The format for email addresses for most companies is firstname.lastname@company.com
However, many churches use the firstinitiallastname@church.org format and that leads to some interesting combinations. Here are some that I’ve collected over the years:
- Sean Lutz becomes slutz@church.org
- Mark Adams becomes madams@church.org
- Helen Ellis becomes hellis@church.org (that’s my favorite)
- Even my name is comical: Steve Law becomes slaw@church.org
I strongly encourage churches to use the standard format used by most companies and organizations. There are several advantages (you’ve already seen the disadvantages above!).
- The email contains the full name of the employee which makes it easier for people new to the church to remember the staff person’s name
- It differentiates between people with the similar names: James Smith and John Smith would have different email addresses (under the older format the church would have to come up with something to differentiate between the two and that can cause confusion to people trying to contact them if they presume they know the church’s email format).
- Writing an announcement becomes as easy as: “Contact john.smith@church.org for info on the deacon retreat.” You don’t have to write out the contact person’s name because it’s in the email address.
- You can still have email aliases for the other email addresses that people might use while you train them to use the new email format.
Lead On!