The No-Nonsense Guide to Church Communications Platforms

Welcome to our no-nonsense guide to church communications platforms. I put this simple article together to give small to midsized churches with no communications director a simple guide to only the most important systems and platforms churches use to achieve great church communications.

So here it is, in more particular order; my no-nonsense guide to church communications platforms.

Church Management Systems

Primary Purpose: To keep church attendees/members organized and engaged.

Examples: Planning Center, Realm, Breeze 

A Church Management System (ChMS for short), if you are unfamiliar, are platforms built specifically for churches to help them manage their membership in a wide variety of ways. 

First, they allow churches to organize a database of people who have opted into the ChMS in one way or another. Within this database you can group people by membership, family, age, really pretty much anyway you decide to organize the system.

From there, most ChMS platforms contain a variety of additional helpful tools for donations, small groups, event registration, children’s ministry check-in, facility management, and more.

Choosing a ChMS is honestly one of the most challenging platforms to decide on. There’s a lot of reasons for this but the #1 reason is because ChMS platforms are usually fairly complicated and come with a big learning curve, and so even choosing between 2-3 systems that have been recommended to you takes a lot of time to thoroughly research in order to make an informed decision.

Another reason is there’s a lot of pressure. Building out a ChMS and introducing it to your congregation is a big time, money, and trust investment. The idea of putting all that into it and then realizing you made the wrong decision; that’s pretty scary. 

While I do have my favorite ChMS that I personally like the best, I do not believe it’s necessarily the best of every church. Therefore, I would recommend you connect with pastors of a similar church as yours and ask them what ChMS they use and if they wouldn’t mind giving you a little tour.

As you explore ChMS option, be sure to keep your primary church communications strategies in mind. You’ll want to make sure the system you choose will help you execute your strategy. 

Websites

Primary Purpose: To reach new people seeking a church like yours in your area.

Example Platforms: Squarespace, Wordpress, Cloversites

Websites are obviously not new; they’ve been around for quite a long time. But that doesn’t mean churches have websites all figured out; just the opposite actually. Why? Because often churches operate their website off some outdated assumptions. 

First, the purpose for having a website has shifted dramatically over the years. Before, websites were built as a resource for church members. Now, websites (should) be a resource built primarily for new people who are seeking a church in your city. Many churches haven’t made this switch and continue to fill their website with insider language, which doesn’t help reach new people.

Secondly, if you’ve built your church website over 5 years ago, odds are they are no longer technologically relevant. If you built your website 10+ years ago, I guarantee it’s no longer relevant.

Bottom line, while websites are in no way a new thing, website strategies are always changing, so it’s important to stay up to date.

While websites are WAY too big a topic to cover in detail here, I want to give you some additional thoughts to help you evaluate whether or not your current website is relevant. To unpack this topic in detail, download this short ebook I wrote, “8 Critical Questions to Ask Yourself Before Building a New Church Website.”

Text & Email Marketing

Primary Purpose: Direct communication with your audience for general and specific announcements.

Examples: Mailchimp (Email), Clearstream (Text)

Despite all the technological advancements over the years, texting and emailing are still the most direct and predictable ways of communicating with your church. Why? Because both rely on individuals receiving a direct message to their personal inbox without the filtering or interference of an algorithm (I’m looking at your Social media). Therefore, It’s important to have dedicated platforms for mass text and email services.

The selection of which platforms you’ll use for texting and emailing your church is important. While there are many good systems out there, ultimately the most important factor for small to midsize churches is going to be which one integrates and syncs with its church management system. The reason is, you don’t want to have to waste time and energy keeping multiple contact lists up to date. I see this all the time with my new church partners. Here’s what happens.

Often during the assessment period of my work with churches, I’ll discover that the church actually manages anywhere from 2-4 separate contact lists, usually because these lists are stored in separate places and maintained by separate people for different purposes. The results are inaccurate, redundant, and possibly harmful communications.

Instead, you want to keep and manage ONE list, and that list should be based in your church management system. Then, you want to connect your ChMS with all of your communications platforms so that those platforms are working from the same list and always automatically updating. This way, when you go into your email marketing platform to send your weekly newsletter, you KNOW that it’s going to send to the most accurate and up to date list.

Engagement Apps

Primary Purpose: Single easily accessible platform for community (insider) engagement 

Examples: Church Center, Nucleus

Your church probably needs an app. However, you probably don’t need your own app. This is where I start to upset some people but please bear with me.

About 15-years-ago when mobile apps first hit people’s smartphones, they were new, exciting and every church wanted to have their own app. When I say “their own app,” what I’m talking about is creating a custom or templated app that is actually branded with the name and logo of the church in the app store. I’ve seen numerous variations of this kind of app, all the way from an app that is basically a mirror reflection of the church’s website to a very elaborate custom app with tons of content features. 

The former isn’t really worth doing because church websites are so mobile friendly these days that it’s a waste of time and money to create an app version of it. The latter is fine, but only if your church creates a lot of content and it’s a part of the church's communications and marketing strategy, which usually rules out small to midsize churches.

All that said, the tool that I find myself helping churches understand and set-up the most is a church engagement app. What is a church engagement app? Glad you asked.

A church engagement app is a mobile and web application, that is designed entirely with church members/attenders in mind. It’s an app driven not by new and relevant content (although it can have things like sermons and devotions on there if you want). Instead an engagement app is driven by tools and resources designed to help people stay engaged with the life of the church.

On this kind of app, people are able to easily and securely login to their profile (ideally in their ChMS account) and from there manage their church engagement in areas like giving, small groups, registrations, volunteer opportunities, and more. This app can send calendar reminders, church-wide push notifications, and more. 

Obviously, most apps cannot do everything I just mentioned, which is why you need to do your homework on which church management systems are best for your church and to make sure it has an app like this or is able to integrate with an app like this.

In this book, I’m not trying to promote one platform over another. I truly think churches need to do the research and discover what systems fit their church. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the combination of Planning Center (ChMS) and Church Center (engagement app) is the best combo that fulfills this purpose. While Planning Center isn’t the cheapest ChMS on the market (nor is it the most expensive), the combo of these two complimentary systems I believe is absolutely the best value for small to midsize churches.

Social Media

Primary Purpose: To market church events and conversations to new audiences. 

Examples: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

Truth be told, when I start talking about Social Media (aka Socials) with small to midsize churches, I usually quickly discover they don’t have a lot of love for it. In fact, oftentimes church leaders feel outright animosity toward all things Social media. 

I understand. Personally, I don’t spend a lot of time on Socials. I don’t find it lifegiving. There is a lot of junk on there, I won’t deny it.

However, I still think it’s important for churches to have a presence and strategy when it comes to Social Media, for a very simple reason: people are on it and they are searching.

Now, searching for what? It’s all over the place. But I would argue that people who are spending copious amounts of time scrolling through Social feeds are indeed searching for something more, whether they know it or not. The church can offer that to them.

So I do think it’s important for Social Media to be a part of your church’s communications strategy. But I don’t think it should be the whole strategy.

One of the biggest problems with Socials is that the users (both organizations and individuals) have very little control over how Social platforms work. Therefore, it’s unwise to build your entire strategy around Socials when all a company has to do is change the algorithm, and now you’re sunk.

So when you engage with Socials, here’s a few thoughts to guide you.

Have a strategy

Make sure you know what kinds of posts you are doing and why. Maybe you want to promote events, sermons, and ask followers a weekly spiritual question. Great, form your content strategy around these three things so they are predictable and consistent.

Create a calendar

I’ve spoken with multiple Social Media gurus and they all say the same thing, you have to have a posting calendar. You need to post consistently to get traction on Socials. If you don’t have a posting calendar, it’s very difficult to stay on top of it.

Keep is Social

We often forget the key element of Social media, and that is to keep it Social. Don’t just talk to people. Talk with people. Ask questions. Respond to their answers. Try and convert a digital conversation into a relationship. Bottom line, make it meaningful.

Next Steps

I hope you found this blog helpful and given you the direction you need to take those first steps toward creating and maintaining thriving communications in your church. 

Every year, Clearpath partners with churches just like yours to help them create thriving communications. Here’s a few action steps you can take when you’re ready:

Action Steps:

Learn more about Clearpath: https://clearpath.church/

Download the Church Communications Blueprint: https://clearpath.church/blueprint

Start an Assessment: https://clearpath.church/assessments

Start a conversation: https://clearpath.church/contact