The Welcome Mat Has Gone Digital and Churches Are Getting on Board

A house of worship is so much more than a building: It is a community bustling with ministry, youth activities, social clubs and so much more. Weekend services, no doubt, draw the largest congregation, but most campuses play host to activities and events throughout the week.

When you account for classroom study, prayer groups, music programs, intermural sports, senior clubs, just to name a few, many houses of worship are home to thousands of events each year.  But with so many opportunities, it is almost impossible, even for frequent visitors, to comprehend the beehive of activity.

Growing and maintaining community involvement is a lot of work. To make it successful, a comprehensive communication plan is imperative—digital signage should be part of this plan.

Sure, digital signage is not the single answer to your communication strategy. Sunday announcements, websites, social media, and printed bulletins (by the way, Toshiba can help you here, too) all play a role. However, digital signage is certainly the most versatile tool available for spreading information across your campus. From large to small, digital signage can deliver messages to your visitor at any point in their journey:

• Large outdoor LED signage to greet passing motorists
• Indoor LED or multi-panel video walls in larger public spaces to welcome guests and for tone setting
• LCD panels to deliver messaging in any high traffic environment
• Interactive touch screen kiosks to explore detailed information
• Information boards placed outside of any room to display event details

Beyond the hardware, digital signage as a platform allows you to deliver beautifully designed content that can be changed at any time. It can be scheduled in advance or immediately on demand. So the video content you’ve created for “Aester Sunday” can planned weeks in advance, but correcting the typo to correctly read “Easter Sunday” can be done on the spot. No tearing down posters or reprinting.

As a platform to communicate to a mass audience, there is really no better choice. But what information should you communicate? The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Here are a few ideas to start with:

• Welcoming new members or staff to the congregation
• Ministry news
• Weekly prayer list
• Sunday service schedule
• Inspirational quotes
• Daily event schedule
• Upcoming special event promos
• Video or photo highlights from previous events
• Group or club opportunities
• Social media

There is so much opportunity to boost the visitor experience and to keep the community engaged that the potential of digital signage cannot be overlooked. At Toshiba, we are happy to serve as your trusted digital signage advisor. From hardware, to software, to content creation and data integration, we are more than happy to help you each step along the way.