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.

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.

Just this week I received texts from my dentist, doctor, city utilities, a political survey, Verizon, Chase Bank, Honda, and Eddie Bauer.  I can even text my dentist back if I have a question or need to change my appointment and they respond personally!  I bet you've had the same experience. 

The ways churches are meeting at this point in the pandemic are as diverse as the church itself.  I know great churches that haven't met live on Sundays since March of last year.  And I know great churches that have been meeting live since July and now don't even require masks or social distance.  This is the beauty of God's design and the difference in the communities our churches serve. 

What is your favorite resource on the Internet?  YouVersion Bible?  A YouTube Channel? Right Now Media? The Bible Project? Sermon Archives? A Blog Post?  Imagine people sending a text to your church office number with a keyword of your choosing that would take them directly to that website? The LINK functionality of Text-to-Church does exactly that.

None of us will forget 2020, that's for sure.  As churches are starting to meet back, it's good to see check-in start to pick up again.  Here are a few blog posts since Covid started on ways we've adapted check-in to this new world.

Room Check-in, Count and Close
Medical Affirmation Before Check-in?
Text-to-Check-in for Virtual Attenders

As both veteran and new clients are thinking about their new approach to check-in, we often get asked if we can accommodate their different ideas.  Because our system is so robust we are almost always able to accommodate.