Solutions for... Small Groups Leaders
It’s all about connecting people, isn’t it? We want people to get interested in a small group (or even several) and keep coming back. Smart texting can pique their interest to join and then encourage their continued participation. It's useful to remember that a healthy church is built around well-attended small groups.
Here’s how using the PastorsLine Mass Calling And Texting Service can get people engaged in small groups and have you, as a small group leader, help your pastor engage with these people.
“Overall [PastorsLine]...has given us the option for opt-in texting and easy communication for scheduled text. The ability to easily communicate with groups is wonderful. Pastorsline also integrates with our church database software which was a must, so we didn't have data silos.”
Shannon S., Small Group Pastor
“Overall [PastorsLine]...has given us the option for opt-in texting and easy communication for scheduled text. The ability to easily communicate with groups is wonderful. Pastorsline also integrates with our church database software which was a must, so we didn't have data silos.”
Shannon S., Small Group Pastor
Are you finding it a struggle to communicate with your small group(s)?
With other apps, everyone sees everything, so people get tired of all the notifications and opt out.
With PastorsLine, you communicate with everyone but it is individual/personalized. In other words, you can send your group personalized messages such as "Hi [First Name]. Just wanted to remind you about Bible Study tonight at 7 pm." and get replies without everyone seeing.
So, you can achieve a feeling of private, human communication, as if you were engaging with each person one-to-one on their cell phone.
A church with strong small groups is usually a healthy, well-attended church. It’s the connections, the relationships. Personalized texting—keeping in touch during class and during the week—strengthens these bonds.
Here’s how...
Using Autoresponders and Data Capture
Things tend to repeat themselves, so maximize your communication and, at the same time, minimize your time/effort by using Automation. You can set up automated message campaigns to:
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Capture the needed data of those signing up
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Send scheduled group messages such as during-the-week reminders, links to homework or further reading/information, even words of encouragement. Our Templates feature makes this virtually a one and done deal.
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Follow up at specific intervals to see how things are going. Intervals can be calculated in two ways: by date (on May 5) or by number of days (X days after/before a certain event).
Keeping it Relevant
People continue listening when it’s what they need and not too often.
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The PastorsLine Polls feature lets you get feedback from your small groups participants easily and often.
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Sending out a Group Text Message every so often asking for comments lets you engage via the same personalized message with everyone in your group, so it looks like a single, 1:1 message + each reply comes only to you.
Energizing your Meetings
Since the phones are there anyway, let’s use them to get people engaged in the Word.
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One option for live, in class interaction is contests. There doesn’t even have to be a prize—people just like to be named as the winner!
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You could also be daring and let your small group participants manage the content of a small group meeting. Like those “Choose your own Adventure” books, let your participants choose what happens (or gets talked about) next via a Poll.
Increasing Organization
Things like taking attendance and measuring the health of your church are important yet time-consuming tasks.
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Use Tags to segment your small group even further. For example, organize appropriate seating for people with physical issues.
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Track engagement and interests with keywords. Offering people a choice of keywords to use when they opt in (or arrive) automatically creates groups. You can then review these groups for valuable feedback.
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Follow the progress of small group campaigns with Logs and Reports.
Core Features
All these features are available and included in our free trial and all paid plans.
direct, automated data capture via phone from those interested
mobile keywords to opt in to different church campaigns
automatically create and manage groups
gather information via online forms
polls and surveys
personalized, bulk text messaging
personalized birthday wishes
contests
create and schedule a series of automated messages
2-way integrations with CCB and Planning Center (MailChimp is next)
Information to get you started
Download this free eguide
Overall, texts are the most opened, fastest read and most responded to type of communication. When you think about your audience’s needs like Jesus did, texting becomes the preferred way for Pastors to do more in less time, staying connected to their audience’s needs while creating some insulation between their own spaces and those of their audience.
Dozens of churches are already using
PastorsLine and seeing success.
The PastorsLine platform is a church-driven, bulk texting platform developed and managed by church ‘insiders’. We know churches intimately. We’ve attended them, been part of their management teams and worked with them for many years. Our goal is to serve you by helping you spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. We’ve positioned ourselves to be your in-house, IT team for solutions to your communication issues. In addition to everything our platform can do, our partners love our responsiveness to their needs and fast tech support.
I honestly never realized how many people must have been trying to text our landline all along! We never advertised our landline as a number you could text, but we have gotten multiple members of our congregation and even guests from some of our events to send us texts saying, ‘Thank you for this and that’, and it has been really great to see!
Heather Bredeman
Joy Christian, Center,
St. Cloud, MN
The land line is more familiar with our congregation. When we texted from the other number, some would inquire about who was sending the text as the number was unfamiliar, and we did not use it frequently, so by the time we sent another text, some had forgotten the number.
Myrna and Peter Rohdin
New Life Fellowship Church, Elmhurst, NY
I belong to a Church Communications group on Facebook, and you were highly recommended. We signed up with you over others because we are a multi-generational church and you have an ability to reach people on landlines.
Daniel Chambers
PastorsLine has been a fantastic tool which has enhanced communication with out church family. As with any tool, the secret is in learning how to use it effectively. I have been most excited when I see my church members telling their very own unchurched friends to text “PRAY” to our pastorsline number and have them join our prayer sessions.
Paolo Esposito
Pastors, RGF Church
By using the same phone number for texting and calling you get people to remember your phone number. When it comes the time that are ready to reach out to us they know the phone number.
Abraham Schwartz
At first, the landline feature seemed like it would overload the church secretary since everyone would have the church phone number saved in their phones. This has not happened! People are simply interacting with our events better than ever before! We love the landline feature.
Sterling Willborn
Associate Pastor, Journey Church
PastorsLine has totally changed not only my workflow, but it's taken our "personal" factor up 10x! Just with our welcome process, we have gone from a 40% READ rate to a 40% CONVERSATION rate. That's just crazy!
So thanks 🙂
Tommy Carreras
Group Director
““...the guest connection card...We had a great response -- people whose names and contact info we might not have captured otherwise. Our autoresponder directs them to our Welcome Center...where we have a gift...with their name on it."
Kristen Waddle
Church Communications
It’s honestly the best feature that we have utilized. Being able to give one phone number for voice and text simplified our process.
J.W. Dunbar
Pastor Gateway Church, Ashland, KY
When we finished our evangelistic event in Houston, 70% of those who were baptized, communicated with me through PastorsLine...it had a big influence.
Wyatt Allen
Evangelist, End Time Hope
“[PastorsLine is] a huge answer to something we’ve been looking for. I was able to send a template with a field merge by scheduling it... ”
Dr. Matthew Robinson
Pastor
The text message bible study invites are working great. We saw a huge increase from 5-6 to 10-12 and the numbers stayed consistent.
Zeke Vas
Pastor
For us [a PastorsLine text-enabled church landline] has been huge for people to be able to text the number they already knew for our church. It means they don’t have to remember two different numbers when they are looking to try and get in touch with us. Most people don’t even realize its mostly an automated process.
Tyler Boles
Connections Pastor, The Exchange
Sending and receiving texts from our landline number is the #1 feature that ensures visitors and members can engage with us on the most relevant means of communication there is right now. Having one number to advertise, simplifies all graphics, ads, announcements, etc. for us, as well as for those we're trying to reach. I use PastorsLine EVERY DAY. It's changing the way we engage with our members - it's both easier and more effective.
Tara Freeman
We hired [PastorsLine] to assist us in a new “Small Group” initiative we were launching at our church. The tools they provided us with helped us monitor and take action on hundreds of responses. Our workflow was cut in half and our ability to track, monitor and follow through with the data gathered more than doubled.
Chris Elliott
Associate Pastor, New Believers
"Baptism Worship Service Reminders - bulk texting—we were blown away by the number of people who showed up."
Cara Saliby
Dir. of Admin.
The personal and almost immediate assistance at [PastorsLine] is so great! We feel valued and important! We love that it is church-based!!! … Jason and the team at [PastorsLine] are always ready to help, make things better, and they also welcome feedback.
Richie Halversen
Pastor @ College Drive Church
Our full feature, free trial
If you sign up today, we will give you a bonus 500 credits. The invite code is SMALLGROUPS. So act now. No CC required. No obligation to purchase. We will NOT automatically bill you if you are using our FREE trial. Try it, risk-free.