Echo Hub

Katie Hasse, an attendee of Park Community Church in Chicago, says, “The first time Park announced they were using texting technology, I was kind of shocked. I mean, a church, using 21st-century technology, it seemed odd. But once you look at the audience and the message the church was trying to get across, I realized that if they didn’t utilize tools like Twitter, texting, state-of-the-art graphics, emails, etc., they wouldn’t be able to relate to their audience.”

In the local church, communication is a must, and in our technologically savvy culture, communication must be constant, quick, and accessible. For most people, text messaging is a staple of everyday life and one of the most used forms of communication. Subsequently, text messaging is becoming a key component of how some churches communicate with their attendees and provide an interactive and engaging experience during the service.

Communication
Park Community Church is one of the leading proponents of churches using text messaging, and Tim Schraeder, PCC’s Director of Communications, shares why: “Our church is in the heart of downtown Chicago, our average age is 29, and 60 percent of the people who come to Park are single. Since texting is a primary way people in our church communicate, it made sense for us to begin implementing the use of text messaging in our services and weekly communications.”

Adam Hann, the Saturate Experience Architect at LCBC (Lives Changed by Christ) Church in Lancaster, PA, says, “Emails have become so overused and underappreciated. A lot of young adults disregard emails.” On the other hand, Hann says, “Most, if not all, young adults have texted or know how to text.”

It is easy to assume that churches such as Park and LCBC have transitioned to text messaging as a primary means of communication in order to accommodate and reach out to teenagers and twentysomethings, and that may be the case, but not all churches solely focus on communicating through text messaging with the younger crowd.

Ron Edmondson, co-pastor of Grace Community Church in Clarksville, TN, mentioned that Grace pastors use text messaging to quickly get a variety of information out to a variety of groups within the church. For instance, if volunteers are needed to assist with set up or tear down, they can be contacted immediately. “Text messaging is where our people are at,” adds Edmondson. “It’s something they all do. Everyone, in all age brackets, has a cell phone and uses text messaging.”

Text messaging is popular with the younger crowd, but First Baptist Church Georgetown in Georgetown, TX, didn’t begin using text messaging as a method of communication because it was trendy; they did it because there was a need. Blake Atwood, the Director of Media Communications, says, “As a fairly traditional Baptist church, we were looking for something that would grab the attention of the main demographic disappearing from our church and many around the country—18- to 30-year-olds.”

Reasons for Text Messaging
As far as quick and easy communication, there are other reasons why a church would include text messaging in their repertoire of communication methods. Atwood adds, “We also send out a weekly text message. This has been either a reinforcement of the previous week’s message or a simple reminder of what’s coming up this Sunday. We’ve also taken RSVPs for events via text.”

On some occasions, text messaging may prove to be the only available means of communication, like it did one evening for Grace. “Recently, a storm caused power outages and safety concerns the night of our student service,” recalls Edmondson. “We were able to cancel the service and get word to everyone within a matter of minutes.”

Text messaging also provides an opportunity for members and attendees to privately express a specific need in a timely manner. Michael Forsberg, Textologist at Jarbyco (a company that provides mobile solutions specializing in text message marketing) says, “The concept of writing prayer requests on a card at church and putting it into a box has evolved into texting in prayer requests at any time of day or night.”

As for other uses, Forsberg adds, “[Texting] can be used to challenge members on a specific action that would help them grow spiritually, send encouragement or scripture, tell them to bring someone new, or remind parents to pick their students up at 7:00 rather than 6:00. Direct and to the point, the church’s influence can extend beyond Sunday morning.”

During Services
Park Community Church also provides an interactive and engaging opportunity for attendees via text messaging. “During every service we allow people to text in questions and we take about five minutes at the end of each message to answer some of them,” reports Schraeder. “We’ve also used it to conduct a live poll in our services.”

The speaking pastor preaches the sermon from the stage and throughout the message attendees are allowed to answer polls or submit questions to a supplied phone number. The messages are then vetted and emailed to the pastor’s laptop. As a result, the pastor has immediate answers to the poll, or he can respond to audience questions from the stage. “The texting Q&A sessions from our services have become so popular we now do an individual podcast each week of the Q&A sessions from all of our services,” adds Schraeder.

FBC Georgetown uses text messaging in a similar manner. “Currently, we only use text messaging as part of our new third service called TXT3 (www.txt3.tv),” Atwood says. “We incorporate a text poll into each message. Sometimes the question is posed before the service; sometimes during the service. Polls can be multiple choice, such as when we asked people to gauge their spiritual age, and the percentages instantly update on screen. Or polls can accept freeform answers, such as when we asked ‘What is worship?’ We moderate those answers, display them onscreen, and that night’s speaker incorporates those answers into his message.”

Some may see this implementation of text messaging as allowing church attendees to dictate what message is being preached or as encouraging attendees to rely on church staff for answers to all their questions. But people such as Hann see it as relevant and as a means of attracting younger, technologically savvy seekers. He adds, “We actually find it helps draw people into the speaker a little bit more.”

Options
The list of SMS (short message service) implementation providers is plentiful, but a few of the industry leaders are Ez Texting, Jarbyco, MemberHub, and PhoneTree. The services vary, but the main functions are announcements, contests, reminders, polls, inspirational messages, prayer requests, and alert groups. As far as the primary functions, Forsberg says they are “the ability for the church to connect with people, and more importantly, for people to connect with the church.”

In terms of using text messaging to meet this need, Forsberg observes, “The early church did not have cell phones. They did not have microphones, websites, podcasts, or electric guitars either. What they did have was community and conversation. As the innovation of technology has spread, churches have used it to expand their reach and means of communicating the message of Christ. We believe that mobile messaging can be another tool to help accomplish this mission.”

Amy Baglan, Vice President of Ez Texting, says, “We have hundreds of churches currently using our service to affordably enhance their outreach efforts, send daily sermons, prayer requests, meeting reminders, and much more. Many of these messages are sent to help members integrate faith into their hectic, stress-filled days.”

A Plea for More
Ben Judy, a member of a church that does not use text messaging methods, says, “I think in order to effectively communicate with the twentysomething and younger crowd, my church definitely needs an improved and expanded communication strategy that makes use of popular social networking and messaging tools.”

Text messaging is obviously one of the more popular means of communication today, so why not use it to communicate with attendees? And as long as texting during services isn’t distracting, it could prove to be beneficial. To avoid unnecessary distractions, Atwood says FBC Georgetown adds a disclaimer. “We run a pre-service ad advising people to ‘Please leave your cell phone on … but do silence it.’”

Thanks to the efficiency and access of text messaging, churches everywhere can communicate with members at the push of a button. In addition, churches can invite attendees to participate in and shape parts of the weekend sermon, making a traditionally one-way monologue something resembling a two-way street.

Ryan Barnhart is a freelance writer who lives in Denton, TX. He can be reached at rybarns@yahoo.com.