Church Texting (SMS): How to Reach the Most Members

For churches of all sizes, keeping in touch with members and staff is important. Sharing information about events, cancellations, and inspirational content helps engage your members and boost attendance.

However, communicating with every member of your church in the modern digital age can be a huge challenge that takes up a lot of your time.

One of the best solutions for communication is text messaging for churches.

What Is Church Texting?

Church texting is the process of using SMS and MMS messages to send out public announcements to your team, guests, and members. As texts are a quick, easy way to communicate, they provide churches with a cost-effective and reliable way to send out important messages.

How Does Church Texting Work?

With the help of tools like Mobile Text Alerts [review], church texting is a very easy process. Here are the steps to take:

1. Join Mobile Text Alerts church texting service to get started.
2. Add your contacts. You can import a spreadsheet, allowing people to opt-in by texting a number, or with a QR code.
3. Compose your text update. These may include meeting reminders, inspiring quotes, notes from the sermon, or anything else you’d like to share.
4. Send or schedule the texts in advance from the device of your choice.

Who Is Church Texting For?

Text messaging for churches works for a wide array of organizations and personnel. It is the ideal solution for religious groups of all affiliations and sizes that want to leverage mass texting.

This solution is ideal for those who:

• Want to streamline the communication throughout their organization.
• Are looking to save time on mass messages.
• Want to keep all staff and members informed.

Benefits of Using a Church Texting Service

Why use SMS for churches? Here are some of the top benefits:

Increase Attendance

Sending out reminders about upcoming events helps encourage attendance. One of the best reasons to use church texting is to get more members at your events!

Engage with Youth

Young members can be difficult to engage with for many churches. By reaching them where they are most often (on their phones) you speak their language and can help boost their engagement and interest in church.

Create Regulars Out of First-Time Guests

Following up with a simple text message check-in and reminders for the next event can help encourage first-time guests to return.

Gather Feedback

SMS messages can also be used to gather feedback from guests and members. The feedback you get can help you improve your services and overall church experience.

Different Ways Churches Use Text Messaging

Church texting is a helpful way to communicate about several different topics. Here are just a few of the most common ways that churches use text messaging:

Sharing Quotes & Passages

Stay connected with guests and strengthen your relationship by sending daily devotionals in the form of passages or quotes. Send types of passages via SMS or photos right from your religious book using images in MMS texts.

Depending on your organization’s program, you can also include links to your site or program. The best part is that you can schedule messages ahead of time, meaning you can quickly plan and schedule all of the messages for the month or even the year right away.

Prayer Requests

While prayer requests are still very important to many churchgoers, they can be difficult to gather and organize effectively. Using texts can help you address the needs of your congregation. For even more effective prayer request collection, separate contacts into groups based on their age or activity.

Surveys

Send out surveys to your staff or members to get valuable feedback about your sermons, events, church facility, and more. Text surveys are quick and easy, earning a higher response rate than many other forms. They allow you to quickly review and analyze the results and leverage the feedback to best improve your congregation.

Support Messages

Send support to your church community when people need it most. You can reach out during personal hard times as well as challenging times in your community to share your support and condolences. Let your people know you are there for them.

Events & Announcements

Event announcements can get lost in the shuffle during your worship services or in cluttered email inboxes. Using a church texting service to send your event reminders helps increase attendance.

Cancellations & Changes

Getting a hold of everyone you need when a change occurs can be a logistical challenge. Fortunately, church texting makes it fast and simple to send out information about changes or cancellations that may occur due to the weather. You can alert your entire church with one message when an event is canceled or changed.

Sermon Summaries

Sermon summaries are helpful for both members who were at the sermon and who could not make it. A quick summary shares the main takeaway points and can help your message stick. The best way to share summaries that people will actually see and read is to send them via church SMS.

How to Use Mass Texting for Your Church

Here are some helpful tips for using mass texting for the church:

Keywords & Short Codes

Shortcodes and keywords are used for mass text messages. They are five or six-digit numbers. Keywords also work to segment texts into different categories. One example would be “text ‘SERSUM' TO 559283 for weekly sermon updates.”

Scheduling Messages

Schedule messages ahead of time to stay on track. Using the Mobile Text Alerts platform it’s very easy to schedule messages ahead of time. Some of the best types of messages to plan and schedule include:

• Quotes and passages
• Reminders for recurring events
• Holiday greetings

SMS vs. MMS

SMS messages are text only. They can include links as well. MMS stands for “multimedia message” and these messages can include images or videos as well.

How to Get Church Members to Opt-In to Texts

To make the most of church texting, you want to encourage members to opt-in. Here are a few helpful ideas.

Bulletin

A bulletin board is a simple way to promote events, share reminders, etc. It’s also a good spot to promote your church SMS option. Create a simple flyer telling members how and why to opt into your church texting group. You can place shortcodes and keywords and/or a scannable QR code on your flyer.

Announcements

Take a few moments during your regular announcements to promote your text option. Explain that it’s a great way to find out about last-minute changes and to stay up-to-date with church events. Give a brief overview of the different types of messages you send and how people can easily sign up.

Comparing Church Communication Options

Text Messaging vs. Church Mobile App

Church mobile apps are another way to share updates, but you must consider how many people will actually use them. Many of your older members may not know how to properly use smartphones to download apps, and very few young members will actually use a church app.

On the other hand, the vast majority of people can receive texts. There’s no requirement to download additional apps or create new accounts. Furthermore, it’s far more cost-effective to send texts than it is to purchase or create a mobile app for your church to use.

Text Messaging vs. Email

Another common church outreach method is email. It’s true, that emails are important for your organization. Many members will use their email effectively for church communication. However, email inboxes easily get cluttered, and it’s not the best idea for last-minute updates.

Email open and read rates are rather low compared to text. Therefore, SMS is one of the best ways to make sure that your members actually receive your message. It’s also more affordable, as email marketing providers can be quite expensive.

Text Messaging vs. Social Media

Social media is another helpful channel for sharing church information with current members and prospects. Sharing engaging, educational material helps keep your members connected and on the same page.

While social media is helpful and a strategy that your church should use, it’s not the best way to reach every member. Again, many members won’t use social media or download additional apps. You can’t count on the majority of your members to keep up with you on social media.

So, while social media has a place in your outreach strategy, it does not work nearly as well as text messaging. Texts can help share urgent information with more of your members. It’s also more affordable, as you can compose and send a text much quicker than social media content. You won’t need to hire a social media manager or spend hours on content with SMS.

What Is the Best Service for Church Texting?

Text messaging for your church can serve many key benefits. The best way to effectively leverage church SMS is with the right provider.

For the best church texting service, turn to Mobile Text Alerts. It’s free to sign up for and is currently used by over 20,000 organizations around the world. Enjoy a free 14-day trial so you can see exactly how much of a difference Mobile Text Alerts will make for your organization

The platform is easy to learn, and churches can enjoy a generous discount on any texting plan. Enjoy an abundance of helpful features like:

• A free phone number
• MMS
• 2-way messaging
• Spreadsheet import for contacts
• QR code opt-in
• Mobile app for sending, scheduling, or responding to messages
• Unlimited administration profiles
• Rollover unused messages

FAQs

How much does a church texting service cost?

There are several different paid plan options, starting at $19 per month for 500 messages. However, you can try church texting for free for 14 days with Mobile Text Alerts.

What types of text messages can I send?

You can send a wide variety of text messages to your members and staff, including:

• Event reminders
• Event changes/cancellations
• Links for donation
• Prayer requests
• Sermon summaries
• Quotes and passages
• And more!

What is the best service for church texting?

While there are several services out there for church texting, the best is Mobile Text Alerts. The platform is easy to set up and use no matter what your technology literacy is. It’s an affordable service with many key features.

Can using a church texting service increase attendance?

Yes, using a church texting service can help you increase attendance for sermons and events. Reminders avoid confusion and prevent forgetfulness. Sending passages and quotes and engaging with members via text also helps them feel more connected.