How do email inboxes get so cluttered? Every email address is a digital fingerprint tied to your identity—tracked, analyzed, and often exploited. Necessary messages compete for attention with promotional emails, spam, and unwanted solicitations, hindering mission-critical communication.
How can we reclaim the inbox as a resource for effective ministry and education? How can we make email work for us rather than against us? In the following paragraphs, we will explore practical tools, such as aliases, email groups, and plus addressing, to transform your email ecosystem into an efficient, manageable system that supports your mission.
An alias is a secondary email address that directs messages to the same inbox as the primary address. Think of it as a nickname for your email account, offering flexibility without changing your primary address.
Imagine a staff member named Sarah Williams gets married and changes her last name to Johnson. Instead of disrupting communication, the organization can create an alias (Sarah.Johnson@domain.com) that points to her original inbox (Sarah.Williams@domain.com). This allows her to seamlessly receive emails addressed to either name while updating her contacts.
This flexibility is particularly useful for organizations with high staff turnover or those dealing with volunteers. By maintaining continuity with aliases, you avoid disruptions in communication while keeping your email management system simple.
Within our churches, schools, and organizations, we have many overlapping titles or similar positions. Take, for example, a sole pastor at a small congregation, a principal, or an office assistant. In my line of work I communicate with thousands of churches and many—more than half—have email addresses for these positions as the staff member’s name. They are often firstname.lastname@church.com or something similar. However, when a pastor is called to a different congregation, the office assistant moves on to another job, or a principal retires, we find that it can be hard to go through all websites, databases, contacts, nooks, and crannies to change the contact information. Aliases can help with this.
One ideal setup is to have each key position in your organization have two email addresses. One primary and one public facing alias. For example, using our example from above, let’s say that Sarah Johnson is the principal of a school associated with our congregation. Sarah.Johnson@domain.com could be the email that Sarah uses for personal things, like signing up for a professional organization subscription, trying a new tech resource before showing it to teachers, or accessing an educator discount card at the local bookstore. However, for all professional matters that are tied to the role of principal, Sarah could use the alias Principal@domain.com. This simple alias can be used on state forms, school publications, in congregation publications, and other school-related matters. If Sarah takes a position at a different school, the alias Principal@domain.com just gets assigned to the new principal and Sarah’s email gets shutdown. The communication for the school keeps flowing without disruption, making the transition much smoother.
This setup takes just a few minutes and requires no changes to the user’s workflow. If you use a personal Gmail or iCloud account, research your options. For example, iCloud allows three email aliases that can be set up in the Mail app at iCloud.com. If you are interested in looking at how to implement aliases as part of a Google Workspace environment check out this help article from Google or from Microsoft.
While aliases are convenient, senders may mistakenly assume an alias is the primary address. Include your primary email in your signature prevents confusion and ensures others know how to reach you.
I remember when I first started using an email signature. I thought, “Why would I put my email in my signature? Can’t people see who sent them the message?” Over time, I realized that as email systems became more complex, including my primary email address in my signature helped me to set the email at which I wanted people to contact me.
Email groups are addresses (e.g., group@domain.com) that distribute messages to multiple recipients. They simplify team collaboration and ensure no one is left out of key communication.
Imagine your church runs a community meal program with ten volunteers. Instead of emailing each volunteer individually or copying and pasting a list of addresses into the BCC field (please don’t do this), you can create a group email like MealsTeam@domain.com. Messages sent to this group automatically reach all members, keeping everyone informed.
In my years of working with professionals and consulting for organizations, I’ve encountered skepticism about group emails—especially from smaller teams. “Why is this better than pasting emails into the BCC field?” they often ask. While using BCC might seem sufficient, group emails offer distinct advantages:
Did you know you can send quick group emails directly from your church management software at no additional cost with Church360° Members? Start free trial »
Note: Specific platforms often change their user interface so the provided instructions are general in nature. A quick internet search can help you find the most current up-to-date instructions.
While group emails streamline communication, fragmented conversations can occur if recipients reply to individuals rather than the group. Encourage members to use “Reply All” to maintain transparency and keep everyone informed.
For advanced use cases, explore collaborative inboxes available in platforms like Google Workspace. Collaborative inboxes allow teams to manage incoming emails together, assign tasks, and track progress—all from a shared space.
Plus addressing (or sub-addressing) allows users to customize their email address by adding a “+” followed by a keyword. Messages sent to the modified address still arrive in the main inbox, enabling automatic sorting or filtering.
For a Vacation Bible School (VBS) event, you could use ChurchAdmin+VBS@domain.com. Filters can sort all messages sent to this address into a dedicated “VBS” folder, keeping your inbox organized and making it easy to find relevant information.
This tool is especially helpful for segmenting communications from different sources. For example, you might use Sarah.Johnson+CONF2025@domain.com when registering for an event. Later, you can filter or search for all emails sent to this address, streamlining inbox management.
Some platforms may not support addresses with a “+” symbol. Test compatibility before relying on this method for essential communication. If you encounter compatibility issues, consider using aliases or email groups instead.
Each of these tools addresses specific challenges, but they are most effective when used together:
A pastor uses aliases to consolidate name variations into one inbox.Not sure where to start? Follow these steps to ease into email management:
Start Small: Test with one alias or email group to evaluate functionality. For example, set up an email group for your worship team or committee to coordinate team communication.Email doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By adopting aliases, email groups, and plus addressing, churches and schools can transform their inboxes into tools for effective ministry and education.
With these strategies, you can streamline communication, reduce clutter, and ensure that vital messages reach the right people. Whether you’re coordinating volunteers, managing events, or leading a ministry, these tools can help you focus on what matters most—your mission.
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