Is Your Church Directory on Your Smartphone?

As the catchy theme song from the ‘80s and ‘90s sitcom Cheers puts it, "You wanna be where everybody knows your name." Or, from the reverse perspective, if people don’t know your name it implies you’re still an outsider.

While the mission of the church is infinitely greater than creating a friendly, welcoming place where "everybody knows your name," virtually every aspect of a church's mission is dependent upon personal relationships.

Yes, there are all sorts of events and activities that can be used as community building exercises, and those are good. But few things are as basic and effective as an accurate, convenient membership directory.

One of the objectives of The Bridge App is to strengthen communications and connections within the local congregation through features such as the DIRECTORY function.

Beyond the simple convenience of having the names, phone numbers and email addresses of your fellow members at your finger tips whether you are at home or on the road, the photo feature in the DIRECTORY allows long-time and new members to know the names, and put names to faces.

As one CRC pastor recently wrote to tell us, “Church members, especially staff and ministry directors LOVE The Bridge App. We are in a growth spurt (PTL) so having The Bridge App has been a real bonus for our church. As soon as we have newcomers attending regularly, we get their information and a photo and add them to The Bridge App. Immediately everyone using the app has their names, contact info, and a photo of them.”

Photos in the DIRECTORY can be added by the church administrator or uploaded by users. No more waiting for the next print directory to come out before you can update the listings and photos to reflect births, deaths, marriages, and new members. No more out-of-date photos that show what your members looked like 5 or more years ago.

Concerned about confidentiality or privacy? Only verified members of your congregation can see the DIRECTORY, and any user can choose to ‘hide’ their listing. And, the local church administrator can turn the entire DIRECTORY ‘on’ or ‘off’ with one simple click.

In the past 30 days, local church members have used The Bridge App’s DIRECTORY a total of 13,860 times, making it the #1 function on the app. If your church is not already using The Bridge App, or would like to discuss how to make greater use of the app or its DIRECTORY function, please email [email protected] or call Dorothy Vandersteen at 1-800-730-3490 ext. 4245.