Texting for churches

A church texting service that reaches your members by text or by recorded call

Your congregation is connected seven days a week, not just on Sunday mornings. Church leaders send prayer requests, event reminders, volunteer schedules and service updates to the whole fellowship at once, and every reply comes back where the whole office can see it.

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Connects with Church Community Builder, FellowshipOne, Church Office Online and Icon Systems.

The Text-Em-All send screen with a church group selected, showing the message and the number of people it reaches

The short answer

What is a church texting service?

A church texting service lets church leaders send one message to their whole congregation at once, as a text or as a recorded voice call. Announcements, prayer requests, event reminders, weather cancellations. The same people get the text and the recorded call, and replies come back to one inbox your office staff shares. A recorded call can go out the day you sign up; text waits for a one-time carrier registration, and most registrations clear in one to two business days.

Use it for

Five things a church sends in a normal week

Sunday and midweek service reminders, sent the morning of the service
Prayer chain updates your members reply to privately
Volunteer schedules, and last-minute gaps filled before the weekend
Weather cancellations that land before anyone leaves home
Giving campaigns and year-end appeals, which go out by text

Why churches choose us

One message reaches the whole congregation, by text or by call

Reach everyone at once

One message goes to your entire congregation in seconds. Members, volunteers and visitors all get the same information at the same time, whether it's a Sunday reminder or an urgent weather cancellation.

Nobody on staff double-texts

Everyone on your account sees both sides of every conversation, so whoever is at a desk can follow up. A typing symbol shows when someone else is already replying, so the pastor and the office don't answer the same member twice.

Works with your tools

Text-Em-All connects with Church Community Builder, FellowshipOne, Church Office Online and Icon Systems, the church management systems your office already runs.

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Two church members looking at a phone together

Free guide

How to write a prayer request your congregation will actually read

Prayer requests work best when they're clear, personal and easy to share. The guide walks through writing one in three steps, with real examples and the ways churches collect and send them through the week.

Prayer request examples. Real examples for health, family, gratitude and difficult seasons, ready to adapt for your congregation.
How to write one in three steps. A structure any church leader or volunteer can follow, with sample language for each step.
How to share them by text. Ways to collect and send requests through the week without group chats or printed bulletins.

Read the guide

98% text message open rate

205% growth in mobile giving

95% increase in church attendance

Jobs to be done

How churches use text messaging

From a 50-person congregation to a 5,000-member church, the communication problems are the same. Here's what church leaders actually use Text-Em-All for.

Prayer requests

Send a weekly prayer update to the whole congregation. Members reply privately with their own requests, and you compile and send them without running a chain of individual messages.

Prayer requests by text

Service reminders

Send a text the morning of Sunday service, a midweek Bible study or a special service. Members get it on the device they already check, with no app to open.

Text message reminders

Volunteer coordination

Fill open slots fast. Send one text to your volunteer list when a need comes up and let members reply to confirm. No phone tree and no back-and-forth email.

Coordinating a team by text

Emergency alerts

Notify the whole congregation when something urgent comes up. Campus closures, weather cancellations, safety situations. Every member gets it at the same time.

Emergency text alerts

Event announcements

Promote choir rehearsals, outreach events, fundraisers and holiday services. Schedule messages ahead so nothing falls through during a busy season.

Announcements and alerts

Welcoming new visitors

Send a personal follow-up to first-time visitors after a service. A short message goes a long way toward making someone feel seen and bringing them back.

Who it's for

Four roles, four different reasons to send

Different roles have different communication problems. Text-Em-All works across the whole organization.

Pastors and lead ministers

Sunday service reminders, sermon series announcements, congregation-wide prayer requests, urgent pastoral updates.

Church office administrators

Event scheduling, volunteer coordination, facility updates, first-visit follow-ups.

Ministry and small group leaders

Bible study reminders, group announcements, prayer chain updates, attendance follow-ups.

Children and youth directors

Parent notifications, program reminders, permission slip deadlines, weather cancellations.

Before December

Voice goes out today, text goes out in about two days

Both start the same way: create a free account and upload your contact list, with no credit card and no sales call. What happens next depends on how you're sending, and a church that wants texting working for Advent and Christmas Eve starts in October.

By recorded voice call

Same day Record your message and send it to the whole congregation, because a voice broadcast needs no carrier registration
Same day Watch the report fill in as the calls complete, name by name

By text

1 to 2 business days Most one-time carrier registrations clear, the approval the phone companies run once for each organization that sends texts
Then Send your first text and see who got it, by name
After that Replies come back to one inbox your office staff shares

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Worth knowing before you send

Two limits worth knowing before your first send

Giving appeals go by text, and only from a 501(c)(3)

Fundraising messages are for organizations with 501(c)(3) status, which most churches have. They ride text, never a recorded call: a voice broadcast can't carry a promotional message from any organization on our platform.

Ticket sales, membership dues and program enrollment count as ordinary commerce, not fundraising, so they're open to every organization.

A church using it

Salem United Methodist replaced a hardware calling system

“Text-Em-All is a user-friendly, fast and effective way to communicate with our members. It is great to be able to save a recorded announcement and use it when we are ready. I also like that the calls are completed faster than they were with our hardware-based calling system.”

Jennifer H., Salem United Methodist Church

Questions about texting for churches

How soon can our church start texting?

A recorded voice call can go out the day you create the account. Text waits for a one-time carrier registration, the approval the phone companies run once for each organization that sends texts, and most registrations clear in one to two business days. A church that wants texting working for Advent and Christmas Eve sets the account up in October, not the week before.

What does a church texting service do?

Church texting services send one message to every phone on your list at once, instead of calling families one at a time. A church uses one for service reminders, prayer chain updates, volunteer schedules and weather cancellations. With Text-Em-All the same members can be reached by recorded voice call instead, and replies come back to one inbox your staff shares.

How does a mass texting service for churches work?

A mass texting service for churches works from a contact list you upload once. You pick a group, write the message and send, or schedule it for Sunday morning. Everyone gets it at the same time on the phone they already carry, with nothing to install, and you see a delivery result for every person by name. Texts start once your one-time carrier registration clears.

How do churches use text messaging during the week?

Text messaging for churches carries the midweek as much as the Sunday. Bible study and rehearsal reminders, prayer chain updates, volunteer gaps to fill before the weekend, permission slip deadlines for youth programs, and the weather cancellation nobody can send by bulletin. Each of those goes to one group instead of the whole congregation.

How do you choose between church text messaging services?

Church text messaging services differ most on three things: whether staff can use it without training, whether it sends voice as well as text, and whether pricing fits a congregation that sends weekly, not daily. Text-Em-All reaches the same members either way, connects to Church Community Builder, FellowshipOne and Icon Systems, and has no contract behind either pricing option.

How much does a church texting service cost?

Two options: credits from 9 cents each, which never expire, for the occasional send, or a monthly plan from $19 for a church that sends every week. No setup fee, no contract either way, and no credit card to create the account. See the plans and rates.

How do churches get consent to text their members?

Churches need prior express consent before texting members. In practice that means a member gave you their number on a visitor card, a sign-up form or a website opt-in, and agreed to hear from you. Text-Em-All is built for organizations that already have a relationship with their contacts, not for cold outreach. How contacts join your group.

Can congregation members reply to text messages?

Yes, and everyone on your account sees both sides of the conversation, so whoever is free can answer. A typing symbol appears when someone else on your team is already replying, which is what stops a member getting the same answer twice from two people. Nobody hands out a personal number, and nothing sits unread on one phone. Two-way texting.

Keep reading

More for your church

Use case

Collecting and sending prayer requests

How a church runs the chain by text: members send requests privately, the office compiles and sends the update.