Customized church apps

An article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the use that a growing number of churches are making of mobile apps. Much of the same content that churches currently offer on their web sites (sermons, devotions, calendars, pictures, and social connections) can be squeezed into one single app that the members (or prospects) can take with them anywhere. Members can listen to audio from last week’s message or interact with others through built-in social media on their smart phones or tablets like the iPad.

No programmers in your congregation? You can use the services of ROAR or The Church App to set it up for you. Just be prepared to pay several hundred dollars for the initial set up and a few hundred more for an annual subscription. Maybe this idea is for mega-churches and entire church bodies more than for little neighborhood churches like the one that I serve. Fortunately, my denomination (the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) already offers a very attractive and useful app available for iOS and Android.

Although there’s no doubt that a mobile church app could add to opportunities for parishioners to be connected to the Word and to each other during the week, there’s also the possibility that it could distract from face-to-face ministry.

If you could design a mobile app for your church, what features would it include?