Living in Harmony - June 2018

Post date: Jun 18, 2018 1:03:20 PM

In this month’s Living in Harmony feature, we’re going to take a deeper look at what it means to use our gifts as the Body of Christ in community within the context of our communication.

Now, before you say, “this isn’t my area of gifting”, this IS an area that we can ALL work to be more mindful and proactive about. An area where we can ALL seek to create more harmony than discord.

Today we’re going to get nitty-gritty and zoom in on one area that can and has created discord for every one of us at some point in our lives.

Email.

Yes, I know email isn’t among the spiritual gifts mentioned in Scripture, but that’s not to say we can’t apply Biblical truths to it. After all, we want to view every area of life through the lens of the gospel.

Let’s start with how our choice of words impacts our email communication. Word choice in email can influence the recipient’s perspective and email interpretation in ways the sender never intended. This in turn can impact their response to the sender, which can begin a volley of emails that continue to be misinterpreted.

The original Sender may say, “Well, that’s not MY fault!” The Receiver may say, “Well, THEY started it!”

We’re not looking to place blame. We’re looking to consider how we can each grow in our sending AND receiving of email—to help promote harmony and encourage one another as the Body of Christ.

There are 5 perspectives involved with email (and you thought there were only two!):

1. The sender

2. The recipient

3. The assuming sender (assumptions are made of the recipient)

4. The assuming recipient (assumptions are made of the sender)

5. The responder

All of us have at one time or another received an email that has raised our hackles. We when do, our visceral response often leads us to a poor interpretation and assumption of the writer’s intent. This causes our perspective to be skewed and often not particularly Christlike.

Because email prohibits us from seeing one another face-to-face, and because many times we’re corresponding with someone we don’t know or haven’t met, assumptions can be made and we can misinterpret the writer’s heart and intent.

Let’s unpack some principles that we can all work to grow and improve upon in the role of the Sender, Receiver and Responder.

1. Slow down—Effective communication takes time to formulate your thoughts; to figure out what you’re actually trying to say; and to write your message out in a clear way. Email is a form of communication. Not a task.

2. Assume the best—be grace-filled in your sending of email, in how you receive email and in your written response.

3. Write the email as though you are speaking to the person and read it to yourself when you are done. Never press “Send” until you have re-read it and put yourself in the receiver’s shoes. Face-to-face conversation and phone calls have the distinct advantage that we can see or at least hear a person’s response to something we are saying. Email does not. Email can be misinterpreted, tone can be completely misread and comprehension can be far from ideal. Write the email as though you are speaking to the person face-to-face and read it to yourself when you are done.

4. Always open and close with a greeting—it may feel archaic, but it really makes a difference. Some examples may be:

--Hi, Gabe, I hope your project is going well!

--How about a reminder of the context of your conversation? —Hi Barbara, It was so nice getting to chat with you last week.”

--Or a preface about why you’re reaching out “I wanted to touch base about…”).

--CLOSE: Have a great week! Blessings. Always open AND close with a greeting

5. Proofread—Beyond grammar and spell checks, this is a good point to think about the tone of your email. Try to step back and consider how someone reading the email for the first time will react to it—and adjust accordingly. For particularly important emails, ask someone else to look it over—an extra set of editorial eyes has never hurt anyone. It’s possible that you just don’t realize when you’re being rude. What seems to be a matter-of-fact comment or answer to a question in your opinion, comes out sounding harsh and critical to your recipient. The criticism may be warranted, but because the communication is one-way, you need to work to frame it in terms that can soften the blow.

6. Never put something in writing that you would not want to be passed along. That FORWARD button is so tempting! This is a great final gut-check to make sure your emails sound respectful and professional and ultimately represent how you want to be portraying Christ to the world.

(Adapted from An Editor’s Guide to Writing Ridiculously Good Emails, with some of our own principles added).

So what does email communication have to do with exercising your spiritual gifts as the Body of Christ?

All too often, I think we can adopt an attitude of, “I don’t need to do that because it’s not in my gifting. Leave that for someone else.” You may not currently be a gifted emailer – either as a Sender, Receiver or Responder—(notice the word currently), because this IS an area in which you can grow and develop.

Read Romans 12:4-21 in The Passion Translation and consider Paul’s exhortation in light of our interactions via email.

--We are FAMILY. Members of one body in Christ – vitally joined together, each contributing to the others. We don’t want to be a family that is merely civil toward one another. We want to be one that functions with grace and lives in harmony.

--Let the inner movement of my heart always be to love one another – this will help shape my perspective before ASSUMPTIONS can take root.

--Show high respect and honor – trying to outdo one another.

--Commune with God at all times – do I take a posture of prayer as I read “hard” emails and as I respond to them?

--Does my word choice show that I speak blessing?

--Do I Live in a spirit of harmony, being as mindful of another’s worth as I am my own?

--Am I making assumptions? Don’t be smug or even think for a moment that you know it all.

--Do I plan my life around the noblest way to benefit others?

--Never let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good. Do I respond with an abundance of grace—over-the-top kind of grace? Often when I do this after receiving a hard email, the recipient responds back in grace.

So while this passage isn’t about email, it can help shape our perspectives in how we send, receive and respond to email.

The Word of God is living and active – let’s ask Him to produce His fruit in our lives as we seek to grow in harmony and community through our communication—be it face-to-face or via email.

Oh that we would be more mindful of others and take ownership in the part we play—you and I—in creating harmony in the Body of Christ through our communication.!

So as we seek to grow in grace and harmony through our email interactions, may we “Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11 NLT).