding that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can serve right now because of the culture and language of the leadership?

I wonder if leaders that are frustrated and negative about their “people” who are not “serving” the Lord should reevaluate how they are communicating.

Anyhow, I was just wondering.