Church Technology: Unlocking Your Tech’s Lesser-Known Functions

There’s so much church technology out there. It’s easy to invest in one tool and use its most basic functions to perform the tasks we need, but when we delve deeper we discover all-new ways to use these tools.

As an example, consider our Total Engagement Solution (TES). You probably know that this full-featured, native church app is powered by Pushpay. It enables your congregation to give quickly and securely. You might also be aware that church members can use this (completely customizable) app to stay engaged all week long.

The deeper you look, the more uses you will discover!

1. Push Notifications

TES empowers you to send messages to users’ mobile devices, even when they don’t have your app open. You don’t want to spam them with content (that will only get them to bail on the app), but it can be a simple way to keep them engaged.

Here are a few examples of the sort of push notifications you can send:

• If you missed Sunday’s sermon, give it a listen this week!
• Please pray for our membership classes
• This Friday’s the last day for mission-trip donations
• Church has been canceled this morning due to the storm
• We just uploaded a new podcast!
• And others

2. Geofencing

This church technology lets you set up an invisible perimeter around your church that allows you to send messages to app users who cross the line. This can be used in a number of ways to prepare people for worship and remind them of important events and needs.

You can use this feature to:

• Prompt people to drop their kids off at childcare before the service
• Send a digital copy of the bulletin
• Let them know what Bible passages will be discussed during the sermon
• Remind people of special events or service elements: communion, baptisms, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
• Encourage people to reach out to visitors and unfamiliar new faces

3. Expanding your blogging community

We’ve already mentioned that you can use the TES to share a church blog, but did you know that you can pool multiple blogs? Not only can you share the church’s or pastor’s blog, but you can get really creative with the blogs you feed into your app.

Some suggested uses for the blog feature include:

• Blogs for the heads of various ministries (your app can feature blogs for every age group in your church)
• A blog with daily or weekly family devotions
• A blog that offers encouragement for small-group leaders and lessons and questions for weekly group meetings
• A theology/doctrine blog that delves deeper into Sunday morning’s message

Dive into the Church Technology You Already Use

A lot of the hardware and software around you has more uses than you know. The key to unlocking them requires time to think up creative ways to hack their functions.

Spend some time exploring the hardware you’re using in your worship services, as well as the software you’re using to manage your church. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, delegate it to someone who’s more technically minded. You’ll probably discover simpler ways to do what you’re already doing.

If you’re not already using Pushpay’s Total Engagement Solution, get a free demo today!