Connect with your church via text!

For the past month we have been using texting software at Grace Community Church and have had good results. I found a lot of people were not opening, much less reading, the emails I was sending. Servers were stopping emails or sending them to spam folders, never to be seen. We decided to look into our options.

There are many software choices available, and we chose Text In Church. There are two options for creating the data base. You can download a file of names and phone numbers into the program or ask people to sign themselves up. We chose the second option. The process is simple. People who want to sign up are given a phone number and keyword. They simply text the keyword to the phone number, and they are signed up. The administrator can choose the wording for a “thank you for joining” automatic message subscribers will receive, along with a link to a contact form.

There are many options for creating categories for specific groups. For example, you may have a group for youth, baptisms, visitors, volunteers or groups for special events like a church picnic or youth night. You can also assign keywords people can text to join a group or list. The options are limitless. Text In Church also has options for email lists.

It’s all about making connections, right? Visit the Text In Church website to watch a short introduction video and to find more information and pricing.

If you decide to sign-up for Text In Church please use my referral code. The link will direct you to the TIC homepage, but you if you sign up using the link you will receive 500 free messages and I will receive 250 messages. It’s a win-win situation, and you will use those 500 messages quickly!

Paul Canaday is the lead pastor at Grace Community Church in Sanger, California. Paul has been married to his wife Stacey for 11 years. They have 2 children, Jacob (6) and Zoe (4). For fun he likes to work on his project cars. His current project is a 1975 Chevy K10 (4×4).

Send your idea to don@usmb2stg.wpengine.com