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Posts tagged church mobile apps
How Mobile Apps Can Help Churches and Other Religious Organizations
Jan 10th
“Our church has operated for years just fine without mobile apps – don’t tell US what WE need, sonny!”
Whoa, there! We’re only trying to help. Hear us out!
A mobile app can offer a wealth of benefits that can make church administration easier, strengthen the bonds of a congregation, and make communication simple. Yes, technically, a church doesn’t need an app – anymore than it needs the other items that make things more pleasant during services – but an app can offer a number of functions that make it totally worthwhile for churches of all sizes.
For example:
Increased Communication
If church leaders want to communicate with church members, a mobile app allows them to do it a number of ways that are more likely to get a response than a flyer on the church’s message board or an email campaign. First, there are push notifications – short messages that users are notified of on the home screens of their devices. There are also posts to social media profiles that can be accessed from your app, and more. In addition, church members can send messages to each other via app as well, opening the lines of communication to the whole community.
What can you share? Schedules of programs, hours of services, weekly verses, contact information for officers, event dates, and anything relevant to your church. It’s all up to you. Easy communication makes organizing your church and its various groups a breeze.
Fundraising
Mobile apps are a great way to ask for donations, or to ask members to share donation links to leverage their social networks. Asking for contributions during services can be limiting, but mobile apps allow you to open up creative ways to engage community members in fundraising initiatives using various channels.
Support for Church Members
Members sometimes need to share struggles and support each other, and mobile apps can meet this need. Some churches even use apps to allow members to submit and fulfill prayer requests. In addition, various support services can be connected to a mobile app, enabling community members to find the help they need more easily when it comes to distributing donated clothes and food, or helping members displaced by natural disasters.
Video Sharing
When community members can’t make it to events, video can easily be uploaded and shared. This allows community members to connect and maintain their routine even when they’re away or unable to attend an event in person. It’s a great way for elderly, homebound, or traveling parishioners to keep in touch when they can’t personally attend services.
Boosting Charity Work
By communicating about service and volunteer opportunities, an organization can maximize participation and offer necessary reminders to keep people engaged. Many people are energized and ready to commit to volunteering during services, but lose motivation as time goes by. A mobile app is a great way to keep the fire going while members are away from church. You can send photos of successful events, messages about upcoming service opportunities, conduct remote brainstorming sessions about improving charity work, and lots more.
In short, an app is an excellent way to keep a congregation connected, communicating, and engaged in the church’s mission. It can help bind a community and increase participation in church activities, and it can do it very cost-effectively.
Why Every Church Needs A Mobile App and Mobile Website
Mar 22nd
The spiritual life isn’t just confined to holy days – it’s meant to be a full-time commitment to a way of life. This makes mobile the perfect platform for churches to expand into. Mobile devices are now with us all the time, and are in many ways our closest connection to the rest of the world. By launching a mobile app, a church (or any religious organization), can offer an “always-on” connection with its community members.
Here are some of the features that make mobile apps and websites such powerful tools for strengthening the bonds of religious communities:
1. Video sharing for services, programs, and events
When community members can’t make it to events, video can easily be uploaded and shared via mobile app or website. Other related information (like the text of sermons) can also be shared in this way. This allows community members to connect and maintain their routine even when they’re away or unable to attend an event in person.
2. Communication
Mobile apps can include chat, message boards, Q&A sessions with leaders, and even confessions! It’s also easy to share information such as a schedule of programs, hours of recurring services, contact information for organizational officers, the address of the main facility, and more. Mobile apps and websites make it easy for community members to get in touch with each other, and with leaders, even when they’re on the go.
3. Fundraising
Mobile apps are a great way to solicit contributions. And even if community members aren’t inclined to donate, solicitation messages can contain invitations to share donation links via social media. Asking for contributions at services can be limiting, but mobile apps allow you to open up creative ways to engage community members in fundraising initiatives using various channels.
4. Support for members
Members sometimes need a channel through which they can share struggles and support each other, and mobile apps can meet this need. Some churches even use apps that allow community members to submit and fulfill prayer requests. In addition, various support services can be connected to a mobile app, enabling community members to find the help they need more easily (and anonymously, where appropriate).
5. Increase service and volunteerism
By communicating about service and volunteer opportunities via mobile, an organization can remind community remembers about these opportunities at off-times. It also becomes possible to link to related information, video, and more, which enables people to learn about what is available. Extra information and rich content can often be a big driver of increased participation.
There are a lot of possibilities, here, and mobile apps and websites make it happen.
It may seem like just another headache, but the deepened and bolstered connections between the organization and its members are well worth the effort. In fact, a basic app can be created quite easily and cost-effectively using Bizness Apps. For more info on how we can have your organization’s app up and running in short order, please click here.
(Also, if you’re a developer who’d like to serve customers in the mobile app market, click here for more information on our reseller program.)
