May 2015 – “Why isn’t there a way to give to church online? Someone should come up with an app for that,” Morgan exclaimed.

Alyssa threw up her hands in enthusiastic agreement. “You’re right! I use a credit or debit card so often. It’s hard to remember to prepare and bring what I need to tithe at church. I wonder why no one has thought of e-giving for churches.”

It didn’t take long for Alyssa to search the Internet and discover, as she had immediately begun to suspect, there is an app for that. And not just for e-giving, but for the whole gamut of church activities. In fact, with the array of companies with websites, apps, video streaming, digital signage, mobile sites, online giving, in-church kiosks, and social media tools, the question changed from “Why hasn’t somebody created that?” to “Which option would be best for my church?” (See sidebar.)

Churchgoers are live online
A more elementary question is “Why are any digital technologies needed in the church?” The answer is simply that we live in a digital age, the information age as it has been called. Going beyond information displayed in a static environment on a screen, now the demand is for real-time connection and involvement in a personalized network always available at the swipe of a fingertip.

Statistics move that claim out of the realm of theory. According to Bluebridge, a mobile app developer, people spend 3.3 hours a day on mobile devices, and 86% of that time is spent in apps. Furthermore, 66% of all emails are opened on a mobile device, 76% of all social media activity happens on mobile devices, and more than 50% of e-commerce happens on mobile devices. The average person checks his or her phone 150 times a day, approximately once every 6.5 minutes. Finally, mobile traffic is expected to increase by 10 times in the next 5 years.

Clearly, people are hastening into the trend of going online to seek information, make connections, and conduct financial transactions. Churches also participate in presenting information, functioning as a community, and collecting and distributing ministry donations. In short, they need to be online, because that’s where their congregants are already. However, as one source cites, almost 70% of churches are not making maximum use of technology.

Understandably, it can be hard to determine the best media strategy for each church’s needs. Integrating services from different platforms can be even more challenging. That’s where digital solutions made specifically for churches come in.

Digital connection to the church
Twenty:28, LifeWay Christian Resources’ web content management system just for ministry, is one program that covers the bases for common church functions. Matt Morris, manager of digital strategy and electronic publishing for LifeWay, explained to AFA Journal how twenty:28 works.

“Twenty:28 allows website development, mobile app development, and e-giving in one ecosystem,” he said. “So, all of our services talk to one another. For example, when you update the church website, it updates the mobile app as well.”

While LifeWay has been providing web development for churches since 2001, twenty:28 took a new direction in 2014 to keep up with the times.

“With growing digital trends and digital presence, we needed to offer churches more and integrate a certain number of services to make it easy for them,” Morris said. “Outside church management software, the top three technology tools used by churches are websites, mobile apps, and e-giving. We wanted to have a place where the church could go for all those tools in one place. We’re also working on adding church management software to that platform.”

Twenty:28 stands out from other companies because of its ministry focus, leading to plans where the monthly fee is waived if a certain giving threshold is reached or giving one year of free service to church plants.

These incentives are offered “in hopes that partnering with churches will allow them to do more ministry and have less financial obligation,” Morris explained. “That’s the value of working with a partner who understands the ministry space.”

In addition, Morris detailed the purpose of each feature of twenty:28. A website gives a church digital presence and puts it in range of people searching for churches online. Twenty:28 is designed so that even a novice user can set up a website to communicate a church’s important information to the community.

An app gathers church content, whether from worship services, church events, social media, blogging, or prayer requests, and presents it to people for quick and continuous access and involvement in the life of the church.

“When e-giving is adopted, we’ve seen increases from 8% to 72% in giving,” he added. “It’s a way for church members to help their church reach the giving threshold for free service through the giving they’re doing anyway.”

Web presence makes a difference
There are many practical ways these tools help a church, as Steve Poole, pastor of Elevate Church (elevateannapolis.com) in Annapolis, Maryland, shared.

“As a church plant, we can’t pay a lot to have a company design a website and have a web server do the work for us,” he told AFAJ. “So, one big benefit has been the one-year free service for church plants. And the ease of putting it together has been very appealing, since I’m basically the one doing all that.”

A favorite feature, Poole added, is the no-experience-necessary design of the program. Any changes instantly transfigure on the website and convert to the app as well.

“If we are tweaking something and we don’t like it, we can change it back very quickly,” he said. “And it’s all set to work with a mobile design automatically. I’m just putting content in, and twenty:28 takes care of the coding. So I don’t have to worry about whether it’s set right to use with Safari or Google Chrome or with a mobile device.”

Web presence has already given the new church plant an outreach into the community, as Poole has seen by monitoring numbers of people who have visited the church site and from inquiries received through the contact page on the website.

“We don’t have many people attending yet, but online resources have allowed us to start reaching our community with information about our church’s start,” he said. “I set up a blog on the site so people can see what’s going on. Our supporters also are able to connect with us, and many use the online giving on a monthly basis to help support the church.”

With such software, bringing digital technology into the church doesn’t have to be painful. And the effect can mean unifying ministry activities, more involved members, greater outreach and growth, and more consistent giving. Software specially created for the church takes care of the hard part of operating modern technologies and leaves leaders free to conduct ministry as usual.  

What does that mean?
App – a self-contained software program, usually on a mobile device, designed to fulfill a particular purpose.
Mobile device: “smart” cell phone, iPad, etc.
Safari or Google Chrome: Popular Internet web browsers

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What technology does your church need? Here are some leads to consider whether you need an integrated solution or individual media modes.
Integrated solution: 

▶twenty28.co, 800-221-5167
▶ Content management system: e-zekiel.com, 888-942-6607
▶ Website development: freedigitalchurchservices.com
▶ Video: pikselfaith.com, 866-335-2385
▶ Mobile app: gobluebridge.com/churches, 800-277-3014
▶ App from mobile site: bibleandjournalapp.com, 888-990-9210

General information:

▶ factsandtrends.net/category/technology
▶ lifeway.com/churchtech