he holiday season provides an excellent way to engage your church’s current attendees to get more involved and invite newcomers.

Here are 5 tips about engaging your congregation during this festive season from guest contributor, Ken Rhie, CEO of Trumpia.The holiday season is an exciting and meaningful time for your church, but attendance often suffers as your members get busy with their own holiday activities. If you are looking to boost church attendance during the holidays, SMS is one of the most effective tools available to your church. Here are five ways you can use SMS messaging to reach your congregation and increase attendance during this busy time of the year:

1. Send holiday event schedules.
If you have decided to schedule a holiday event, you can use SMS messaging to send a notification about the event to all of your church members. You can also use this technology to ask for help planning the event, decorating the church, staffing the event, donating goods or meeting any other related needs you may have. Depending on the type of event you decide to schedule, you may send these notifications to a specific list of members instead of the entire church.

2. Send reminders for important holiday events.
When you have important holiday event coming up, such as a special service or a Christmas program, you can use SMS messaging to remind all of your members before the event in order to increase attendance. You can also use texting to remind your church members of any schedule changes you may have made because of the holidays. Furthermore, if you have teams of people working on specific holiday projects, you can use texting to keep these individuals informed of the team’s activities, future service dates and other important information.

3. Send cancellations of holiday events.
During the holiday season, inclement weather may force your church to close its doors temporarily. If you need to cancel a service or another special event, you can make sure all of your members are aware of the cancellation by sending them an automated text message. You can also text message your congregation to let them know that an event has been delayed or rescheduled. Encourage all members of the church to opt into your texting campaign so they won’t miss any important notifications.

4. Ask for prayer requests during the holiday season.
The holiday season is a difficult time for some of your church members. In addition, tragedies that occur during the holidays, such as death or illness, often require prayer. If you need to call on your church members to pray over an urgent situation, you can distribute the message to everyone instantaneously using SMS messaging. You can also distribute messages related to special holiday prayer requests you want your church members to consider, such as prayer for the success of a holiday event or service.

5. Soliciting feedback about holiday services or the church in general.
One of the best ways to increase holiday attendance is to make sure the members of your congregation are happy with their experience in the church. Using SMS messaging, you can request feedback from your members quickly and easily. Use this feedback to improve any areas of weakness and strengthen relationships within your congregation.

Businesses have been using the power of technology to enhance their operations for several years, but technology isn’t restricted to organizations in the business world. Using SMS messaging, your church can boost attendance during the holiday season and build a more engaged congregation. If you choose to incorporate SMS messaging into your church’s communication plan, be sure to invest in a software program that makes mass texting easy and customizable.About The AuthorKen Rhie is the CEO of Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases. Mr. Rhie holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He has over 30 years of experience in the software, internet, and mobile communications industries.