Text messaging for your parish
Reach everyone in the time it takes to write one message — and read what they send back, because a parish that texts at people rather than with them stops being read.
Two-way, not broadcast-only
Send to an individual, a group, a ministry, or the whole parish. When someone replies, the reply threads into a shared inbox where any staff member can pick it up — so a text is a conversation rather than an announcement into the void.
Carrier opt-out keywords are handled for you. STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL and the rest are recognised and honoured automatically, and START puts someone back on the list. Compliance is not something the office has to administer by hand.
Also useful for
- Weather and schedule changes, where email is too slow
- Group self-enrollment: a parishioner texts a keyword to join a ministry
- Automatic birthday and anniversary messages
- Scheduled sends, queued for a date and time
- Event reminders to everyone who RSVP'd
Email too
Email and SMS are the same feature from the office's point of view: pick recipients, write once, send. Every message sent is logged with who sent it, who received it, and its delivery status.
Texting a parish without annoying it
The fastest way to make parishioners stop reading parish texts is to send everyone everything. Because messages go to groups, ministries, or a filtered list rather than only to the whole parish, the choir gets choir messages and the finance council gets finance messages.
That is the difference between a channel people keep and one they mute. Every send is logged with the sender, the recipients, and the delivery status, so if a parishioner says they never heard about something, the office can check rather than guess.
Common questions
Can parishioners reply to our texts?
Yes. Replies arrive in a threaded inbox that any staff member with access can answer.
How are opt-outs handled?
Automatically. Standard carrier keywords such as STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE remove someone from further messages, and START re-subscribes them.
Which plans include SMS?
SMS is included from the Basic plan up. See the pricing section on the home page for current details.
How long does texting take to set up?
About one to two weeks. We give each parish its own number and register it with the phone carriers, who now block unregistered texts. There is nothing for the office to configure — email is ready from day one.
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