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3 Ways to Fuel Growth Through a Church App

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It is no secret that embracing technology is something that many churches still struggle with. Forty-six percent of churches believe services are becoming too focused on technology, even though ‘going digital' is vital to church growth and reaching more people with the Gospel in this modern age.

The #1 way to ‘go digital’ as a church is to create a mobile app that helps users connect to a church’s mission and experience the Gospel like never before.

Here are three ways a mobile church app can fuel church and ministry growth:

1) Maximizing Church Giving Potential

Finances and giving can be sensitive subjects for churches. There are many factors that can cause individuals to be hesitant to give, but effectively using a branded church app to collect gifts can change that.

One factor that may impact the level of digital giving for churches is the lack of distinction between campaign funds, weekly tithes, and offering collections. For example, donors may give their 10% that would otherwise be their tithes to the current giving campaign.

When churches separate their standard giving page and their project-specific campaign pages there is often a spike in weekly donations. By creating project-specific campaigns and adding them to the church app, users understand more clearly where their money goes and feel more inclined to give above and beyond their tithes.

Digital giving is a make or break feature of fundraising success. The inability to give digitally is one of the reasons people do not contribute to campaign funds or consistently pay their tithes and offering. About 68% of giving takes place during the week for churches that accept gifts online. Using a branded mobile app for your church to hone in on weekday giving presents the greatest opportunity to increase the number of gifts your church receives each year.

2) Supercharging Church Events

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Churches everywhere use events to cultivate a sense of community that is tangible to your members. Whether it is a potluck for volunteers, a church picnic, or even a youth lock-in, events give members the opportunity to learn more about each other and develop friendships in a way that just cannot be done during a Sunday morning service alone.

A ton of hard work and planning goes into hosting and marketing church events. There are so many different platforms to use to manage events and registration as well, and it is easy to get overwhelmed.

When churches use their customized app to manage and drive event registration, they typically see an incredible surge in traction and registration for those events.

Here are a few practical ways churches have simplified their event management:

  1. Simplify events by adding event promotion pages to the app homepage slider.
  2. Simplify events by adding a dedicated, event-specific topic to the app for users to subscribe to, so they can receive event updates and reminders if they are interested in that event.
  3. Simplify events by linking an event registration page to your event, even if it’s free.
  4. Simplify events by always making it easy to register for your event inside the app via credit card or bank account.

A valuable metric to keep in mind is that churches and organizations can send an average of two push notifications a day before members make decisions about whether they will leave on or turn off notifications on an app. So do not be afraid to use notifications to your advantage and test them out.

3) Strengthening Community Through Communication

chatBuilding a unique church app creates one of the most valuable touch points for members to stay connected to your church’s mission and stay in communication outside of Sunday worship services.

Chat

Churches using dedicated apps find one of the best ways to increase their mid-week communication is by adding Group Chat to their apps. Most churches using Group Chat will create multiple channels for different groups of church members like youth, young adults, young married couples, etc.

Group Chat also helps teams stay connected during services and enriches the volunteer experience. We suggest locking certain channels to specific groups in your church if, for example, you use a channel for a security or media team.

Prayer

Church apps that offer a dedicated Prayer Wall feature help their members feel part of a more supportive community, which is the primary goal of the church as a whole. A Prayer Wall is special because it encourages members to open up about things happening in their lives, and post needs either publicly or anonymously, to receive the support they need.

This sharing feature, again, extends the caring, prayers, and opportunities for service beyond Sunday worship. Some churches will also send a push notification to their larger community if there are urgent prayer requests posted on the Prayer Wall. These posts often see an incredible 76% uptick in support (from users who see the prayer and click “I’m Praying”).

Growing ministries and reaching more people with the Gospel is what technology can do. Customized branded church apps offer an all-in-one platform that helps churches manage giving, events, and websites.

Jonathan Bodnar
Jonathan Bodnarhttp://apolloappdesign.com
Jonathan Bodnar is the founder of Church Base, an integrated church management company. Which he built to help churches simplify church engagement. Prior to starting Church Base, Jonathan was a youth pastor at a megachurch and a consultant for multiple global organizations like Unashamed Impact, Probe Ministries, and Point of View. He now applies his knowledge and experience to help churches around the world grow. 

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