While shopping online I recently found a table that I thought might look nice in our breakfast nook.  It was well after office hours, but there was a number to text.  I sent the text and got an automated message saying they would get back with me the following morning.  They did, and apologized about not responding more quickly.  It was 51 minutes after they opened!  I was impressed.

Last week I introduced the process one of our raving fan churches is going through as their team seriously evaluates our texting capabilities.  I shared three of their key questions and my responses to each one. 

Here are their final three questions and my responses.  They may be your questions too.  

I reached out to one of our top customers who had been on our beta version of Mass Texting (free) through Text-to-Church.  They know the potential of the service from the beta, and are currently doing a cost / benefit analysis of the service now that it is fully operational.

They sent me six insightful questions that everyone looking at the potential for texting in their church should ask.  Here are the first three.

Note: Churchteams partners with CLI to help church leaders develop effective systems for ministry.   

Happy week after Easter.  You likely spent a lot of time preparing for last Sunday and now it's over.  Hopefully, you had a lot of guests and collected their information. 

I know you're exhausted, but you really need to follow up with these people. You'll be tempted to do something simple like a single "thank you" letter or email to invite them back.  But, you worked so hard!  Why not take follow up to a new level by setting up a drip campaign to continue to serve them?  The difference is bigger than you think and it's easier to do than you think.

The development team has been busy responding to requests and upgrading the system.  This first one has been requested a lot and will speed up check-in for events where pre-registration was required and you want to have everything ready as soon as people arrive.  No electronic check-in required.

1. Pre-print check-in name tags and security labels.
2. Disable Text-to-Chat.
3. Two word keywords for Text-to-Church.
4. New email editor options.
5. Report filters by next month dates for workflows.
6. Include "Fees Covered" on financial reports.

Text-to-Chat is the new environment for exploring creative church communication possibilities.  Last time we we looked at the top three ways roundtable participants thought they would use it.

This week, we'll look at four other ideas we came up with.  These are not as tried and true, but they are a bit more creative and have pretty significant potential.

Last week about 30 of us did a customer and staff Zoom Roundtable on the topic of ways to use Text-to-Chat.  Here is the problem in the words of one participant.

For many churches the most disruptive way that life happened over the past two years has been the stress level of staff.  

Our senior pastor resigned after 25 years, we are now searching for a new senior pastor.  Our children's minister also resigned.  Both in 2021.

Some churches thrived the last couple of years in the areas of evangelism and missions by serving their community as testing / vaccination sites or food distribution centers.  These raised their level of visibility.

But, the more common experience has been like this one from our January survey.

It seems like life's challenges never slow down, much less stop.  We turn on the news every day to learn of the latest shooting, natural disaster, economic challenge, social unrest, health guideline, political argument, and now a war. 

This sense of constant change weighs heavily on the shoulders of church leaders.  How should we respond in light of all this, and what technology tools can help? 

This comment from our survey a couple of months ago is insightful.  

How is your church different now than in 2019?

This was the question I asked in my blog on January 11.  It linked to a survey that many of you responded to. 

As I reviewed and organized what I learned from this survey, I came up with "Seven ways life happened to church in the past three years." 

So far, I've written blogs on three of these.  This is the fourth.  The insight is that as a result of the pandemic, we now have a more Cautious Congregation.

Church staff are seeing this in the form of less responsiveness to connection cards; more quickly to say no when asked to volunteer; less engaging in community; and, for many people, a slow return to church life.

These insights come from personal conversations as well as survey responses like these: