Mobile Developer Offering Free Smartphone Apps for 1,000 Churches
Is your church social media savvy? Do you have a mobile mindset?
Lifeway Christian Resources and mobile app development group ROAR partnering to offering free mobile apps to 1,000 churches through the month of December.
ROAR will customize mobile apps on the platform of the church’s choice: Apple or Android—or both. The mobile apps feature customizable logos, colors and content.
“We can collect all of the content on a church’s website and from other pages—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, iTunes—and package it together in an app so people can find it all in one place on their phone,” sys Matt McKee, president of ROAR.
Developing an app usually costs approximately $750 per smartphone platform per church, McKee explains. As part of the giveaway, churches only have to pay a discounted hosting fee of $30 per month for one app or $50 for two platforms.
“Churches can upload audio sermons as podcasts, post calendar events and event details, upload photos from church events or mission trips, create separate pages for separate ministries, and allow people to donate to the church from their mobile devices,” says Matt Morris, project manager for LifeWay’s Digital Church.
Pew Research data from July stated nine in 10 smartphone owners use their phones to access the Internet or email. As the number of smartphone users continues to increase, Morris says churches can’t deny that communicating through a church app connects with people on-the-go.
“We want to resource 1,000 churches with this technology,” Morris says. “Churches will be able to communicate their messages to people through a device that’s almost always in their pocket or purse.”