BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — Historically, email has been the go-to tool for church communication. But if you’re on staff at a church, you’ve likely started to realize communicating through email isn’t working as well as it used to.

Church announcements get overlooked, volunteer requests go unseen, and visitor follow-up often slips through the cracks. Open rates have dropped drastically the past few years and now sit at roughly 25%. Twenty. Five. Percent. That means, on average, 75% of the people in your church don’t see any given email you send.

Email still has its place. Don’t abandon it. But if you want to improve your church communication you should consider some changes, including text messaging.

You’re probably already texting your churchgoers some—a few random texts during the week, a last-minute group chat on Saturday night, etc. But you might want to consider using texting as your primary form of communication, because the open rate for a text message is 97%, substantially higher than every other communication channel.

With texting, you don’t have to ask people to download an app, follow a social media page, or enable push notifications. Everyone has texting on their phone, and most people read every text they receive.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. You don’t want to start 20 text threads with your volunteers. And you don’t want a giant group chat where all your members are replying to every message. Completely valid.

But there are several affordable texting softwares out there that make it really easy to text your church. Some are even designed specifically for churches. Here are a few of the most common ways churches are now using texting to communicate and engage with their people.

Announcements and reminders

Sending out announcements and reminders is by far the most common use case for texting. If you have an event you want people to know about (and attend), you should send a couple of texts to remind them. You can even schedule out texts in advance, so you don’t have to think about it later. A lot of churches are even setting up recurring texts that automatically send every week to the volunteers scheduled for the upcoming weekend.

If people reply to your text with a question or comment, the text will only come to you. No more messy group threads. You can create different lists for your members, volunteers, students, etc. Some platforms even allow you to text your volunteer lists within Planning Center—a tool used to schedule volunteers and organize service plans.

Collecting prayer requests

Some churchgoers may not feel comfortable or proactive enough to fill out a prayer card on a Sunday morning. But a lot of churches are now sending a text before their weekly prayer meeting asking their members how they can pray for them.

When someone receives a text from their church asking how they can pray for them, it’s easy (and encouraging) for them to reply with a prayer request. This enables you and your team to be more connected with what’s happening in the lives of your members, and you’ll know how to pray for them.

Following up with visitors

You likely have a first-time guest follow-up process: a paper connect card and a series of emails to send throughout the following weeks. If you’re doing that, you’re already doing a great job.

Both of those things are key parts of connecting with visitors and getting them information about your church. Additionally, sending a few well-timed text messages is a great way to remind them about service times and encourage them to come back. A digital option for visitors can automate the process for you.

Instead of filling out a paper connect card, invite guests to text in with a keyword (e.g. CONNECT). This sends them a digital connect card on their phone and triggers a series of scheduled texts over the next few weeks encouraging them to come back. You can even encourage them to reply with any questions, or you can send them a link to schedule a time for coffee.

There’s no silver bullet, but every little bit can play a vital part in helping visitors get plugged in.

Weekly devotions

If you do weekly devotionals or a regular Bible reading plan with your church, it can be helpful to send a daily Scripture or prayer each morning. Remind churchgoers to take a moment and spend time in the Word. You can even send personal video texts to your members encouraging them and praying for them.

Give them a little nudge to slow down, read their devotional, and connect with God before their day starts.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach; every church is different. But good communication and helpful tools are important for unifying your team under a common goal of serving the church and spreading the gospel.

If you want to start using texting in your church, all Lifeway customers get 10% off all Clearstream plans for life. Clearstream is part of the Lifeway One Source program. Learn more at lifeway.com/churchtexting.

This article was originally written by Braden Cross and published to Lifeway.