On Emails

From "In the Spirit of Transparency" - September 25, 1998

Community members are increasingly using e-mail to correspond to one another. Email is transforming the manner, speed and scope of our personal and business communications. One who is equipped with a PC and modem and who is part of an email system can instantaneously write a letter to any person or group of persons anywhere in the world with access to similar facilities. On any given day, our incoming mail would consist of prayer requests, meeting reminders & minutes, ministry advisories & reports, community issues & problems, scripture readings & reflections, humorous & inspirational stories and other letters from our members.

All these benefits are well and good, but there are downsides to email as well:

- If our use of company email for personal or community business violates company policy, then we are out of integrity and we are risking the loss of our jobs. If this were the case, stop! Such unauthorized usage is wrong, even if the purpose is the work of God. Instead, consider subscribing to a free e-mail service line like “juno.com” and “hotmail.com”, to name a few.

Even if your employer allows reasonable use of the company’s email facilities for personal use, we still encourage prudence. When does reasonable become unreasonable? It is more prudent subscribe to a personal email service.

- If you think your email letter is private and confidential, you are mistaken. Therefore, please consider delivering your confidential message by some other means, i.e. face-to-face meeting or a phone call. This advice applies to urgent issues as well, since some members open their email infrequently.

- We are spending more and more time in front of the PC to read and to respond to our emails that some spouses have complained that this takes time away from them as well as from prayer, study, housework, leisure, etc., which are all important to every member’s overall well being. Members are requested to use their good judgment in deciding when and how to use the email.

- The speed with which we receive a letter via email often encourages us to respond with similar quickness, often at the sacrifice of prayer, reflection and consultation. Such hasty correspondences have in the past caused misunderstandings, hurt feelings and alienated relationships in our community of love. We advocate writing letters from the heart, email or not. Let us write them after much prayer and reflection, and always follow-up a letter with an open and loving dialogue with one another.

“You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.” 2 Cor. 3:2-3