How is your church’s prayer life?

That’s maybe not something you’re asked very often. However, I know you and your staff or leadership team talk about it. Prayer is a pillar of our faith, and yet, so many church leaders I’ve worked with have shared struggles with making prayer a part of their culture.

If you want to create connection with your members and guests while fostering a culture of prayer at your church, have you considered texting to ask for prayer requests?

I know sometimes technology can feel cold or automated. But one of the greatest impacts we’ve seen is how it’s used to collect prayer requests and really engage with people who are hurting. Texting your congregation and asking for prayer requests can feel like a new, maybe even risky or detached, approach to shepherding their needs. However, the data points to this as one of the most preferred methods of communication for people.

The days of people lingering after Sunday services and bearing their souls to each other are just not as common anymore. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It doesn’t mean people don’t want to connect or don’t want or need prayer. They just need a safer way to communicate those requests to you.

And texting is it.

• 98% of people keep their phone within 6 inches of them all the time.
• 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of being received.
• And 45% of texts receive a reply.

People will see your message, and the vast majority will respond, giving you real needs to pray for and follow-up on.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can just start sending text messages out from your personal cell phone asking everyone to share their prayer requests. There needs to be some thoughtful care and strategy involved.

Here are the 3 critical components you have to have if you are going to utilize church texting for prayer requests…

• Personalization
• Two-way communication
• Follow-up

When sending out a text message to your church community, you don’t want it to feel like one huge group text. You want people to feel like this is one of their pastors, reaching out to them directly and in confidence. So if you’re using software or something like Text In Church, make sure that the text message has a code for their first name at the very least. The message should be simple; don’t overthink it.

One of our Text In Church members sent this message out to her congregation on May 4th:

“May the fourth be with you! How can I be praying for you today?”

She got over 30 responses from that one text message! Read what she had to say about this experience.

Let me share a pro tip with you about this strategy…  

Rotate between different segments of your congregation to ask this question so everyone doesn’t receive it at the same time and to tailor the message to each group.

For example, you could ask college students that question on the first Monday of the month, young families the second Monday, and the rest of the congregation on the third Monday so your team, or if it’s just you, has the time to adequately respond to people’s needs.

And this leads us beautifully to our next point.

When (not if!) people respond to these text messages, you need to have the ability to communicate back to them directly. Prayer requests, as you know, are sensitive. These oftentimes are the things that people have been wrestling with in isolation or are too ashamed to ask for help with. To have them share their prayer requests with you and not get a response back would be causing harm and breaking trust, two things I know church leadership never seeks to do.

The way you reply doesn’t have to be long and drawn out. The purpose of your original text message was to know how you can pray for them, so when they respond with a need, don’t feel the pressure right then to counsel or find resources. Use your best judgment when crises are shared, but for the most part, you can thank the person for telling you and ensure them that you will be praying for them. You could send a verse from scripture to encourage them or offer a time to meet to discuss further if that seems appropriate. But just make sure that they know someone is on the other side of that text message and cares.

Church texting for prayer requests has also been used on serve and leadership teams at churches and has helped so much with discipleship and connection among the team. Sharing prayer requests and being vulnerable, creates opportunities for deeper connections. And especially for those at your church who are serving regularly, it reminds them that they are an important part of the flock, as well. That they can seek prayer and counsel just like everyone else.

Once you’ve had the chance to respond to all of the messages you get back, and you spend time in prayer for these different requests, church texting gives you a unique opportunity to follow up.

Let’s say, for example, that one woman shared via text message that she has a lump she has to have removed in a month, and she’s fearful it could be cancer.

Another young man responded that he’s competing in the state tournament next weekend and is incredibly nervous.

You respond to these messages, and you pray fervently. And then, maybe you set a couple of reminders on your calendar. One reminder for next Friday to send a note of encouragement to this young man. Another reminder a month out to check on the woman and how her appointment went.

You can divide this up among your prayer team or with software like Text In Church, schedule the follow-up messages to go out as soon as you send your response. This shows people that you really are praying for them, you do care. Any fear of church texting being cold or ingenuine is eliminated because it has created so many opportunities for the ongoing shepherding of your people.

And I’m sure you can see how this progresses. This can lead to people seeing the power of prayer, people wanting to be involved on the prayer team or a serve team to give back, people feel more connected to your church, and even people feeling more confident opening up to others because they’ve seen the power of vulnerability. Church texting can be such a powerful part of building a culture of prayer at your church!

Alessandra Card, the director of Communications at CrossRoad Church in Jacksonville, FL (and Text In Church member!) shares her story of how using Text In Church with their prayer ministry allowed them to connect with people in meaningful ways. Watch what she had to say in this In The Trenches interview!

If you’re looking for a way to accomplish church texting for prayer requests at your church without losing all of your autonomy and free time, consider a tool like Text In Church. With Text In Church, you can quickly and easily, personalize, schedule, and automate messages. You can organize messages by groups, respond directly to messages that come in (that’s where 2-way communication comes in!), create an automated response based on an action taken by a person, and so much more!

So, don’t forget that personalization, 2-way communication, and follow-up are critical to utilizing text messaging for prayer requests. And Text In church can do all of that for you!

Transform your church’s prayer life with text messaging by using Text In Church. Start your free trial today and see just how easy it is!

Related content:

The most effective way to ask for prayer requests [YouTube video]

3 EASY ways to collect prayer requests with Text In Church [YouTube video]

How your church can use texting for prayer requests [YouTube video]

Texting Volunteers & Prayer Requests Using Text In Church [YouTube Tutorial]