You may find this scenario familiar: you’re driving into work, mentally listing everything you need to accomplish for the day. After arriving and grabbing a warm beverage, you sit down at your workstation, start your computer, and sign in. Your first stop? Email.
Solutions for Organizations
“You’ve Got Mail”
If you grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, the phrase “You’ve got mail” is likely familiar. AOL introduced its email service in the early 1990s, and the phrase was popularized by the 1998 film You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Since then, society has never looked back. Now, 30 years later, email remains the workhorse of communication and a primary method of connection in our church ministries.
With your beverage in hand and your inbox open, you start scanning your email. Is there anything important? You sift through the mix, trying to discern meaningful messages from the “need to know” or “buy this” emails. You delete the obvious ones, and you open, read, or star the messages that need your attention. Meanwhile, the mental list you made on your way to work persists. But you feel the need to handle email first. Before you know it, an hour has passed, and now you’re behind on your day. Sigh. On to the next thing.
By the Numbers
A 2016 study of workplace email habits, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, and Microsoft, found that the average worker checks email approximately 11 times per hour, with 84 percent of users keeping their inbox open throughout the day.
This same study revealed that only about 30 percent of emails require action, while time spent reading, sorting, and composing emails accounts for 10 to 28 percent of daily work time. This data underscores how much time we spend interacting with email and how integral it has become to our workflow.
A Unique Role in Ministry
Staying connected and “in the loop” is vital for our ministries. The church, by its nature, brings people together. While phone calls and snail mail continue to serve as communication tools, email has risen to the top in technological use. Open any church newsletter or bulletin, and you’ll likely see email addresses scattered throughout.
As church workers, we strive to connect people to one another and to Christ. Romans 12:4–5 says, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Technology plays a role in facilitating this connection, and email is a crucial part of it. But like any tool, email works best when used wisely.
For Good or for Evil
Like any worldly tool, email presents a dichotomy. It’s a beneficial tool for connecting people, but it also serves as a platform for distractions that can pull us away from the ministry’s mission.
Email marketing is big business, with billions of dollars spent annually in the US alone on marketing tools, subscriber lists, and strategies designed to capture attention. Secular businesses know that email consumes much of our time, and they will go to great lengths to grab attention for profit.
You’ve seen it: inbox advertisements, promotional emails, newsletters, and offers. What’s our usual response? Delete. Unsubscribe.
Delete and Unsubscribe
Don’t get me wrong—deleting emails and unsubscribing from lists are useful tools. If an email isn’t worth reading, deleting it clears space. If certain emails keep coming back, unsubscribing cuts them off. But these solutions often provide only temporary relief. Let’s explore this further.
Delete
Time is ticking, and you have a mental checklist to complete, so you start deleting. It feels good—satisfying even—to see the unread count drop. You spend 5, 10, or even 45 minutes on this task. However, after repeated deletions from the same sources, fatigue sets in. You see emails from retailers, the same old promotions, or suspicious messages that make you nervous. You hit Delete and move on.
Unsubscribe
At some point, after spending weeks deleting the same emails, you wonder, “Why am I doing this over and over?” So you take the extra step to unsubscribe.
Unsubscribing is a more permanent solution, albeit a drastic one. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 gave users the legal right to unsubscribe from marketing emails, ensuring that companies must honor these requests. But the question remains: Is unsubscribing always the best solution?
For example, maybe you receive emails from your favorite retailer along with order confirmations and receipts. You want to keep the transactional emails, but not the promotional ones. Fortunately, the CAN-SPAM Act mandates that marketing and transactional emails be kept separate. You can unsubscribe from promotions without losing important notifications.
To Unsubscribe or Not to Unsubscribe
Unsubscribing may seem like the right move, but consider the implications, especially if you manage a group or shared inbox, such as a general church office email (e.g., pastor@churchdomain.com). If a volunteer managing the inbox gets tired of emails from a local food pantry and unsubscribes, that decision affects the entire church staff, cutting off communication with that ministry.
Unsubscribing isn’t a decision to be made lightly. Here are a few best practices for managing inboxes, especially in ministry:
- Understand the distinction between marketing and transactional emails: You can unsubscribe from one without affecting the other.
- Don’t rely on deleting as a long-term solution: If certain senders flood your inbox, consider using filters or rules instead of repeatedly deleting emails.
- Use discernment when unsubscribing: It’s a powerful tool, and it should be used carefully.
- Avoid unsubscribing from shared inboxes: Ensure that the entire organization agrees before making lasting decisions that affect everyone.
Alternative Options
Rather than defaulting to unsubscribing, consider other methods. Both Gmail and Outlook offer advanced tools such as labels, folders, filters, and rules to automate inbox management. Nonprofits, including many churches, often use Google’s nonprofit pricing or Microsoft’s Office 365 grant to access these features. Church360° Unite, in its email service, offers these features and more. These tools can help you spend less time managing email and more time on meaningful work. They streamline the inbox experience, allowing you to focus on what matters most.
Next time you’re tempted to delete en masse or unsubscribe, consider automating your inbox instead. These tools can free up your time, allowing you to focus on the work that truly matters—connecting with people and fulfilling your ministry’s mission. Soli Deo Gloria.
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