3. You Don’t Have Compelling Evidence To Support the Idea Your App Will Ever Be Used
Every church leader wants to believe that the people in their congregation are so invested in what the church is doing that they will download the church app and use it on a daily basis. But that typically just isn’t the case. With so many things vying for their attention on a weekly, daily, and hourly basis, the church app doesn’t often rise to the top.
Recent research has found that 78% of US smartphone users will not download an app to continue a transaction, and 80% of users say they get frustrated with an organization at the prospect of having to download an app.
Further, researchers have discovered that while a typical person has about 40 apps on their phone, 89% of their time is spent on just 18 of them. The others go almost completely unused.
Unless you have compelling evidence to suggest that your app will be highly engaging and relevant to your church members beyond what they can already find on your website or by following you on social media, it is more than likely that it will be one of the more than half of apps that sits on their phone until it is eventually deleted.
This might not exactly feel like a glowing review about the effectiveness of church apps. However, despite these compelling reasons not to have a church app, there may be situations where an app could be useful to your church.
You Might Want a Church App If:
1. You Have a Robust Plan To Use Your App as a Discipleship Tool
In order to serve a unique purpose, your church app should be a discipleship tool that leads churchgoers down an engagement funnel toward their next step in their journey with Jesus and the Church.
Content within the app should be tailored to the individuals using it, guiding them toward their next step, whether that is baptism, a membership class, joining a volunteer team, giving, or joining a small group.
An effective app relies upon data from your church’s database to build out unique experiences that will encourage members of your church to not only be informed about the goings on of your church but be personally invited to the next step that is most relevant to them. (Having a robust and accurate database is a prerequisite for implementing an effective church app.)
2. You Plan To Build and Maintain Tools That Foster Community
In addition to personal discipleship features, an effective church app should also include the ability to connect in community with other members of the church.
This can be made possible through a prayer wall or prayer request system, as well as communication tools that churchgoers can use to connect with others on their volunteer teams or in their small groups.
In this way, your church app, if built properly, can become a one stop shop for identifying the next step in a churchgoer’s discipleship journey, also connecting them with the people who are going to help them take it.
