Northwood Church Uses Text Messaging For Student Ministry and Community Outreach
Teenagers are often glued to their phones and most teens are texters: 87% of teens have sent or received texts in the past 30 days 
(Source: Family Online Safety Institute).
So for Daniel Langford, Student Pastor at Northwood Church in Keller, Texas, finding a texting service to communicate with over 200 7th-12th graders was a no brainer.
TextMarks makes our job easy…everybody knows what’s going on, and if they don’t, it is so easy just to ask them to text and find out.”
– Daniel Lanford, Student Pastor
Texting Makes Sure The Message Hits
Daniel knew that email and social media were not enough. “Social media is really hit or miss. Most kids follow hundreds of celebrities and sites, and with social media you take a risk getting lost . Texting makes sure the message hits.”
For Northwood Church, it was just a matter of finding the right provider: “Before I started working here, the Student Ministry had been using another text message provider, but it wasn’t as user friendly as I’d have liked. I wanted a fresh start. I was looking for a service that could meet the needs of the church, not just our student ministry. Plus it needed to be easy to use and cost effective, without a bunch of extra fees. I wanted a simple plan with no surprises.”
Mass Text Messaging With TextMarks
After reviewing all their options, Northwood Church chose TextMarks to provide mass text messaging to the student ministry as well as other groups within their church. In addition to sending text reminders for their weekly Wednesday night service for students, Northwood uses TextMarks Scheduled Alerts feature to send a daily morning prayer prompt, passage of Scripture, and 
link to a relevant YouTube video. “The idea behind this is to gently remind our students to take just 15 minutes, before the day gets going.”
Another way Langford uses text messaging is by creating temporary keywords for events or limited time programs like summer camp. “At camp, for instance, I can ask the kids at orientation to text in to my temporary keyword at 81411 and then I can easily broadcast simple reminders like ‘ Don’t forget your swimsuit, tomorrow!’ using text. When camp is over, I can delete the keyword.”
Lasty, Langford says he uses text messaging to reach out to members when someone he knows is in need of assistance. “We had one young woman, 18 years old, who found her self on her own and in need of help. She had a job and was able to get an apartment, but all she had was her clothes. I sent out a group text to our FREEDOMCITY keyword on TextMarks asking for assistance from our church members, and within 24 hours she had her entire apartment stocked and furnished with items donated from our church and community.”
Everybody Knows What’s Going On
Northwood Church has had great success in using TextMarks text messaging to reach students and members of their local community. They now have over 300 subscribers to their student group and close to 900 subscribers church-wide. “We rarely lose subscribers, even after our students have left” said Langford.
“TextMarks makes our job easy – but also helpful and practical. Most problems in life are due to poor communication. TextMarks really allows us to take away as much conflict as possible through text communication at our church. Everybody knows whats going on. And if they don’t, it is so easy just to ask them to text and find out.”
Interested in learning how TextMarks can help your church use text messaging for student ministry? Call us at 800-696-1393, email at tmsales@textmarks.com or try it out for yourself with a free 14 day trial.
