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Pray As You Go – Church Attendances Rocket Using Text Messaging ‘Service’
Added: (Thu Oct 04 2007)
Progressive Churches in the UK are seeing attendance numbers soar as they reap the benefits of staying in touch with their congregations through SMS technology developed by txttouch.
One Church that has been using this service for nearly six months is Leicester City Vineyard. Church leader Steve Barber saw the potential in using text messaging and has used it since the start of this Church plant, he said: ‘Txttouch has been incredibly useful in keeping members of the Church informed, whether it’s to remind them of a BBQ, or if we have to change a venue at short notice. I send on average two or three messages a month, especially if we are doing a one off event such as a party or a specific outreach, we have found that when reminded by text, people are more likely to attend.’
He concludes ‘Text Messaging is a quick and easy way to contact our entire Church and it saves hours either on the phone or texting each individual separately leaving me with more time to focus on moving the Church forward.’
With txttouch, Church leaders are able to send one message from either a secure online tool or a designated mobile phone and that message is instantly sent to every subscriber on their service saving countless administration hours.
Members join the texting service by sending a simple SMS themselves, which automatically adds them to their specific Church texting service. Every message received is free and because it is paperless church goers are more than happy to be contacted in this medium.
Text messaging is not the only mobile service that Churches are using to communicate with people, txttouch have also introduced a new device that promises to be highly successful in Churches; the tiny ‘Gabriel Communicator’ is an innovation in Bluetooth technology that sits in Churches and transmits notices, song sheets, sermon notes, rotas, bible readings and home group details to members of the congregation for free.
Txttouch MD, Nicholas Maguire, who has been involved in Church leadership for nearly fifteen-years said: ‘The Gabriel Communicator is not just for use inside Churches, it is also a great evangelism tool. It can be placed in a backpack or handbag and taken into shopping centres, pubs, bars and clubs where it will beam Bluetooth messages to mobile phones within a 100m radius. The messages can contain anything from Church adverts, bible verses, service times or even digital gospel tracts. This is a culturally relevant way to contact people regardless of their age. The Communicator can be updated as often as Churches need, so on a Saturday it can beam service times to people in the city centre and the next day it can be back in the Church beaming notices to the congregation as they arrive.’
To find out more about how txttouch can help your Church just visit www.txttouch.com