if someone fails to respond to a communication

This is indeed sad....and here all along I thought it was just happening to me

In the military, if someone fails to respond to a communication, other units assume he's dead, they initiate a SAR mission, and they execute pre-planned procedures for succession to fill the breach. In the business world, if someone fails to respond to a communication, others assume that the silent one ended business operations, does not want more business, or is "dis"-ing the sender.

In WELS, failing to respond to communications is common, especially in cases where clergy ought to respond to laypeople. Over the years I've sent hundreds of e-mail messages and dozens of snail-mail messages (on a variety of subjects) directly to pastors (and principals and teachers) by name and in the majority of cases the pastors did not respond. For years I gave pastors the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they were men of words not science, therefore they were not technically proficient enough to find the "reply" button on their email program, but nowadays we're in the third millennium and pastors have had ample time to find that "reply" button. Pastors ordained before man walked on the moon have retired, so those remaining should be technically proficient. And in the case of snail-mail, maybe their congregations were poor and could not afford postage for paper replies?

On the other hand, to their credit, some pastors have EXCELLENT track records responding to communications. As a whole, I applaud the Synod Administration Building (SAB) for responding in a timely way to all communications.