Does my church need an app?

Start with the problem, not the product

Churches usually arrive at "we need an app" by way of a different frustration — people are disconnected midweek, announcements are not landing, newcomers disappear after three visits. An app may or may not touch those. Write the actual problem down first in one sentence. If it is "our announcements are not read," an app mostly relocates the unread announcement.

What a free website and a group chat already do

Service times, location, what to expect on a first visit, a sermon archive, a giving link — a plain website does all of that and is what visitors search for. Group messaging handles reminders and prayer chains. Between them they cover a large share of what small churches say they want, at no cost, and people are already competent with both.

Where a dedicated space earns its place

The case is stronger when something needs to be ongoing, private, and not tangled with the rest of someone's digital life. Prayer requests people would not post in a group chat. Sermon discussion that continues through the week. A place a newcomer can read and lurk without having to announce themselves. Those are hard to do in a chat thread, which scrolls, and on a website, which does not hold a conversation.

The questions worth asking any provider

What happens to our data if we stop paying? Who can see prayer requests and personal information, and is that enforced technically or by policy? What does it cost after the first year? Can we export what our congregation has written? How do you handle minors? A provider that answers those plainly is telling you something; one that deflects is also telling you something.

An honest note about kinwove

kinwove is one of the tools in this category, and it is in free beta — so this page would be poor advice if it pretended otherwise. It is built around Bible study, questions people are nervous to ask aloud, prayer and sermon discussion, rather than around push notifications and event admin. If what your church needs is check-in, rotas and giving, other tools do that better and this page would rather say so than sell you something you will not use.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.— Acts 2:46

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together.— Hebrews 10:24–25