5 Email and Text Questions for Shepherds

What would you think of a leader who says, “I don’t talk on the telephone.  I get my wife to make a call if I need to get a message that way”?

I heard a few men make those statements 50-60 years ago.

I haven’t heard a man make a statement like that about telephones in decades.  However, I frequently talk with leaders who make similar statements about email and texts.

The fact is, the majority of the people in our congregations and the people we want to reach with the gospel communicate electronically.  If I am going to become “all things to all men,” it may be time to learn to use these powerful tools to the glory of God.

Some questions to consider:

  1. Do you communicate digitally?  If you don’t, when do you plant to learn?
  2. What is you email address?  Is it your wife’s name?  I don’t trust the confidentiality of a message when it’s sent in the name of a spouse instead of the person I am corresponding with.[tweetthis]What is your email address? Is it your wife’s name?[/tweetthis]
  3. Does your leadership group have guidelines about what you will and won’t discuss electronically?  I, personally, won’t do counseling by text or email.  I’ll set up the appointment of time and place, but I won’t write what may easily be misunderstood because of the lack of body language and voice inflection.  I won’t engage in a topic involving actual or perceived conflict for the same reasons.[tweetthis]Does your leadership group have guidelines about what you will and won’t discuss electronically?[/tweetthis]
  4. Do you keep in mind that what you transfer by text or email is potentially available for worldwide distribution?  With the selection of friends’ email addresses or phone numbers and the click of an icon, what I intended to be between another person and me can go to the ends of the world.  It can also be edited to communicate something I never intended to say.
  5. Do you let people know you have received a message so they know they have made contact?  It only takes a few seconds to reply, “Thank you” or “I’ll get back to you shortly (or in a day or two),” and the person doesn’t have to wonder if we connected.  That’s what I want people to do for me.  I try to do the same for those who send me messages.

If you don’t know how to communicate through email and texting, take a class or ask your grandchildren to help you.  You can do that like you learned to ride a bike:  try it and fall down, try it and fall down until you’re riding smoothly and enjoying it.

How do you use email and texting to connect with others to advance the Kingdom of God?

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Jerrie Barber
Servant of Jesus, husband to Gail, father to Jerrie Wayne Barber, II and Christi Parsons, grandfather, great-grandfather, Interim Preacher, Shepherd coach, Ventriloquist, barefoot runner, ride a cruiser bicycle

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