Boost Your Church Attendance Through SMS Texting
Ken Rhie
If your church attendance is lower than you would like, you have to find new ways to reach church members to keep them engaged in your community. While it may seem strange to look at church like a business, it helps to consider using marketing strategies to grow your congregation, just like you would to promote your business. Creating social media platforms, sharing news through SMS texting, and keeping your parishioners informed about everything going on in your church will help increase your church memberships.
Get New Members Involved in Activities Right Away
It can be difficult for a new member of a church to know how to participate in the congregation. While your regular members will know where to look for schedules or events, a new member needs guidance to find out what is going on. With SMS texting, a new parishioner can sign up to receive text messages and will be able to learn about church events and meetings from their cell phone. According to Pew Research, 92% of adults have smartphones, while 90% of these owners carry their phone with them at all times. When you want to get your new members engaged with your church, texting is the way to do it!
Send Out Reminders of Upcoming Events
When your church is busy it can be hard to keep track of everything going on. Increase the attendance of upcoming events by sending text reminders to members reminding them of the time, location, and date the event will be occurring. For example, you can benefit from SMS by sending out messages to everyone involved in the youth group about an upcoming camping trip. In addition, if you have to change the schedule of an additional worship service, you can send this information out through text messaging instantly.
Share Social Media Posts Through SMS Texting
Parishioners who feel connected to their church are more likely to attend mass on Sundays. To help your members feel connected, you have to reach out and engage in conversation. If you have built up your social media platforms and have written a blog, you can share links to your content through texting. Your members will receive the text within minutes and be able to read about what’s going on using their mobile devices. When you want to inspire, motivate, or simply share news, text messaging a link out to your congregation is useful.
Send Prayer Requests Out Immediately
A busy church often has a way for parishioners to reach out for a prayer request when they have a health emergency or another issue. You can send a text message for prayers out to the majority of your congregation within minutes, you will know that prayers will begin immediately for the person who has requested them.
Announce Schedule Changes
If the weather makes it difficult to travel, you may need to cancel your worship services. You can send out a group text to your congregation to notify your members that the church will be closed, your parishioners won’t get stuck out in the bad weather. This will keep your members safe and informed when services aren’t going to happen because of an emergency.
When you want to get your parish interested and engaged, text messaging is an essential tool. You can send out reminders for events, and make requests for people to join the variety of ministries in your church.
The above article, “Boost Your Church Attendance Through SMS Texting” was written by Ken Rhie. The article was excerpted from www.churchmediamagazine.com web site. August 2017.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
