The Best Church App Includes these 14 Features and Much More!

Think about this for a moment:

80 percent of Internet users own a smartphone!

That’s right, 80% of folks online have a smartphone — a device that allows them to get online and find information, read books, check email, pay bills, shop, get directions, manage finances, buy coffee, take a cab, and so much more.

One might come to the realization that its imperative for your church to connect with people on the go in ways that help them grow spiritually, enable them to stay engaged with your community, and build their faith.

But, where do you get started?

How do you know if you're getting a church app that will accomplish what you're looking to do?

What church apps providers have the features you need?

With so many church app options out there, it’s useful to have a guide that helps you know what to look for in an app. So.. we figured we'd put together a simple guide with answers just for you!

Here's how to find the best church app:

1. Automated and easy to update
2. Custom branding and content
3. Push notifications
4. Sermon, podcast, and media player
5. Interactive sermon notes and built in bible
6. Live prayer wall
7. Digital bulletins
8. Church calendar
9. In-app mobile giving
10. Integrated blog posts and articles
11. Integrated events
12. Advanced usage and engagement analytics
13. Social media integration
14. Basic information and content

Continue reading below for details on each of the items above!

For many, mobile technology has become a basic necessity that’s literally required as a part of day-to-day life. Plenty of people would be absolutely lost without their “phone”.

Church is all about people. A place where real in-person human-to-human interaction is essential.

That said, tech-savvy churches have recognized the importance of developing a mobile strategy that goes beyond their website and social media platforms. A mobile strategy that aims to bring more and more of the true engagement and spiritual development into the palm of people’s hands.

Churches like these see that leveraging smartphone tech through helps to keep congregations engaged, informed, and encouraged.

With that in mind, we thought we’d put together a quick list of top church app features churches should be looking for when evaluating any solution. We hope this information helps as you look to find the perfect app for your church.

Here are 14 of the best church app features you should look for.

1. Automated and easy to update

The best app for churches should be so easy to manage that it virtually runs itself by integrating everything it can from existing platforms.

Sermons on YouTube of Vimeo? Great, your church app should easily pull those in. Blog posts, bible studies, and devotionals, on your website? Fantastic, your app should pull those in and update automatically. Church calendar on Google calendar or another popular calendar app? Sweet, be sure the church app pulls those in, updates them in real-time, and displays them nicely.

Having a custom church app that functions like this ensures you don’t have to manage more technology and increase the administrative burden on your staff.

Additionally, be sure you have the flexibility to manage content and publish directly within the app if required. An easy to use interface that allows you to change content, update pictures, send push notifications, and more is important. You don’t want to get yourself into a situation where it’s difficult or impossible to make updates to you app content when needed.

2. Custom branding and content

Your church brand and style is extremely important! You’ve likely spent time building your brand and the way you visually and stylistically talk to your members and the community you serve. So, it’s only natural to want your custom church app to fit in with your overall brand.

Make sure you can brand your custom church mobile app, put the info you want into it, and have creative control over the final product.

3. Push notifications

The entire reason for having a church app is to increase and/or improve engagement with your members and community. That’s where push notifications come in!

Church app engagement goes up by 88% when push notifications are used. Additionally, over 65% of people will return to your app in the first 30 days after installing it when you’re effectively using push notifications.

Have an important meeting, send a push notification to remind people. Want to encourage people to listen to the latest sermon, send a push! Don’t want people to miss important news that you put in your digital bulletin, push notifications to the rescue! Push notifications allow you to remind people — even when they’re not actively using your app.

4. Sermon, podcast, and media player

Apps account for 89% of mobile media time, with the other 11% spent on websites. In addition to that staggering stat, research by Cisco shows that 64% of the world’s Internet traffic was driven by video content in 2014, and will grow to 80% by 2019.

Needless to say, having a custom church app that delivers sermons, bible studies, worship services, and more into the palm of peoples hands is a must. There’s literally nothing more important than getting God’s word in the hearts and minds of your church on a regular and consistent basis.

By doing this you give people the opportunity to engage with the life-giving, bible-based, content you create even when they’re away on travel, sick, or otherwise unable to be in church. You also open up opportunities for those looking for a church, wanting to learn more about God, or living so far away that they can’t attend physically.

5. Interactive sermon notes and built in bible

There’s good evidence that the act of writing itself helps us remember things better. This is likely because when we write something down (aka, takes notes), research suggests that as far as our brain is concerned, it’s as if we were doing that thing.

The better our notes, the more likely we are to remember.

And don’t you want your congregation to remember and apply what they’ve learned when listening to a sermon or bible study? Yep, of course you do.

Interactive sermon notes are designed for exactly this purpose. Make sure the church app you deliver to your church has interactive sermon notes that let them fill in the blank, answer question, take ad-hoc notes, save notes to their device for future reference, and enable the ability to share with a friend. Having a built in bible is icing on the cake!

6. Live prayer wall

Prayer was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry. He drew away by himself to pray, brought his disciples along with him to pray, and tough all of us to make prayer a foundational element of our walk with Jesus.

For ages we’ve all had prayer groups, posted prayers in the weekly bulletin, or used an email list to share prayer requests.

Now, with mobile technology, you can put the offline prayer list in the palm of each and every members hand. A mobile prayer wall allows people to see and pray for others, let people know others are praying for them, as well as request prayers themselves. It’s an amazing thing! Be sure you can include an interactive and live prayer wall in your app.

7. Digital bulletins

The Sunday bulletin is a staple of church communication. I’m not sure when it started, but I’d venture to say it’s been in use for fifty years or more. It’s hard to imagine a world without one. But, forms of communication evolve and it’s time to take your bulletin digital.

Here’s something to ponder: a church of 200 spends about $100 to $150 a week on full-color bulletins — that’s a $5,200 a year minimum cost! That’s a lot of capital spent on something that gets thrown away or forgotten at church when people leave.

Start delivering your bulletin through your church app. You’ll likely have to print far fewer paper bulletins and people will have the information with them every single day.

8. Church calendar

Your calendar is the heart-beat of the church. It might even be the single most used things you create and keep updated. Don’t you think it makes sense to put it in your custom church app so people can pull it up on a moments notice?

Even better, your calendar is in your custom mobile app and you use push notifications to remind people to look at things on the calendar when the time is right! It’s a beautiful thing.

9. In-app mobile giving

People buy their coffee in an app, take a cab (eg. Uber) using an app, check into their flight with an app, buy their Christmas presents in an app, listen to music in an app, etc etc etc.

I think you get the point.

Make it as easy for people to give to the church as it is to buy a coffee from Starbucks, take an Uber, or buy their groceries. But also be sure you're teaching on tithing in the Bible and using Bible verses about thanksgiving to let your church know you're thankful.

10. Integrated blog posts and articles

Pulling your blog or website content into your app for easy and quick access is a brilliant idea. The more content you produce and push through the app the better. All of that content gives people a reason to come back into the app on a regular basis.

In fact, if you have an app, a blog in the form of a daily devotional, weekly bible study, small group leaders material, or other things could be a good way to get your congregation into the app regularly.

11. Integrated events

Every church puts on events. A marriage retreat, kids camp, mission trip, big annual conference, and Financial Peace University are just a short list of things that come to mind right away.

Getting all your events into the church calendar and then putting all the info, including ability to register, in your church app just makes sense.

12. Usage and engagement analytics

You know the old saying, what gets measured, gets done.

It’s important to have insight into the things people are engaging with apps for church. App analytics allow you to see what sections people use the most, when they’re active during the week, and how long they’re on. Knowing this information will aid you in making the app better over time so that you can serve your congregation to the best of your ability.

13. Social media integration

Be sure you can integrate your Facebook page, Twitter feed, Instagram feed, etc. That way, people can engage in conversations right within your app.

Additionally, if someone is enjoying a sermon or podcast, is excited about an event, or wants to share your daily devotional, be sure it’s simple for them to share it with their friends on social media!

14. Basic information and content

Be sure you can integrate the basic info people looking for. Location info, staff info, contact info, ministries, special programs, about your church, kids ministry info, etc.

This info is especially important for people who may be looking into churches or visiting for the first time.

There you have it! 14 features your church app MUST have. Be sure to dig into these items as you research, talk to vendors, and go through the process of selecting the right partner to work with.

Here is a quick list to reference in case you want to print something out:

1. Automated and easy to update
2. Custom branding and content
3. Push notifications
4. Sermon, podcast, and media player
5. Interactive sermon notes and built in bible
6. Live prayer wall
7. Digital bulletins
8. Church calendar
9. In-app mobile giving
10. Integrated blog posts and articles
11. Integrated events
12. Advanced usage and engagement analytics
13. Social media integration
14. Basic information and content

The Tithe.ly Church App has everything you need at an affordable price!

When you get your app from Tithe.ly, you get all of these essential features — and more.

We’ll build your church app for you, with your input and direction along the way, help train you on how to use the features, and assist you with roll out material and best practices in order to ensure you drive adoption and get the engagement you’re looking for.