Guidelines for the Journey
THE EMMAUS JOURNEY

1. We honor Christ in all that we share with each other and the way we share it. Email is the worst form of communication, because we cannot hear the writers' tone of voice, nor see their facial expressions, nor see if they are tense or relaxed, upset or at peace, or angry or not. But email is what connects us on this Emmaus Journey, so we need to give others the benefit of the doubt whenever we think we're reading anger or judgmentalism or condemnation. We must always assume that we are misinterpretting something about the writer's intentions if what we read stirs up anger or defensiveness within us. Therefore, if you feel stirred up in any disturbing way, respond in the following way -- in this order:
    
   1. Walk away from the computer and take to prayer your response to what you read. Don't talk to God about what the other person said, but about how you feel about it, and why.
   2. Wait one full day (or longer) before responding by email to the EJ list or to the individual in private.
   3. If you feel you have to defend yourself, remember that Jesus did not defend himself whenever he was accused. Let God be your vindicator, and let him defend you through the community. Wait to see how the rest of the group handles the situation that's made you feel defensive. Do they change the subject now that you've become quiet? Or do they open up new possibilities for understanding by explaining what you said in a new light?
   4. Before writing to the group, read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
   5. Now compose that email you've been itching to write, if you're still itching to write it.
   6. If your completed email adheres to the rest of the guidelines, send it with love and ask Jesus to deliver it with his grace.
       
2. We never judge anyone on the list, but give compassion and prayer support.
    
3. When we want to write something that's specific to one person and it doesn't benefit anyone else, we get that person's email address off the letter and write to him/her privately, rather than wasting other people's reading time and email box space.
    
4. We stick to the week's faith-sharing topic, straying from it only as the Spirit leads and only temporarily and only if it enhances our journey together.
    
5. If we find good material on other sites or in email that's been sent to us, we share it with the list only if it somehow pertains to a current faith-sharing topic, and we introduce the other material by sharing what it means to us and how it relates to the topic. Also, we are careful not to violate copyright laws in what we share, always giving credit to the original author and including the book title or the website URL (address) where we got it from.
    
6. We don't preach at each other, but rather we share our insights based on our own experiences, we share our questions and struggles, and we share the joy of our new spiritual growth.
    
7. We don't treat this community as a therapy group and we don't monopolize the discussion with our personal problems, although we do share how we are working to overcome our problems, as it relates to the current topic.
    
8. This faith sharing group is only for those who read the Daily Reflections of Good News Ministries, because the faith-sharings are based on the Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and focus on the reflection question provided to readers of the Daily Reflections. If you want to invite someone to join this community, please send them first to our Daily Reflections info page to sign up for them; after they've signed up, they will be directed to a sign-up form for joining this community.
    
9. If the amount of email you get becomes too much, you can switch your account to "digest" mode, which means you will get only one email that shows all conversations for the day. Go to gnm.org/mailman/listinfo/emmausjourney_gnm.org (this link is always at the bottom of each email from the Emmaus Journey community), scroll down to the yellow "Emmaus Journey Subscribers" area, log in with your email address, and change your settings.
     
10. If you need to temporarily or permanently remove yourself from the list, please don't ask me to do it for you. I'm sooooo busy. It's easy for you to do -- use the link that comes at the bottom of all the group email, just like in #9. You can even get your password from there if you don't know it!

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