Summer keeps your congregation busy – vacations, reunions, sports, and other activities can have church members on the road and away from your services. But as summer winds down, many church leaders are asking an important question: "What are the best ways to re-engage our members once life goes 'back to normal'"?
It’s a great question and one of the often overlooked methods is through your mobile app.
Why an app? Because your church members are connected to their mobile devices, whether they’re on the go or winding down after a busy summer season.
A dedicated church mobile app lets you meet your members where they're at and gives them what they need to reconnect with your ministries.
Our team has identified four mobile app strategies you can implement to be ready to welcome your congregation back.
1. Raise Awareness for your Church App
Your app won’t have an impact if the congregation doesn’t know about it. Start getting the word out now. Mention the app during your Sunday services and let everyone know it’s a great way to stay connected. Highlight the app before and after your live streams, so people can grab their phones and download it.
You can also promote your church app via social media – especially since most people will be following your feed from their phones and can quickly download the app once they see your post.
And if you don’t yet have an app, there’s no time like now to get started – Ministry Brands Amplify is here to help you get the ball rolling!
2. Showcase Your Summer Sermons (and Lean into Live Streaming)
Your mobile app is an awesome platform to share summer services that your members may have missed. Your archives can highlight the sermons series covered or any other content you want to highlight.
And don’t forget to keep a strong focus on live streaming through your mobile app. Even as summer winds down, some of your families may still have weekend travels for school activities or fall sports. They’ll appreciate your live streams being available via the app and all your online channels.
3. Stay in Touch with Notifications
Through your app, you can schedule messages for the upcoming fall season that will remind your congregation of the ministries and connection events you offer. You can also share themes and Bible verses from your upcoming sermon or offer a daily Bible verse or devotional to those who opt-in to receive notifications.
This is a useful feature throughout the year – in addition to scheduled messages, you can also send push notifications to your congregation if there’s a schedule change, uplifting prayer updates, or weather alerts.
Looking for an example of how a church has done this well? You can read how Winfield Community Church used their mobile app to better communicate with their people and people from the community.
Especially after the busy summer months, notifications can help your members reconnect to the mission they care about so much.
4. Get People Plugged Into Small Groups and Ministries
After the business of summer, many people will be looking to slow down and refocus on their spiritual growth. Promoting small groups through your mobile app will help loop people into the opportunities your church is offering – and you can have quick sign-up options right through the app so church members can get involved.
Your app is also a great way to let parents know about your church’s back-to-school programs. Whether it’s a special service, small groups for high schoolers, or a celebration for students, parents will appreciate a heads-up about how to get their kids re-engaged with your church community as well.
Connect Your Congregation with a Church Mobile App
As you begin to engage people returning to fall norms, make sure to use your mobile app as a strong tool to reconnect and communicate.
Need help with your church mobile app? Ministry Brands Amplify can help in not only providing a church mobile app, but a full churchOPS solution. Schedule your free demo today!
