{"id":720812,"date":"2020-09-09T02:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=720812"},"modified":"2020-09-08T15:05:17","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T19:05:17","slug":"10-reasons-to-use-the-telephone-rather-than-email-in-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-reasons-to-use-the-telephone-rather-than-email-in-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Reasons to Use the Telephone Rather than Email in Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I appreciate email, especially because I can communicate with people around the world at the touch of the \u201csend\u201d button. So, I\u2019m not arguing against using email. I\u2019m arguing that there are still good reasons to use the telephone when doing ministry. Here\u2019s why:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The telephone often takes less time.<\/b> I can usually ask a question, and get an answer more rapidly over the phone than I can by typing, sending, receiving, and responding to multiple emails.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. A voice can exude passion much more than an email can.<\/b> If you want to convince someone to join you in a ministry task, you\u2019re more likely to show your fire for the task in a phone call than in an email. Urgency in a voice goes a long way.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Emails can be easily misread.<\/b> We\u2019ve all spent far too many hours explaining and re-explaining emails that recipients misunderstood. All the emojis in the world can\u2019t take care of what a simple phone call can.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. An email can\u2019t always do what ministry requires.<\/b> An email in a time of grief or anger or questioning or fear might be a start, but it\u2019s seldom the best way to minister to someone who needs to hear a comforting word.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Ministry is about people . . . with names . . . and faces . . . and voices.<\/b> Frankly, I have friends with whom I communicate often, but whose voice I haven\u2019t heard in years. Even I as write these words, I realize that I\u2019ve been missing a bit of who they are.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. A telephone call is almost unexpected now.<\/b> We\u2019ve become so accustomed to emailing that a phone call catches us off guard. Maybe that\u2019s a reason to use the phone: to show somebody how much he or she matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Email can be a ministry copout. <\/b>Sometimes we use email to avoid the hard work of face-to-face, voice-to-voice confrontation, or challenge. That\u2019s more cowardice than effective ministry.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Ministry is incarnational.<\/b> That means that ministry requires our being present \u201cin the flesh.\u201d I realize that a phone call isn\u2019t fully incarnational, either, but it still requires us to talk to somebody. Even the letters in the Bible were often hand-delivered and read by a person.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Phone calls sometimes allow for dealing with issues more rapidly. <\/b>\u00a0Sure, email is instant, but that assumes the recipient has immediate Internet access. Sometimes it\u2019s just quicker to make a phone call when dealing with a pressing matter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Ministry is often about oral communication.<\/b> Most of us (including me) will continue doing emails, regardless of this post \u2013 and I understand that necessity. The more we can actually speak to people and communicate clearly, though, the more we can improve this critical aspect of ministry. Practice \u2013 even on the phone \u2013 is good.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What are your thoughts?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I appreciate email, especially because I can communicate with people around the world at the touch of the \u201csend\u201d button. So, I\u2019m not arguing against using email. I\u2019m arguing that there are still good reasons to use the telephone when doing ministry. Here\u2019s why:\r\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":720814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[183,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-720812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communications","category-outreach-and-evangelism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n10 Reasons to Use the Telephone Rather than Email in Ministry | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m not arguing against using email. I\u2019m arguing that there are still good reasons to use the telephone when doing ministry. 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