the church

The Mobile Revolution and the Church

7:00am hits, phone alarm goes off. Eat breakfast and check Twitter for morning news. Play your favorite Spotify playlist on your morning commute. Check notifications on your lunch break. Pay for coffee with the Starbucks app. Text family about dinner plans. Watch the hilarious Jimmy Fallon video your friend sent. Snap a pic of the breathtaking sunset. And much more in-between.

Sound familiar? Maybe the details differ for everyone, but one thing is the same for us all: mobile has become woven into our daily lives. With mobile passing the TV as “America’s first screen”, and people spending almost 2.5 hours daily engaging with apps alone, content consumed on a mobile device isn’t something to brush off as a passing trend.

In fact, we say with confidence that mobile has become vital. With the revolution of apps, mobile devices can now sync our daily, necessary, and leisurely activities all in one control center. People are relying on their devices to consume and communicate what is useful, helpful, and empowering in their daily lives.

[Enter the Church] These are the people that make up your congregation. These are the people that are actively seeking how to use their devices in greater and better ways. These are the people that can greatly benefit from your church’s resources beyond the Sunday service. With the global reach of the app stores, churches and ministries now have an amazing opportunity to enter the space of mobile technology and use it to provide a vital function in their congregation’s daily lives: hearing the Gospel, and staying connected to Christ’s Church.

This is a call to action. An action that we’ve seen countless churches use to fulfill their mission to spread the good news of Jesus, and use technology to be an active presence in the lives of those they shepherd. From more app downloads than members in their congregation, to increases in sermon downloads, to increases in giving, we’ve seen churches like The Village Church, Elevation Church, Fresh Life, and many others find great success through The Church App Platform. By making sermon archives, blogs, push notifications, giving, and other resources instantly accessible, apps can help you meet your audience in their context, on their time.

Think about the people that work weekends and can’t make it to Sunday services. Think about those that need your pastor’s weekly blog post to encourage their spirits. Think about the people who will share sermons via their social channels and will reach their friends and families as a result.

While there are a lot of overwhelming and uncertain ramifications that may accompany the mobile revolution, we challenge you to look at the great and powerful ways technology can be used for good. Here at Subsplash, we are passionate about using technology and delightful design to help make the most of your Gospel content. We want to see the Gospel shared to the ends of the earth. With The Church App Platform you can easily create and manage your own mobile apps, putting your content in the hands of a wider audience. We’d love to help you get started.

Stories from The Church

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Screen Shot 2014-05-07 at 3.07.40 PM

Here at Subsplash we love hearing stories about how churches and ministries are using our Platform to improve engagement, reduce costs, increase giving, and share the Gospel. Check it out in this one minute video.

Stories from the Church: Metro Life Church

Here at Subsplash, our heart is to share the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We do this through providing high-quality, customizable mobile apps for churches and ministries. It is through these partnerships with Jesus-loving churches that we see the real fruits of our labor. The Lord has been so faithful in guiding our business. Sometimes it’s easy for us to keep our heads down, working on the next feature or iteration, only to be brought to our knees by a story that can only be explained by the Glory of God. It was through a conversation with a small church in Louisiana that we found such a story.Metro Life Church in Lafayette, Louisiana, is a church plant that has been around for 5 short years. 

Client Spotlight: CRISTA Ministries

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Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 11.30.37 AM

Watch the official CRISTA Ministries app video

"CRISTA is a family of ministries loving God by serving people worldwide in the areas of education, international relief & development, senior living, and media. Our seven Christian ministries serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender."

We love when our clients innovate and find new ways to reach their audience and share their apps. CRISTA Ministries did just that in this nice little video sharing the features and value of their app.

CRISTA Ministries is a multifaceted organization that encompasses everything from a K-12 school to World Concern, a ministry focused on global relief efforts.  I was able to speak with Ben Wilson from CRISTA on their app experience. "As a unique organization comprised of 7 different ministries, we love the ability for this app to provide an outlet to all parts of CRISTA on the first screen that pops up. Live streaming events, from high school football games to devotions to CEO addresses to our staff, has made this app functional for the staff we have throughout the country. All in all, the creation of the app and our relationship with Subsplash have been seamless. We’re proud to have you as a partner and thrilled at how our app will be able to evolve over time."

Stories from The Church: The Village Church

Village
Village

"Thank you to all the Subsplash staff who worked to get our mobile app live this week. We’ve received rave reviews already about it because it provides one more medium to extend our messages about the gospel out to the world. Your team worked tirelessly and patiently with us to get this accomplished. I cannot thank you enough for all you guys have done. We love you guys and pray the Lord’s rich blessings on you and your team members. 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

The Village Church, lead by Pastor Matt Chandler, is a church of 10,000 people across four campuses in the Dallas, Texas area. "The Village Church exists to bring glory to God by making disciples through gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, gospel-centered service and gospel-centered multiplication. The gospel is the story of God reconciling and redeeming a broken creation and fallen creatures to Himself through the life, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus Christ. Our hope and desire is that the gospel would stand at the center of all that we do. It is what directs and defines us. It is our identity." Since launching in May of 2012 The Village Church App has had almost 150,000 downloads, 15x more than their congregation.

I was able to catch up with Scott Ballard, Web Manager at The Village Church, to talk about the impact that The Church App has been having on their church.

Q: What was the heart behind creating your app?

A:“The purpose of creating the app for us was another way to get the Gospel out to an audience we may or may not have been reaching in the first place. We really appreciate the ease of getting the Gospel in the hands and hearts of people through The Church App. We’ve really enjoyed the experience so far and it is serving us really well.” said Ballard.

Q: Have there been any surprising benefits of the app?

A:“We have been especially pleased with the amount of traffic/impressions coming through the app. Social traffic has been huge and much greater than anticipated. Not only that, but the global impact has been really tangible through the app.”

Q: Do you have anything you'd like to share about your experience with The Church App?

A:“Your level of service has been exceptional. TCA is fantastic and your heart to get the gospel out really struck me. We like to partner with people that love the Lord and the Gospel. There is nothing remotely negative to list. The Church App has been a welcomed addition to our family, and has really met our need and served the body well.

 Download The Village Church App here.