In today’s world, your church needs a mobile app to reach 85% of people where they live 57% of the time. The powerful features and low entry price of MinistryOne addresses this need for every church.
MinistryOne, a mobile app, can enable your church to reach beyond the four walls of your building and engage with your church community anytime, anywhere. On a church mobile app, attenders can watch or listen to messages, access small group materials, submit prayer requests, give, and much more.
Here are 8 key features your church mobile app should include.
Live Stream Church Services
Churches can merge the best of ministry with the latest in technology to better engage with attenders and reach visitors. Congregations around the world are reaching larger audiences than ever with these advances.
With live streaming, you can connect with your church audience in real-time. With a church mobile app, live church services are available anywhere and on any device at the touch of a button.
Watch or Listen to Sermons Anytime
One of the most popular church mobile app features is video archives. With video archives, your congregation can watch a library of previous church messages on their device anytime. Guests can visit virtually to see what your church is about before they attend in person. Additionally, a study by Barna discovered that 54% of practicing Christian millennials watch online videos about faith and spirituality, making it more important than ever for your sermons to be accessible by video to reach this growing audience.
But video is only half of the equation. Audio podcasts are one of the fastest-growing areas of mobile media. According to the Infinite Dial 2020, 55% of the US population has listened to a podcast, and 37% has listened to a podcast in the last month. Including an audio player on your church mobile app expands your reach even further and provides attenders and guests with another way to engage with your church. Your audio player should include an option to download for offline listening so that attenders can listen while driving, exercising, or even doing chores around the house. Also, if YouTube or Vimeo are being used to store sermon media already, MinistryOne connects to these locations, so you don’t have to manage content in multiple spots.
Communicate with Attenders
Church mobile apps can also increase engagement and help build a sense of community by improving lines of communication. Your church mobile app can provide a one-stop-shop for communicating with your attenders by giving you a place to send updates, coordinate ministry teams, and organize small groups. Within the app, attenders can sign up for classes and volunteer opportunities, connect with groups during the week and submit prayer requests. In addition, you can promote events, services, and studies and communicate relevant information to help attenders stay on top of current events.
Enable Push Notifications
Use Push notifications, the brief messages that show on your home screen, to inform users about upcoming events or last-minute schedule changes, or even a short scripture reminder.
Getting a notification on their phone’s home screen will help your congregants remember events and can even increase attendance levels.
Include Your Events Calendar
A good church mobile app can also contain your church-wide calendar, keeping attenders up-to-date on upcoming events. In addition, attenders can register and purchase event tickets, all from their phones. Events might include:
- Worship services
- Special events, such as additional service times for Easter or Christmas
- Classes
- Planning sessions
- Bible studies, and
- Small group meetings.
Increase Giving Opportunities
Your church mobile app should have the ability to receive financial donations, including recurring donations. When your attenders set up recurring donations, you have a more accurate view of your church finances. Recurring donations also help eliminate the summer slump when people go on vacation and are not in church in person to donate.
A church mobile app-enabled with a giving option allows people to donate at their convenience. You can also send a push notification at the end of the year to remind attenders to donate and take advantage of tax benefits.
Giving through your app should tie directly into your Church Management Software solution, seamlessly updating accounts and pushing out confirmations.
Equip Your Church Leaders
Some ChMS solutions can supply an app not only for attenders, but also for church leadership. For example, a church mobile app for leaders, like those from Elexio, empowers churches with the features such as the ability to:
- Access to a directory (with photos) of all attenders and groups
- View individual contact information, including previous and scheduled interactions
- Assign and record new interactions
- Take attendance for a class or group in real-time
- Send mass emails, SMS, and voice messages
- And much more!
ChMS Integration
Your entire church mobile app—not just the financial functions—should integrate with your Church Management Software for maximum benefit. A good ChMS solution like Elexio can feed right into your church mobile app, becoming a natural extension. It’s fully customizable with your name, logo, and colors. Tying your ChMS to your church mobile app will streamline your team’s workflow and encourage your attenders to stay connected.
It’s time for your church to have a robust church mobile app with all eight of these powerful features, from live streaming church services to ChMS integration. A mobile app can quickly pay for itself with time saved, increased engagement, and improved communication for both church leaders and engaged attenders.
Join us on August 25 at 12 pm CT for a live webinar to learn about the mobile apps that come with the Elexio church management platform, which will encourage your staff and community to stay engaged any day of the week from wherever they are. Register today!