The thought of building an app for your church probably scares most people, myself included. I have never built an app before. And if I am honest, I am not that techy of a person. In reality, I am an end-user. People build programs, and then I use the best program. It is very much the same as being a mechanic, finding the right tool for the job.

So, when I submitted my request form to Tithe.ly to begin the process of building All Saints’ first app for smartphones and tablets, both for Android and OS, I was nervous. Had I bitten off more than I could chew?

Thankfully, the process was easy. Some simple design questions and layout choices and the Tite.ly team took care of the rest. My role in the app rollout was entirely about what would serve the church the best, a functional design and what information I wanted the app to contain.

So here are a few tips to think about when preparing to build an app for your church.

1. Don’t replicate your website. The website already has a mobile version. Think about how you want people to interact and what additional information you want to share. For All Saints’ we decided on an interactive prayer wall, an “events” button, a connection to our live stream, pictures of life at All Saints, a Bible tab and a tab to the revised common lectionary.
2. Your app will also allow push notifications. Set a policy on how and when to use this feature. For example, snow event and worship is now cancelled is a good use. Birthday announcements are probably a bad use and will have people uninstalling your app.
3. Link your app to your other social media accounts, whether YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Create an eco-system where individuals can easily access all your online information.

For the first 20 years of this century, a website was one of your post important evangelistic tools. The next 20 years though will continue with people moving from computer screens to their smartphones and tablets.

Now is the time to get on Tithe.ly to launch your branded app.