5 Benefits of Going Mobile with The Church App: Sharing the Gospel (Part 5 of 5)

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This is part 5 in a series that highlights the added value of doing an iPhone/Android/iPad app for your church or ministry.

5: Sharing the Gospel

The most important aspect of The Church App, and the single reason that drives what we do, is bringing people closer to Jesus. Technology does not replace the personal connection aspect that is so needed in evangelism and discipleship, but it can be used as a tool to connect with people wherever they may be. It truly is incredible to have a tool that beautifully illustrates the Truth of Jesus and is easily accessible anywhere, anytime. We have received some great feedback from those that have entered into relationship with Jesus through The Church App. “One of my good friends got his brother-in-law to listen. He’s been listening for the past few weeks and has been a 30 year atheist. He just accepted Jesus two weeks ago after calling my friend and telling him that he had made the decision to follow Jesus after listening to every sermon! He is two states away and this could only be possible with this resource.”

We try to focus on these benefits, but want to make sure it's done right, so as to maximize each one! Here at The Church App, we want to get Christ’s word out there, and we want to do it well so that people will want to continue to engage. We strive to make the best software available for the presentation of the Gospel.

“May the gospel be shared over and over through the work you guys do and may our great King’s name be glorified.”

- Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor of The Village Church and President of Acts 29.

5 Benefits of Going Mobile with The Church App: Increase Ease of Giving (Part 4 of 5)

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This is part 4 in a series that highlights the added value of doing an iPhone/Android/iPad app for your church or ministry.

4: Increasing Ease of Giving

Tithing is critical to a church’s health and well being. Using The Church App platform gives opportunity for giving in more ways than one. Since you can count on people bringing their smartphone to church and not always their check book, you can easily integrate with your current online giving solution via The Church App.

OneLife Church in Henderson KY saw their giving increase immediately. “We are a church of about 1000 adults. We launched on 12/23 (2 days before Christmas) and even with the holidays we have seen 1008 downloads in the first month and the first week of giving was 3 times the monthly expense.”

It's amazing how technology has changed the way we interact in daily life settings. I actually can't remember the last time I took my checkbook with me, and I'm pretty sure my kids will have no idea how to balance a checkbook. With changes like these, being able to utilize smart phones to capitalize on things like online giving is imperative.

“Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.“

Skip to Part 5 here.

5 Benefits of Going Mobile with The Church App: Reducing Costs (Part 3 of 5)

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This is part 3 in a series that highlights the added value of doing an iPhone/Android/iPad app for your church or ministry.

3: Reducing Costs

Budgets are always difficult to deal with. Any opportunity for a church to cut expenses is a valuable one. Printing costs can be huge for churches, whether by printing out hundreds of bulletins, or the waste of brochures that may go unused. Being able to refer your congregation to your mobile application is not only a money saver, but much more convenient - and they can take it with them! ChangePoint church in Alaska has been able to experience this first hand. “The app has allowed us to communicate with the ChangePoint family in a way that has been cost effective and far more engaging than traditional printed communication. Since the launch of the app we have seen the number of people that listen to our messages online double while at the same time we were able to reduce our communications budget significantly and direct much of those saved resources to outreach.”

We're so encouraged to see ways that The Church App is able to make a real difference in the core components that make up a church. We want to help enable churches to be good stewards of their budgets and it's been truly encouraging for us to see ways in which technology (when done right) can add value to the Kingdom.

Skip to Part 4 here.

5 Benefits of Going Mobile with The Church App: Increasing Reach and Viewership (Part 2 of 5)

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This is part 2 in a series that highlights the added value of doing an iPhone/Android/iPad app for your church or ministry. Here's a quick review of the most measurable and attainable benefits of using The Church App: serving your current audience and community by making your content incredibly accessible, increasing reach and viewership, reducing costs, increasing donations, and most importantly helping people meet and grow with Jesus. Below* are real examples of these benefits from ministries that have experienced them. 2: Increasing Reach and Viewership

Expanding your audience is ideal for any church. Serving your current members is incredibly important, but so is bringing in new believers to experience the truth of Jesus. Since mobile applications make content readily accessible, it is an incredibly effective way to expand this reach. When we created The Church App in 2009 to serve Mars Hill Church, we had no idea how powerful of a tool it would become. Not only has Mars Hill grown significantly since 2009 to a church with roughly 15,000 members, but their app has been downloaded several hundred thousand times. That’s 20x (2000% more) the amount of people attending Mars Hill Church on any given Sunday, and that’s just one example. Hundreds of other amazing churches have greatly increased their reach and audience by utilizing The Church App. In fact, millions of people are currently using apps on a regular basis via The Church App Platform.

"I wanted to just send a quick message and say THANK YOU for your help in getting our app going. You and your team have always been a real joy to work with! The app is now on almost 4,000 devices (more than our average Sunday attendance!) and has been used almost 28,000 times! We have seen the number of weekly listeners to our digital content more than double since the release of the app helping us reach more people with the message of Life in Christ!"

-Adam Legg, ChangePoint Alaska

 Skip to Part 3 here.

5 Benefits of Going Mobile with The Church App: Making Your Content Accessible (Part 1 of 5)

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Qualifying reasons abound for why your church can benefit from The Church App, but we'd like to share with you some quantitative info as well. We have been blessed to have the opportunity to build apps for some of the most influential churches and ministries out there. It's exciting to see how God is using this technology for His Kingdom and we can't help but want to share!

The most measurable and attainable benefits of using The Church App include: serving your current audience and community by making your content incredibly accessible, increasing reach and viewership, reducing costs, increasing donations, and most importantly helping people meet and grow with Jesus. Below* are real examples of these benefits from ministries that have experienced them. 1: Making Your Content Incredibly Accessible

Adding value to your current audience is so important, and making your content easily accessible is one of the best ways to do just that. It truly is all about content and quality, and churches are creating incredible Gospel centered content every single week. We’ve seen several churches that have doubled and sometimes tripled their sermon download rate via The Church App. In fact, many ministries have had just as many visitors and hits in their app as on their website. It's easier than ever for people to access church media from anywhere - without having to download individual sermons or sit at their computer.The apps we've built have had millions of downloads, countless app launches and hours spent within the apps, as well as half-a-million page views daily on our platform. Success in that area is all about pairing great content with an equally refined system for presenting it . We work diligently to assure that the content created by churches and ministries is experienced in the best way possible — especially for extended-play media. Our Advanced Audio Player  has the capacity to download for offline listening, seek, fast-forward/rewind, continues to play in the background if multitasking with other apps, and remembers where you left if your busy day causes interruptions. We’ve also invested years of hard work into creating the Subsplash Encoder. Our Encoder creates mobile-optimized videos that are of the highest-quality possible while streaming over wifi and cell networks (all while conserving battery-life and data-transfer). The Subsplash Encoder is Apple-approved and is optimized for iPhone, iPad and Android. We care about making sure churches and ministries can present their gospel-centered content with excellence in order to give their audience the best experience possible!

"The app is amazing...absolutely incredible! Any church that believes the Bible—taught well with Jesus as the hero—should attempt to do all they can to get the word out more broadly. If we love Jesus and people, we want to get his truth and love to them as cheaply, effectively, and responsibly as we can."

- Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church

*This is part 1 in a 5 part series. Skip to Part 2

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