The circles that a minister lives in are circles with people who have good intentions but things that are more sentimental than Christian. When I read the gospel and the parables of Jesus I am almost certain that not one parable would qualify to be published in the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series. Jesus just is not that sentimental. There are times when Jesus tells a man to let someone else bury his father and Jesus tells another man to not say goodbye to family before following Jesus.
Christians are notorious for sending sentimental emails to one another. Feel good stories that have either:
- A message about seizing the day.
- Supporting the military.
- A story of every day "miracles"
- A narrative of how someone acted "Christlike", which generally means they acted really nice.
I am willing to bet that very few ministers read these emails any more. In fact if "FWD" is in the subject line, it moves down my 'to read list' near the bottom.
And so, in an attempt to share with my brothers and sisters in Christ a way to approach emailing so that we are no longer viewed as "those people who forward feel good stories", here is some email etiquette to consider.
It comes from the 99% blog.