Ah, Email ...

Is there anything that can get us in trouble in ministry more than email?

I think half of the conflicts I've been involved in in the last 8 years of professional ministry can be traced back to email.  From typos, to misunderstandings, to copying the wrong person ... Email is just a trip.

Just this morning our youth pastor asked me to send out a quick email to our choirs to plug a youth fundraiser dinner coming up this weekend.  No big deal, right?

I send out the harmless thing, and then I start getting the bounces, from an email address of one choir member who's email I know is incorrect.  I get 15 bounces.  Then I get an email from my assistant:

I don't know if you are aware, but you just sent 14 concurrent emails with the same text.

 

Awesome.  I check my Outlook, and the darn emal is still sending, 30 minutes later.  I scramble and cancel the thing ... Which is no easy task, frequently met with an "I'm busy doing important things" look from my Outlook.  And while that's going, 5 more bounces.  While I've been typing this, there has also been at least 3 more bounces.

Good times, right?  I hastily write an apology email to all concerned and press the send button.

I pray.

It only sends once.  Bounce total: 27 emails sent.

I thankfully get no angy emails in return, but I did recieve this gem of hilarity from a choir member's husband:

Those were great emails.  It took all of them for me to decide what to do.  Then it finally dawned on me that I had purchased the tickets and [my wife] had already made my decision.  So-I deleted all 27 emails.  Ha

No Big Deal!

[husband]

There are good people at this church.

Any email bloopers you would like to share with the world?