Evilmail

a Jesus thought...
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. (John 4:14)

a Godly thought...
Do not try to call young people back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place might seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have ever been before. (Vincent Donovan from p50 Frost & Hirsch)

a leading thought...
Leaders must become adept in two areas, or their organisations will collapse from within: conflict resolution and communication. (p254 Blackaby)

a Dave thought...
A few years ago a respected leader of mine labelled email with term evilmail, as she said as it often causes more problems in the church than anything else.
Since email came into the workplace 10 years ago we have gradually relied on it more and more. Although email is cheap and a very quick way to pass on detailed communication it is not always the best method. According to Blackaby (quote above) the two areas we need to work on to foster a sustainable ministry is conflict resolution and communication. It is in both these essentials that email often turns into evilmail.
I have seen many people try and bully, accuse, or criticise another by email and it just starts this word war which is just about who can put the most correct sentences together via their computer and bcc as many others as possible so they win the war. This is mainly due to the fact that people will generally be twice as harsh when they type than when they speak to someone.
In communication it can be helpful but there is nothing worse than finding your name listed on a document just sent out to a hundred people that you wish someone had taken the time to chat with you first, or the other blunder is informing people of a major change that needed some one on one communication time.
So lets all try and pick up the phone or better still sit down with the people we need to communicate important information to, and most of all never do conflict resolution on email. The golden rule is if it is not encouraging or informative at least pick up the phone and talk it out and lets get rid of evilmail!

Just a thought.