Our church has a policy that pastors and elders, at least, must have a personal e-mail address other church officers may use with confidence that the officer is the only one who will read e-mails received at that address. It's a necessary policy for churches, but sometimes officers balk at it and try to do church business from an e-mail address they share with their wives. This is the reason this excerpt from a recent TidBITS article on e-mail addresses struck my funny bone...
A Couple’s Address? Really? Every so often I get an email from a couple who share a single email address. And while that’s adorable on some level, it’s also infuriating. JohnAndNancy@ThePetersonFamily.com sends me a message and it’s signed “John.” Later, I want to tell John something so I send a message to that address, but Nancy replies. I never know who’s going to be on the other end of the conversation.
Look, couples. I’m sure you’re the two closest people ever, that you share a brain, and that you have no secrets from each other. Good for you. But as surely as you each need your own driver’s license and passport, you need to have your own email addresses too. John and I might want to discuss a surprise party for Nancy, and Nancy might want to buy John a gift online without worrying that he’ll see the receipt. There are a thousand other reasons why it’s worthwhile for even the most committed and trusting couple to have separate addresses. If you want to have a family address especially for email both people need to see (such as bills), that’s fair enough, but please do your correspondents a favor and let them know your personal address too. (You do know email accounts are available for free, right?)
The rest of the article is worth reading...
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
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