Maryland Community Church in Terre Haute, IN, has developed a mobile application to engage its members and empower them to share Christ’s message of hope to others.
The mobile app, however, was created not only for those who attend MCC. “We’ve clearly communicated from our stage that if this app stays in our own pockets, then it’s a failure. It was designed to get the message out there,” says Scott Telle, associate pastor.
“Our hope is that people will use it as a tool to open up conversations about their church, and ultimately the message of Jesus Christ,” he says. “I know one man more than 70 years old who uses an iPhone daily and is downloading our app.”
With the MCC mobile app, smart phone users can:
- Listen to and watch previous sermons
- Share sermons by Twitter, Facebook or email
- Read the Bible
- Read MCC pastor blogs
- Give from the phone or iPad
- See current announcements
- See a map to the church.
Dismissing concerns that the MCC mobile app might replace real community experience, Telle explains that the app allows people to engage with the church only so much because “it is not meant to build a secondary ‘virtual audience’ away from our campus.”
“It’s just another way for us to reach outside our current congregation,” Telle says. “We will continue leveraging technology as long as the culture uses it for communication.”
