Top 8 Church Texting Services To Boost Fellowship In 2024 

Introduction 

The present digital age has made communications more accessible and easier than ever before. While traditional communication methods still hover, one has to agree that texting is the go-to mode of communication for individuals and businesses alike. Not only has texting penetrated the healthcare, recruiting, and real estate industries, but has also reached churches.  

As a ministry, you must have reached out to your congregation through emails, newsletters, bulletin boards, and even calls! What if we told you that you could reach almost 100% of your church members with the help of a church texting service and achieve a response rate of 40%? Sounds attractive, right? Well, this is your cue to ditch your old present communication mediums and use a church texting software. 

What is church texting?

Text messaging for churches is a type of SMS communication wherein ministries and churches use text messaging to communicate and engage with their congregation. It is important to note that as a church or religious organization, you can only send text messages to your members if they have given their express written consent to receive communications from you. To make the most of church texting, you need to invest in a church texting service. 

What is a church texting service? 

A church texting service is a means for churches to streamline their communications, automate their workflows, and build engagement. A church texting service encompasses several messaging capabilities that help churches like yours reach out to a larger audience and build a strong sense of fellowship. Are you looking for a church texting service that best fits your needs? Check out the top 8 text messaging services for churches that are ruling 2024! 

Top 8 Church Text Messaging Services for Growing Ministries 

1. Emitrr 
2. PastorsLine
3. Clearstream 
4. TextInChurch
5. EZ Texting 
6. ChurchCast 
7. Tithely 
8. SimpleTexting 

Emitrr 

Emitrr is a complete communication and engagement software that is ideal for churches. If you want to build lasting relationships with your congregation, engage people seamlessly, and make communication less overwhelming, then Emitrr is the perfect church texting service for you. 

Features of Emitrr

• Engage meaningfully with church members with two-way texting 
• Send messages to church members from one single dashboard 
• Use custom keywords to reach out to more members  
• Allow members to respond from anywhere using shortcodes 
• Manage responses from different platforms from one dashboard 
• Text-enable your existing number to send and receive messages 
• Use saved church texting templates to answer FAQs  
• Assign conversations to team members and add notes for their reference
• Manage internal conversations through group texting 
• Create lists to segment your audience and set up multi-touch text messaging campaigns
• Import your contacts and lists to the platform with a few clicks
• Send personalized messages on a scale with this mass texting service for churches 
• Automatically follow up using drip campaigns
• Send automated reminders, updates, and announcements to your congregation
• Monitor your text marketing campaigns and track outreach metrics
• Integrate with your church software tools seamlessly 
• Analyze your church outreach efforts through detailed analytics 
• Run text message marketing campaigns for maximum outreach with members

PastorsLine

PastorsLine is a robust text messaging solution for churches and ministries that offers subscription-based text messaging services. 

Features of PastorsLine

• Engage in two-way texting to boost communication with church members 
• Manage internal communications with group chats
• Send automated reminders and follow-up messages to your guests 
• Allow members to respond from anywhere using shortcodes 
• Send automated birthday wishes to members 
• Text enable your existing number for church texting 
• Use pre-saved templates to avoid the hassle of creating messages from scratch
• Integrate the church texting software with your church software tools

Clearstream 

Clearstream is one of the most popular church texting services that caters to mega-churches, non-profits, youth ministries, and church plants. 

Features of Clearstream 

• Send mass text messages to your church members 
• Engage in 1:1 texting with church members from anywhere 
• Integrate the church texting software with your church software tools
• Automate your workflows with text-to-join keywords 
• Send automated reminders and follow up with your guests 
• Manage all conversations from a centralized dashboard 

Text In Church 

Text In Church is a popular text messaging service for churches that offers rich texting capabilities that aim at community engagement and smooth communication. 

Features of Text In Church 

• Manage internal communications with group chats
• Automate workflows by setting up keywords 
• Engage in two-way texting to boost communication with church members 
• Send automated reminders and follow-up messages to your guests 
• Schedule text messages to be sent out later 
• Integrate the texting platform with your church software tools 
• Text enable your existing number for church texting 
• Personalize your messages at scale 

EZ Texting 

EZ Texting is a popular mass texting service for churches that offers texting capabilities that allow you to connect seamlessly with your congregation and drive more engagement. 

Features of EZ Texting

• Manage communications internally with a teammate manager 
• Allow church members to respond using custom keywords 
• Launch marketing campaigns and personalize each message 
• Automatically follow up with members using drip campaigns 
• Engage in meaningful conversations with church members with two-way texting 
• Sens mass text messages to your church members 
• Send automated event reminders, important announcements, or emergency alerts 

ChurchCast 

ChurchCast is a text messaging service for churches that focuses on empowering church communications with its rich texting capabilities. 

Features of ChurchCast 

• Translate text messages received from first-time visitors or church members 
• Allow church members to respond using custom keywords 
• Integrate the texting platform with your church software tools 
• Engage in two-way texting to boost communication with church members 

Tithely 

Tithely is among the topmost church texting services in the market, allowing users to engage seamlessly with first-time visitors while maintaining strong relationships with the congregation as well. 

Features of Tithely 

• Engage in 1:1 texting with church members from anywhere 
• Send automated reminders and follow-up messages to your guests 
• Integrate with your church software tools seamlessly 
• Automatically follow up with members using drip campaigns 
• Send text message blasts to your congregation informing them about important events, or making announcements 
• Allow church members to respond using custom keywords 

SimpleTexting 

SimpleTexting is a mass texting service for churches catering to ministries, allowing them to improve church communications and build engagement by leveraging the power of text messaging. 

Features of SimpleTexting

• Engage in two-way texting to boost communication with church members 
• Send automated reminders and follow-up messages to your guests 
• Schedule text messages to be sent out later 
• Integrate the texting platform with your church software tools 
• Automate your workflows with text-to-join keywords 
• Use pre-saved templates to avoid the hassle of creating messages from scratch
• Create lists to segment your audience 

Why Do You Need A Church Texting Service? 

Did you know that as per a recent survey conducted by the Brana group, around 61% of the churches in the USA use a texting service to communicate with their members? That is because they know that a church texting service helps improve member retention and weekly attendance, cut down costs, offer instant support, spread the word of faith, and help grow their community.  

Here are some benefits of using a text messaging service for churches: 

Instant communication 

With a church texting service, you can communicate instantly with your congregation and also improve response times. Whether you need to send reminders, emergency alerts, or important notifications; or receive confirmations from your members; you can do all of that easily with the help of a text messaging service for churches. Right from new visitors to existing members, communicating with everyone becomes an absolute breeze when you have a text messaging service by your side. 

Saves time and costs 

Let’s say you need to cancel tomorrow’s sermon due to bad weather. How would you communicate that message to 200 members of the congregation? Calling each of them would be a bad idea as it would lead to excessive wastage of time and also cause frustration. An easy way to do it is by using a church texting service and sending a mass text message to all the members with just a few clicks. So a task that would normally take you hours to complete will now take only a few minutes! Not only will this save considerable time but it will also cut down your phone bills significantly. 

High engagement 

Using a text messaging service for your church brings along high engagement rates because now you’re communicating with your members and new visitors via text messages. Right from sending mid-week alerts to cancelation notices, sending reminders to sharing important updates, or answering questions to following up with members; you experience better engagement and retention rates. 

Improved coordination 

Coordinating the church ministry is not an easy task. If you want to keep all the members, visitors, and volunteers connected at all times, a church texting service is an invaluable tool. With such software, you can assign conversations to your team members and even leave notes for their reference. This way, no conversation gets unaddressed and communication gets streamlined. 

Better visitor outreach 

When you have newcomers or visitors to your church, you can simply use a church texting app to share important updates, answer questions, and follow up with them. Using a texting service for visitor outreach will be a more effective and personalized way to connect to the visitors and will be much less likely to be ignored (like an email). 

Features To Look For In A Church Texting Service

Shortcodes 

A shortcode is an easy-to-remember, 6-digit number that you can get and sync with a church texting service. With this number, you send marketing messages to your members (with their consent) and run a text-to-join campaign. When new visitors wish to be a member, they can simply respond with the unique keyword sent by you on the shortcode number. Shortcodes are easier to remember and garner attention faster. 

Keywords

Look for a church texting software that allows you to add ample keywords to your list to engage with your members. Keywords help you share your message more easily and effectively. Whether you need to announce events and activities, notify students about new volunteer opportunities, or communicate with your members about schedule changes; all can be done through keywords. 

Reports

It is always crucial to track the status of your text messaging campaigns, in order to see what’s working and not working for you. With a good church texting app, you can track detailed metrics such as failed messages, delivery rate, and response rate. With such analytics, you can make changes to your strategies and run campaigns more efficiently. 

Text scheduling 

When you schedule a text, you relieve yourself from the hassle of sending the message at a particular date or time manually, scheduling text messages is the act of setting timed messages that can be sent automatically at a later date or time. Look for a church texting service that offers the ability to schedule text messages for later.  

Church Mass Texting

Mass text messaging allows you to send messages to hundreds or thousands of members and visitors text messages with just a few clicks. All you need to do is invest in a good church texting service, import your list of contacts, type your message, and hit send! With church mass texting, you can reach out to a large number of people in a short span of time and also ensure seamless communication. 

Drip campaigns 

Opt for a church texting service that allows you to send a series of text messages to members who respond to your marketing communications. With this feature, you can allow customers to respond to your marketing texts which go right into your inbox and automatically follow up with them. 

Text-enable landline 

Look for a church texting service that offers landline texting. It means that you don’t need to have separate numbers for calling and texting; you can have your landline number text enabled and send messages to your members from that very number. 

Integration 

Your ideal church texting service must offer integration with all your important apps and tools so that you can easily streamline your workflows, automate tasks, and reduce human error. With integrations, you can manage your data easily, perform seamless data capture, and sync the data as and when required. 

Automation 

Text message automation is an important feature if you want to send personalized messages without having to spend too much time and effort. You can create lists to segment your audience and set up multi-touch text messaging campaigns. Whether you need to send survey forms, event reminders, or birthday messages; you can do it all with automated texting, with minimal human intervention. 

Church SMS Templates 

If you need to send out messages quickly but don’t have the time to curate a message, you can simply use the templates available in your church texting service. With church SMS templates, you save a lot of time, and can easily tailor it according to your preferences. Make sure that the church texting software that you choose offers ample templates to make your life easier.  

Two-way texting 

Being able to converse with your members, visitors, and volunteers in real-time is the highest form of engagement as a ministry. Make sure that your church texting service offers two-way texting, for easy communication and improved retention. With a church texting app, you will be able to connect with your congregation at any point from a single platform for uninterrupted and simple messaging. 

Use Cases Of Church Texting Apps

1. Share inspirational messages: What’s better than receiving an inspirational bible quote or a passage every morning? With a texting service for churches, you can send such inspirational messages every morning to brighten up the day of your members. 
2. Informing about upcoming events: If you’re planning a special bible reading session or an event around Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter; you can plan the text messaging campaigns around the same and curate personalized messages.  
3. Attract and retain volunteers: With a church texting service, you can keep your list of volunteers engaged by sending them updates about your upcoming events and sharing instructions on how to participate.  
4. Sending prayer requests: If there are any prayer requests by any of your members in the congregation, you can distribute such requests via text messages. You can also segment your audience into different groups if you are a large congregation. 
5. Sending reminders and confirmations: It’s normal for your members to forget about upcoming events. To ensure minimal no-shows, you can send event reminders and even set the cadence of those reminders. This will ensure better attendance and improved engagement.  
6. Notify schedule changes: In case there are any last-minute changes in your schedule regarding any events, you can easily inform your congregation about the same without panicking. Any last-minute changes can be sent via text messages at scale with the help of a church texting service. 
7. Keep donors informed: You can maintain a list of donors and integrate your other software with the church texting software. If there are any upcoming donation events, you can share the details of those events via text and encourage the donors to be a part of the same.  
8. Coordinate with staff: Coordination with your team internally is quite breezy when you have a text messaging service. You can assign conversations to your team members and also leave notes for them to provide context.  

Why Is Emitrr The Best Church Texting Service? 

Emitrr is the best church texting service out there for the following reasons:

1. Emitrr offers all the features you need to enjoy uninterrupted texting with your congregation. Additionally, it also allows you to send an automated message every time you miss a call, offers end-to-end 10DLC support for A2P messaging, and converts website visitors into members. 
2. Emitrr is known for its unwavering support, through phone, chat, live rep, FAQs, and more. A lot of church texting services don’t offer live support. 
3. Emitrr’s pricing is quite flexible; you pay for what you use; with no annual contracts or hidden fees. 
4. With Emitrr’s capabilities, you can ensure higher response rates, improved retention, and better engagement; without having to spend a bomb on it.  
5. The church texting service is quite easy to use, there’s no learning curve involved. 

Church Texting Service FAQs 

Conclusion  

Signing up with a text messaging service for churches is the best way to engage your members, drive meaningful conversations, and build lasting relationships with the members of your congregation. Are you curious to find out how Emitrr fits your use case? Book a demo to explore the offerings!