While preaching is arguably the greatest component of weekly ministry for the preacher, much of his communication will occur outside the pulpit when he interacts with individuals during the week. Aside from in-person meetings, the preacher will be communicating through phone calls, email, and other forms of media. Here then are five healthy habits to develop when communicating outside the pulpit:
- Let the church know how to reach you. We honor people when we tell them the best way to contact us. It shows we are approachable and interested in hearing from them. Whatever your preferred tool for communicating, make it known—and tactfully direct folks to that method (e.g., “Hey, John! Great to hear from you. I’m rarely on Facebook, so please email me [or, call me, etc.] and I’ll be sure to follow up.”
- Return every message. No matter how others contact you, be sure to return every message. It’s common courtesy to do so. Support staff and volunteers may help filter unwanted sales calls and impersonal inquiries, but you should return in a timely manner those messages that come directly from members, attenders, colleagues, and acquaintances.
- Answer emails within 24 hours. Some may disagree here (and that’s okay—see habit #5), but don’t underestimate the need for timely responses to email. In a world where most organizations use email as their preferred method of communication,1 user expectations have grown exponentially. To illustrate, your recent online transaction likely resulted in your receiving at least one email thanking you for your order and another providing shipping information–all within a matter of minutes. Those who contact us by email are conditioned to expect similar results. Most members know we’re busy, but they likely expect we’ll return their email within 24 hours. We show we care even if briefly responding: “Hey, I got your email and I’ll get back to you soon.”
- Don’t forget that those who receive your communication can’t read your non-verbal cues. Because we cannot observe body language in a call, text, or email, we may miss nonverbal signals that aid communication. We may read a tersely worded email, for example, and believe the sender was upset when he or she was just fine. While we won’t always interpret the messages of others correctly, we can work for clarity in our own communication. We need to think, “How do I best say this so others won’t misinterpret my message and my intent?”
- Don’t expect others to share your communication habits. Pastors are responsible to some degree for the communication habits of those under their supervision. Beyond staff, however, we cannot expect others to communicate as we do. Communication habits differ from person to person, and we are wise to extend grace to those whose habits are not our own. On the other hand, training believers to communicate well in general can also be an important part of evangelism and discipleship training.
Pastors: What habits would you add?
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- Valerie Bolden-Barrett. “Despite new technologies, 95% of companies still use email as main communication tool.” HR Dive. Last modified June 21, 2017. https://www.hrdive.com/news/despite-new-technologies-95-of-companies-still-use-email-as-main-communic/445490/