Mandy Devin* has been a regular churchgoer since 1993. At one point, she served on the vestry and remembers how challenging it was to send out meeting updates and reminders to other vestry members. Not everyone was using email and some vestry members didn’t bother to check their email every day. Any time a meeting had to be changed there were always one or two people who didn’t receive the message until it was too late. Nowadays everyone has a cell phone.
Mandy thinks SMS can be used to do much more than to send out reminders about meetings. SMS can also be used to send cancellations especially when the weather is bad. The winters have been mild in the last few years but in 2008 there was a snowstorm in December that brought traffic to a halt everywhere in her county. The only way parishioners knew if there would be a church service was by calling the church, but no one could make it in to the church office in time to answer the phone.
The church community also wanted to make sure that some of the older members of the community wouldn’t go out into the slippery streets and risk injury. Mandy recalls a lot of chaos and confusion during bad weather. Now with SMS a single text can reach everyone no matter what kind of cell phone they have. Mandy took a survey and there are only three members in the whole church who do not have a mobile phone. Mandy believes that by referring her church to the Protexting.com Friend Referral program, that it’s not only a matter of good communication during emergencies but it’s helping to keep people safe and off the roads during bad weather.
Mandy also participates in the youth groups. She teaches Sunday school once a month and last spring, she produced a play for the children called “Harvest Gold.” She thinks that SMS can be used as a way to remind parents to attend church earlier so their kids can participate in Sunday school.
Mandy also said that texting would be a great way to let parishioners know when there would be a special event like a new children’s play during the holiday season. Mandy thinks if her church does decide to use ProTexting then she could see how parishioners could use SMS to make prayers requests. And best of all, it sure would be nice to use SMS to send a short scripture or bible verse to parishioners as a way to encourage and inspire them.
*Our customers names have been changed to protect their privacy.
We’re happy to learn how ProTexting.com can be used for Mandy’s church. In the past few years, we have been working with other churches too and soon will share with you the details of our collaboration. –Kalin.
