smartphone

With the recent events requiring us to worship from home in many places around the world, church apps are proving themselves highly valuable. Whether you have a church app, or you're looking to get one, how do you encourage digital discipleship through the platform?

The church technology industry continues to see consolidation as companies merge to offer advanced technologies to churches. While Ministry Brands has been the king of acquiring church tech companies and welcoming them into the fold, Subsplash is no stranger to acquisitions that can strengthen its offerings to churches.

Have you thought about using a dedicated church app to share sermon audio, video, and notes, to accept event sign-ups and offer a way for people to give digitally right from their pockets? Church leaders shouldn't overpay for a church app. For that reason, we're ranking this list of church app providers by affordability.

Do you work away from home or the church office? If so, I'd like to offer several suggestions for a pastor's mobile office toolbox that includes hardware, software, and apps to make working away from the office easier.

Churches use many apps for presenting media, tracking membership, helping with budgets, and even updating their websites. Some churches also offer a church app primarily for people who attend their church. They contract with a church app provider to make an app that is branded for their church and focused on the needs of people in the pews.

Social media is both a blessing and a curse. If you've spoken with anyone recently about Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, I'm sure you've...

I have to admit, buying a smartphone is not what I call fun. If you have piles of cash hanging around, perhaps you enjoy this process, but for the rest of us, figuring out what device to invest in is well, not a walk in the park. If you have a large mobile carrier such as AT&T, Verizon, or some other big name carrier that charges a few dollars shy of a mortgage payment for phone service, you might be able to get the latest and greatest phone, or amortize it over several years so that you aren't really aware of how much it's costing you. Once you know what plan, you can take a look at the battery life, operating system, storage size, and other features that help define your smartphone experience. 

You know the scene. You succumb to your elementary-aged child begging to play Candy Crush on your phone. Ten minutes later, your phone is down to 50% and it's only 11:00 am. You're rushing to a lunch meeting and as you hand your child back to your spouse to take an urgent call from a church member in need on the way there, you discover that your phone is suddenly down to 25% by the time you get to Panera. It's only lunchtime and you have visits and errands before making it back to your desk where you can plug in. You could join a support group for pastors with old smartphones that don't hold a charge well, or you could employ some of these helpful smartphone battery-saving tips: