Our Tech Strategy
If your eyes glaze over at the title of this post, you can probably safely ignore it and go about your day. If you’re interested in church technology, the benefits, and our strategy, read on.
In a previous post I explained that we use a company called Tithely for much of our church digital life. You probably interact with a number of Tithely’s products when you engage with the church digitally: Elvanto (database), Sites (website), Church App, Giving, and Events. For most people, the three main layers are the website, app, and Elvanto. Here’s how they relate.
Our website is our digital front door and is aimed at new people and the community. Once you’re established in the church you won’t have much reason to visit unless a link takes you there. There are a couple of exceptions to this: our newsletter is created using Sites and we post a lot of resources on the site that are relevant to both the church and community.
The Church App is our living room. Or our back door. Guests are most certainly welcome, but this is where the family hangs out digitally. Most of the information you need can be found here (It even imports posts from our Facebook page). Most of the time, most church members only need the App.
Elvanto is the old-style kitchen that’s separate from the rest of the house. Guests might be able to peak in if the door is ajar, but this is strictly for staff and family. Our church directory is here and only available to signed-in members. We manage rosters, service planning, attendance, and the like. Apart from the directory, it’s really only volunteers and leaders who will be interested in this area.
What About Social Media?
If our website is the front door, social media is the street corner, although it’s not a high priority right now. If someone has a vision for developing our social media strategy, we’d be welcome that — preaching on the street corner would help get our message out.
While we do have a presence on Facebook and some groups use it more than others, we have found it not very useful for reaching out and there are concerns around its security and some of its practices. The Youth use Discord and we use YouTube when we need a live-streaming platform.
My hope is that most of our in-house communications can move off social media and to the Church App. Of course, the nature of modern communications is that people and groups will use whatever is most convenient and as long as they don’t compromise church safety or privacy, that’s fine.
Social media and church technology are an important part of our ministry toolkit. If you'd like to be involved, please get in touch.