Why email?

Hodler

Why do people want to email me?
The church has a phone and front doors.

I understand that many pastors despise emails.

But, apart from trolls that relish their ability to inflict others anonymously,

there are legitimate reasons that people use church email, instead of phone or personal contact:

1) Let's face it, pastors are difficult to engage with on Sundays.

It is impossible to have a pastor's full attention on Sunday,

and many people work for inflexible employers when the pastor is keeping church-hours.

And we try to respect his evening hours.

I remember using one day's vacation to speak with a pastor on a personal subject,

then the morning of the appointment,

the pastor's secretary called to cancel the appointment, without explanation.

One day's vacation wasted and a problem unsolved.

2) Phone messages on paper contain a name, phone number and very few words

describing the issue. Phone messages are inferior to email.

I believe that a message needs at least 10 - 25 words to connect the sender and receiver.

Fewer words downgrade the importance of the message.

3) I am a poor speaker, including stutters and stammers, which given human nature,

would leave a message-taker to believe that I am likely not a highly educated person

or very intelligent. Emails disguise the speaking inabilities of someone like me.

Growing up, I had a classmate who was cleft palate.

Good luck getting him to initiate a cold-visit or an unsolicited, verbal exchange over the phone.

He would most likely email first, I suspect.

Email offers a point of contact with the least possibility of rejection.

Imagine for yourself what kind of person would use email under these circumstances.

For example, I once belonged to a church, which was also home for a young man

who was coming out of homosexuality. He was still very 'lispy'.

I could imagine that kind of person using email to establish contact with a church,

then finally share his predicament,

looking for a safe place to transform into what God called him to be.

I also imagine someone with physical or cognitive anomalies,

using email to initiate a bond with a pastor before attending the church.

My question throughout this website is:

How can anyone think that today's church can have a complete soul-harvest without email?