Church Texting Services: How to Use SMS Effectively

Church texting services are a highly effective way for church leaders, ministries, and other religious groups to stay connected with their members. Text messaging services can help churches nurture relationships with church members while keeping everyone informed and up-to-date on events.

In our guide to church texting services, we’ll discuss why churches benefit from SMS marketing, how to use SMS messages for churches, and seven church texting templates to help you get started.

Why Use SMS for Church Communications?

Not only should a church provide efficient, reliable communication to its community, but it should also offer support and spiritual guidance for the congregation throughout the week. SMS (short message service) marketing helps churches simplify their church communication using tools like mass texting, short codes and more. 

For example, you could send a mass text to your entire congregation or a specific message to a particular group of people just with a few clicks.

SMS messages boast a 98% open rate, whereas email open rates average 20%. If you sent out a text blast to your subscribers, 90 percent of those messages would be read within three minutes, while only 20 percent of emails would be opened at all. Texting enables churches to instantly communicate with their members to ensure time-sensitive messages are received as quickly as possible.

SMS marketing for churches is also very cost-effective. Many texting platforms offer two-way SMS to allow you to engage with your subscribers in a direct chat at no extra cost. And because these platforms are subscription-based, you can easily scale your church texting services up as your community grows.

How to Use Church Texting

SMS marketing is a powerful tool, but you don’t want to overload your subscribers with too many messages. Here are some general best practices for sending mass texts each week:

• Send one message before church service, either the evening before or the morning of, to remind people to attend.
• Send one message after church service, either the evening after or the following morning, to share any relevant information, such as online access to the sermon or donation requests.
• Send one message about an upcoming church event that will appeal to the most members.
• Be sure to comply with opt-in text messaging rules, which require that organizations, including churches, get express written consent before texting a consumer.

What to Include in Your Church Texts

Every church SMS text should include the following:

• Your church’s name: By including the name of your church in every message, you can increase brand awareness and ensure your subscribers remember you.
• Any essential information: If your message is about an event or another time-sensitive topic, make sure to include the date, time, location and any other relevant details.
• A closing call to action (CTA): Always include a call to action, like a link to your website, to ensure your subscribers know what to do next. 

7 Church Texting Templates

Getting started with church texting services is much easier than you think. Here are seven templates for messages you can send as church community builders that keep everyone informed.

Service Reminders

Schedule a recurring mass text that goes out to your entire congregation every week before church services. A simple text message can be highly effective at reminding people to attend a service, which provides the opportunity for face-to-face connections.

[Church Name]: See you at service tomorrow at 10 am! 

Motivational Messages

SMS marketing extends beyond time-sensitive messages. Many consumers expect to receive valuable content when signing up to receive text messages from an organization, and church texting services are no different. Try sending a few messages of inspiration per week to offer another type of support to your church members.

Today’s Bible verse from [Church Name]:

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.

Ecclesiastes 7:14

Post-Service Thank You Messages

Taking the time to thank your congregation for attention service adds a personal touch that many people will appreciate.

Thank you for attending this year’s Christmas sermon — it was the best one yet!  [Church Name]

Volunteer Requests

Reminding volunteers of their commitments is an effective way to maintain participation. SMS marketing is also an excellent tool for recruiting volunteers, particularly if you segment your subscriber list.

We need 10 volunteers to help out at the blood drive this weekend. Reply YES to this message if you are interested. — [Church Name]

Prayer Requests

Along with other time-sensitive messages, prayer requests can be shared quickly and with as many people as possible with SMS marketing.

[Church Name]: Parishioner Jane Smith is currently in the hospital after a car accident on Monday. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. 

Rehearsal Reminders

To keep church choirs, bands and other groups organized, leverage the power of list segmentation to create specific subscriber lists.

REMINDER: Choir rehearsal is Wednesday 11/17 at 6 pm in the rec room. See you there! — [Church Name] 

Community Events

Keep your church members in the loop about upcoming events in your community, like fundraisers, festivals and more, all with just one text.

Tomorrow is the bake sale to raise money for the new church organ! Come to [Church Name] tomorrow from 9 am to 1 pm to support the cause. See you there!

Use Textedly for Your Church Texting Services

Church texting services can be a helpful tool for churches and other religious groups to stay in touch with their congregation at any time. At Textedly, our texting platform is easy to use, making it the preferred way to communicate with church members via text message.

From event reminders to prayer requests, Textedly can help you create an SMS communication strategy that will maximize community engagement while enabling you to support your church members. Our SMS marketing software has many powerful features, such as two-way SMS, text keywords and auto reply texts.

Get started with a free trial of Textedly today.