Texting, emails, calling and FaceTime are not enough to grow relationships. These new channels for comm may not even be enough for sustaining relationships. Hard times and good times together are required. Tears and Laughter are the life blood of true community. Communication is not community. Community is required to grow and sustain. This is how we are made.

Church leaders and members. Let’s come to grips with what virtual church 2020 is. Your staff is producing a 30-60 minute weekly TV show for you with a full on participatory expectation. It must be designed and engineered so that you, the “members” can consume it on a television set, a PC, an iPad, an iPhone or any of a myriad of Android devices all concurrently and still be available asynchronously. In the near future this exercise will include alignment and integration with live in person on premise services and connections to ongoing online engagement via the web page and meeting/collaboration demands. The audio/visual/networking demands are staggering.

​Are you providing your staff the tools and support that they need? Does this new delivery expectation have the people you need for content creation and execution? Skills? To sustain? - Who is doing all of this WORK?

These are serious questions. Thriving churches will answer them now before the crisis.

The 2020 surveillance state in public is a good thing. Video is the most reliable way to capture events for the record. The sheer volume of mobile devices and cameras in the US forces us to consider our actions and choices. We the people can judge for ourselves in many cases. This is good. We have no expectation of privacy in public and on social media. The quality of mobile device video has improved so dramatically that we can all contribute to the record in a meaningful way. Authority figures and bullies are held accountable as it should be.

if we can develop more respect for one another this won’t be an issue. Public is public.

Each of us should now consider ourselves “armed” with the ability to record. Each of us must assume that we are being recorded.

​ I’m armed in other ways as well when I’m in public. You should be too. It makes us all safer. #1A #2A

Our cultural reboot is underway. The stress and anxiety associated with a full reboot is real. So many questions and risks are now a reality. It is done hang on for the ride.

Will the computer come back on? What about the power supply? This server hasn’t ever been restarted before. Will the components talk to one another and can the internal bus support the load? how about the processor, will it overheat under the demand? Will the network connections come back up and are they secure and in sync for the data exchanges required. Data... is the new data warehouse design going to be flexible as we move ahead.

What are the priorities for processing and who is managing the instructions? I hope the operating systems is stable, because only then can the apps start to work and add value again.

watch the event log and task manager to see what is going on. Good luck America. #GodHasGotThis but it is still scary and a lot of work for the essential processors in the core.

 WHO: 

• Know exactly who you are sending to.    
• For every addressee on the list. 
• Who will read it?   Who can read it?  Who will they send it to? 
• Ensure that everyone who needs to know is included.  
• Recipients in the TO: line should represent those with a must know, action required level of involvement.  Best to provide context in the subject as to what is expected. 
• Recipients in the CC: line should be those who “should be aware” only… no action required. 
• BEWARE:  Recipients will notice who is not included.  Omitting a stakeholder is equivalent to exclusion. It is offensive and will be noticed. If you make a mistake and do not include someone, there will be consequences. You will likely face them regardless of your intention.  

WHY: 

• Why are you sending this?  Consider this carefully.  Email is a one way “sermon” and not a conversation or dialogue.  Even though recipients can respond, the asynchronous nature is volatile if ANY emotion is involved.  

 
WHAT: 

• Email should never be more than a few sentences at best.  
• Communicate facts, and information… cleanly and succinctly.    
• Any email involving emotion should generally be saved and then discussed real time.. on telephone, live in person, or in video conference. 
• Email is a one way conversation associated generally with an expectation of reply. 
• Use attachments for ancillary information. notes, minutes, pictures, plans.  
• Always have an ask and clear action. 

HOW and WHEN: 

• Be very careful when you send as to time and your expectations for reply.  Do not assume that those are clear. Do not assume that they will remain clear.  
• Timing of reply is a natural social construct. Too short, too long.. all influence the nature of the messaging. 
• Scroll rule applies. If a reader has to scroll, they generally will not do it.  Anything that is important must be in the top of message or it is likely to get ignored.  
• Your readers are overwhelmed with information.  The onus is on you as the communicator to put the time and effort and respect into crafting a message. 
• Too many emails will be ignored.  Too much in email will be ignored.  This fault is on you not the reader. 
• Use formatting to clean it up and make it clear.