A Closer Look at The Church App CMS: The App Builder

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When we first thought about creating a platform for churches to create their own apps, we wanted to make sure it was done right. Now, after over three years of development, our online Content Management System (CMS) that we call the App Builder has become an incredibly flexible, easy to use, online system that puts the church in full control. We still take care of everything from the code to publishing, analytics to tech support and consulting, but your church is in full control of everything else in real time.

So, here’s how it works. Basically, the manager of a church app can control the layout, artwork, features, content, tabs, icons, and much more within the app. Any change made will happen immediately and can be seen by all using the app -  it’s pretty cool! There are a whole bunch of pre-set modules you can start plugging content into like the sermons tab, or you can create your very own custom tab to serve your unique needs. Let’s say you have a calendar tab within your app and decide to swap it out for a custom tab you’ve created for all of your ministries. That process involves simply logging in online and dragging and dropping in the new page. It's that easy, not to mention that custom tab could include many unique things from web links, to extra media, blogs, contact info, and much more. You can even make a tab that has pages that take you to another page full of options and so on. Furthermore, you can rename tabs or change icons with ease. Our latest version of the Subsplash App Builder makes it easy to keep your app up to date with not only adding new content, but truly controlling the entire layout and feature offering within your app. The App Builder allows you to have a one click publish point to distribute your content to all of your apps across multiple Operating Systems (iOS, Android, etc).

We're pretty excited about the App Builder and it's flexibility. We've really focused on making it a great system that can be used by anyone, and want to couple that with our support team who is always there to help. We think churches deserve to not only have great technology to use for the Kingdom, but want to make sure they actually have control of it too!

Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk

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If you’ve been searching for a mobile app with Christian insight for family and daily living, look no further - Dr. James Dobson’s Family talk has an app! Dr. Dobson's ministry is built around helping families engage with one another and our culture through biblical principles. Now, they have made that content more readily available than ever...

More than 30 years ago, Dr. James C. Dobson set out to support and secure Christian values for families in today's world.  What began with a radio program on a few stations in 1977 grew into a global broadcast phenomenon that was heard on thousands of stations in North America and more than 160 countries worldwide.

Continuing to hear God's call to ministry, National Radio Hall of Fame inductee, Dr. James Dobson now surges forward and continues his threefold passion of strengthening families, speaking into the culture and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. The centerpiece of the Family Talk ministry is the 30-minute radio broadcast, Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson strategically designed to reach the younger generation with a Judeo-Christian worldview of the family.

Launched in May of 2010 and aired on nearly 700 radio outlets, Family Talk also features Dr. Dobson's son, Ryan, an ordained minister, bestselling author and host of his own show Grounded with Ryan Dobson. Executive Producer LuAnne Crane joins the Dobsons on the air and brings her extensive training, perspective, and a unique touch to the Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson show.

Now, anywhere you roam you can listen to the Family Talk daily broadcast and have access to all of Dr. Dobson’s archived programs.  It’s America’s Family Counselor on-demand 24/7, when and where you need him!  Use the App to view video commentaries, get answers to your compelling questions with our Solid Answers tool, connect with Dr. Dobson via social media and hear from the voices of Family Talk as the staff provides weekly insights on topics that concern you!  It’s practical and inspirational family resources -absolutely FREE- and available for Android, iPhone, and iPad devices. Visit your App Marketplace to download today!

Click here to download!

Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk App was created with The Church App Platform by Subsplash. Here at The Church App, we want to see the Gospel shared to the ends of the earth. We do this by creating high-quality, customizable mobile apps for churches and ministries.

So, Why Create an App?

So, why create an app? from The Church App on YouTube.

iPhone 5

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Apple had a pretty big day last week. In standard Apple fashion, their mystery (not so much) press conference captivated the eyes and ears of millions of people - something they’ve become quite good at. From tech industry execs, to die hard Apple groupies, to Mrs. Peterson’s entire 8th grade classroom, to even your Grandmother, there weren’t many that didn’t know about the release of the new iPhone 5.

Although most were fairly certain that a new iPhone would be the jewel of this San Francisco conference, there was some speculation as to what it would actually be called. These doubts were put to rest, however, when Apple’s official acknowledgment of their announcement was a simple “September 12th” casting a shadow of the number 5. And just like their smooth hint at what was to come, the conference was pretty smooth itself. The conference kicked off with CEO Tim Cook announcing the brand new (Gaudi inspired) Apple store in Barcelona, Spain. Apple’s reach and influence is becoming more and more international as they are entering their 13th country to have an Apple store (Sweden) and the Apple store encountered over 83 millions visitors just from April-June of this year.

Next on the list was some facts and stats regarding Mountain Lion (fastest selling OSX of all time), MacBooks (#1 in market share), and of course - the iPad. In the words of Tim Cook, “The iPad is driving the post PC revolution”. There were 17 million iPads sold in just the time span of April-June 2012. In fact, there were 84 million iPads sold in the world through June! The iPad has a 68% market share in all tablets - talk about domination.

Now what everyone’s been waiting for: the iPhone 5 took the stage. While a slew of new features and improvements were announced, it is easy to say that this is the best iPhone yet. What is hard to qualify however, although improved, is if the next generations of iPhones to come will have the same innovative and brilliant leaps and bounds that occurred when Jobs was still around. We’ll let you decide!

Here are some of the best (and most significant in our opinion) features of the iPhone 5 that were announced last week:

• Dual color back (made entirely of glass/aluminum)
• 4" screen (5th fow of icons on home screen, natural 16:9 aspect ratio)
• Apps don't stretch or scale (slight letter boxing)
• Thinnest phone ever (7.6mm)
• Lightest phone ever
• LTE (HSDPA+ DC-HSDPA support)
• Single chip (A6) (single radio, dynamic antenna, 2x faster CPU and graphics)
• Retina display (326ppi, 44% more color saturation, 1136x640 pixels)
• Ultrafast wireless technology
• Even better battery life
• Lightning adapter (say goodbye to all of your old accessories... or purchase a $30 adapter)
• New camera (8 megapixel sensor, 3264x2448 backside illuminated, 5 element lens, f/2.4 aperture, 25% smaller, faster photo capture)
• Panorama photos (28 megapixel images)
• 1080P HD video (video stabilization, 10-face detection)
• Facetime over cellular networks
• 3 microphones built in (better voice recognition, improved speaker design, reduces noise in area)
• Uses iOS6 (new vector maps, turn by turn directions, notification center, iCloud tabs, passbook, share photo streams, Siri improvement)

Apple ended the press conference with announcements about iTunes (redesigned), next generation iPod devices, and of course... The Foo Fighters. If Dave Grohl doesn't make you want to buy an iPhone, I don't know what would!

Why Quality Matters

The first approach could be to build an app as inexpensively as possible - or for free. Although it's pretty incredible that you can do virtually anything these days for free, I think it's pretty safe to say that free doesn't always (usually never) mean well done. If you're on a tight budget, you might believe that something is better than nothing - but that is not necessarily the case. Your brand is closely associated with everything you put out there, so even the smallest of details should have a positive effect. With all of the technology at our fingertips these days, people don't just prefer quality, they expect it. If your app is designed poorly, has poor UX, or can't compete with other apps out there, there's a good chance it will get deleted - or forgotten.

On the other end of the spectrum, you could easily pay upwards of $100,000 for a quality custom mobile app. Sure, it's going to look fantastic, but there aren't many organizations out there that actually need an app at this level.

That's where we come in, the perfect sweet spot. Here at The Church App we believe in building quality, affordable, customizable apps. If you have the content, we would love to help you go mobile.