Church Staff tend to be a varied group of people who are commited to serving the Church and Community. Some will be well trained, such as clergy and lay paid staff. Others will just be volunteers who give generously of their time and energy to the Church.

How does your Church communicate effectively with one another? The Church web site will typically provide email addresses, so you can use email. But there are also groupware tools that businesses use to communicate in teams. And video conferencing is also available online so even when people are spread out, they can still have a conversation together about the business of the Church. Take advantage of these tools, so you never have the situation of the “left hand does not tell the right hand” about what is going on.

Electronic mail has many advantages for a Church. You can publish a monthly newsletter via eMail without spending a lot on postage. You can also target emails to specific groups – e.g. just the people interested in missions. And you can get the information out quickly – within an hour. These advantages make eMail communication a great communications tool when you want to get the Word out to people.

So why not blast away with every eMail message you can think of? In short, because of SPAM. SPAM is unsolicited bulk messaging sent to people indiscriminately. Everyone with an eMail account has had to deal with this deluge of useless information. This year, projections show that there will be at least 7 trillion SPAM messages generated. Unfortunately, that means 80% of the eMails that land in your inbox are likely to be SPAM. How does the Church’s important message about the change in the meeting time get through all of that chaff? And to make matters worse, people use eMail filters that can mislabel an eMail message as SPAM and throw it away. Here are some tips for getting your eMail Blasts past the filters:

• Ensure that your eMails have original, useful content
• Avoid trigger words in your subject line, e.g. free, trial, money, quote
• Avoid using ALL CAPS – i.e. SHOUTING FOR ATTENTION
• Do use a subject line that matches the eMail – e.g. March Monthly Newsletter
• Avoid the excessive use of punctuation – i.e. “! ! !”

SPAM is a tough problem to deal with. And some people have given up and don’t use eMail as a result. Or they may use Social Network Messaging instead. You should encourage people to let you know if they aren’t getting your eMails. Perhaps you should still print a few paper newsletters and send them through snail mail (USPS). That way, you cover the spectrum and ensure that the Word gets through.