Email Matters: How shall we utilize email in our leadership culture to the glory of God?
To download a PDF of Leadership Culture Article #5: “Email Matters: 15 Questions | How Shall we Utilize Email in our Leadership Culture to the Glory of God? click here.
Based on my experience of pastoral ministry, I can tell you that about 85-90% of all church conflict over the last seven years at Trinity has its roots in unhealthy communication via email. Through discussions with other pastors, Trinity is hardly unique in this regard! Rather, this is a common trait in the life of the contemporary western church which begs us to reflect upon an important leadership question: how do leaders and covenant partners in the body of Christ steward well the use of email in the church leadership space to the glory of God?
Here are fifteen questions to ask yourself before blasting off an email:
1. Are you seeking to address conflict in the church biblically according to Jesus’ counsel in Matthew 18:15-20? (Go ahead and read the passage. Then seek to apply the wisdom of Jesus before writing an angry email!)
2. Have you talked to the person face-to-face before blasting an email to the entire group? (Again, Jesus is full of wisdom in Matthew 18!)
3. Does this email have the chance to be misunderstood? Then it’s either a short phone call or a sit-down meeting. (Email communication is the one of the poorest forms of communication ever invented on planet earth and is often misunderstood. There is no tone involved. There is no direct eye contact. There is no embodied presence. Gentle, heartfelt, gracious language in an email frequently misses the mark or gets completely overlooked or easily overshadowed.)
4. BIG & IMPORTANT: Are you about to write the email in anger? (In my years of ministry, I have never seen anger move a discussion forward in a healthy manner, especially misunderstandings involving interpersonal relationships.)
5. Have you sat on the email for at least 24-48 hours and still think it is prudent and wise to send the email? (Abraham Lincoln made it a common practice to write a letter and never to send it. You might want to channel your inner Abraham Lincoln before pressing “send”).
6. Are you attempting to rally multiple people to your side or point of view? (A common feature of unhealthy emails are ones which include a bunch of people in the CC lines, a direct contradiction of Jesus’ wisdom in Matthew 18:15-20. Healthy conflict seeks to engage the least number of people possible and/or only the people with the power to directly impact the decision-making process.)
7. Is this a “just getting things off my chest email?” (Wisdom will tell you that every emotion and every perspective does not always merit to be shared.)
8. Is this a “I’m going to give you a piece of my mind email”? (The problem is this: send too many of those emails and you start losing marbles all over the place.)
9. BIG & IMPORTANT: Does this email feel like “walking in the flesh” or “walking in the Spirit”? (Online communication easily devolves into the former rather than the latter. Read Galatians 5:16-26. Does your email promote the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Or does the email feel like it’s out for a walk with the flesh in the hot afternoon in promoting enmity, strife, fits of anger, dissensions, and division in the church?)
10. Am I garnering a reputation for being a complainer? (Every church has these folks. Self-reflection may entail asking the hard question: “Am I one of them?”)
11. Am I garnering a reputation for being divisive or angry? (Every church has these folks. Self-reflection may entail asking the hard question: “Am I one of them?”)
12. Am I making “my preferences” and “my tastes” the mark of how the church should be led and governed? (Can reasonable Christians come to differing conclusions about the topic? If so, make sure you are not embodying the temptation towards consumerism – “it’s about my preferences!” | “it’s about my opinions!” – which exists as a parasite and a plague upon the Church in the modern era.)
13. Does this email reflect well on my character and my witness to Jesus? (Does my email display “the best” of who I am? Would I choose to say this with gentleness and love to the recipient?)
14. After having prayerfully read Matthew 18:15-20, ask yourself: Is there a sin issue involved where Galatians 6:1 and Matthew 18:15-20 would biblically come into play? (That’s definitely a conversation!) Or, if there is no sin issue involved, is this a “bear with one another in love” kind of scenario? (Read Eph. 4:2 and Col. 3:13).
15. BIG & IMPORTANT: Does this email promote the peace, purity, and unity of the Church? (This is a vow that every Covenant Partner and every ordained officer - pastor, elder, deacon - in the body of Christ makes before God and before this congregation:
Every Covenant Partner: Do you promise, by word and deed, to be faithful in maintaining the truth of the Gospel and the peace, purity, and unity of the Church?
For Every Pastor/Elder/Deacon: Do you promise to be faithful in maintaining the truth of the Gospel and the peace, purity, and unity of the Church?
Disrupting the peace, purity, and unity of the Church is a significant charge and one to take seriously before you hit “send” and before you begin engaging in enmity, strife, anger, and division within the body of Christ either online or in person.)
The church is, after all, Christ’s body for which he died.