Summer is here! Families are traveling, concerts are in full swing, and people are making plans to visit friends and family they haven’t seen in a while. This also means that church attendance may be lower than normal during the prime summer months of July and August. Here we have come up with a few ideas on how to keep your parishioners engaged during the summer months, and how to make sure weekly offerings are coming in regularly. Keep reading to find out how!
Stream Mass Online
This is a convenient way to help parishioners attend Mass at their parish if they are not able to attend in person due to being out of town/state. Parishioners will feel more at home seeing their friends and neighbors attending Mass, rather than seeing a room full of strangers – not that there is anything wrong with meeting new people!
MassTimes.org
For those who are more in tune to Mass when in person, visit MassTimes.org. There you will be able to locate local parishes to where you are staying, along with Mass times that work for your schedule. They also have Confession schedules, languages, and much more. You can even view international Mass times if you are abroad!
Email Updates/Communication
Communication is the best way to keep your parishioners informed while they are away. This can be via online bulletins, Parish emails from Constant Contact, text messages and emails through Flock note, and more! This way they will know if there is a change in Mass times during the summer months, additional dates for Vacation Bible School, sign-up for Religious Education, and the list goes on. Many communication services offer different features so there is one out there that fits your parish.
Use Parish Giving
Call us to set up a link for your parish website, allow us to create some graphics for your church bulletin with QR codes, and print out other promotional materials for you and your parishioners to use. We want to make sure your parish has a successful online giving program that works for you and your parishioners.
We hope these suggestions help you and your parishioners while on vacation. Keeping your parishioners engaged with online Mass, email updates and instructions on how to give their weekly offering are key to a successful summer. Let us know if you need any additional details about our online giving program! We are more than happy to share.