How to use TextConnect

TextConnect gathers everyone connected to your church into one place, keeps a record of who has agreed to hear from you, and lets your team reach them by text and email. It also shows you what is actually working: not just how many messages went out, but how many turned into a real guest at the door.

You move between the main areas using the left-hand menu on every screen:

• Getting started — a guided five-step setup.
• Command Center — your dashboard, the home screen.
• People and groups — everyone you know, organized.
• Bringing people in — connect cards, Welcome QR, forms, and keywords.
• Inbox, broadcasts, automations, reports — reach people and see the results.

The first time you open TextConnect, the top of your dashboard shows a Getting Started checklist. Work down it in order. A progress bar fills as you go, and the card tidies itself away once you are set up. Each step has a “Do this” button that opens a short, guided walk-through.

1. 1

   Connect your numberComing

   Claim a textable phone number for your church. This is what people text, and what your messages come from. TextConnect also handles the one-time carrier registration that lets churches text at all.

2. 2

   Import your peopleLive

   Bring in the people you already have, from a spreadsheet or by hand. See People and groups.

3. 3

   Create a keywordComing

   Pick a simple word, like WELCOME, that people text to join. Put it on a slide and new people add themselves.

4. 4

   Build a welcome automationComing

   Set a friendly first message that goes out automatically whenever someone new joins, so no first-timer is met with silence.

5. 5

   Send your first broadcastComing

   Send one message to a group. This is the moment it all comes alive.

You can do the Live steps today. The Coming steps unlock together when the sending engine is switched on, and the checklist guides you through them then.

The dashboard is your home screen, designed so a glance tells you how outreach is going, and every number explains itself. Look for a small “?” next to any metric to see how it is worked out and why it matters.

What you will see

• Getting Started checklist (until setup is done).
• Four key numbers, each with an eight-week trend: People reached, Reply rate, New guests, and Opt-out rate (a health check shown with a “Healthy” label and a check, not color alone).
• “Texts sent and replies” — an eight-week chart of your rhythm. Coming reply data.
• “From message to visit” — the funnel that matters most: Reached, Opened, Replied, Visited, with visits tied back to the members who invited them. This is where outreach becomes real people in the room.
• Recent activity — the live pulse: QR scans, sign-ups, replies, opt-ins.
• Scheduled and health — what is queued, and a plain read on deliverability and opt-outs.

Before you have data, each area shows a friendly example of what will appear and how to start.

This is your church’s memory. Everyone you know lives here, with everything you know about them.

Adding people

• Import a list: open People, choose Import, and upload a spreadsheet (a CSV). Match your columns (name, phone, email) to the fields TextConnect asks for, and confirm.
• Add one person: click Add person and fill in what you have. Only a name is required; the rest can come later.

Organizing people

• Groups — collections you message together, like “Volunteers” or “First-time guests.” A person can be in many.
• Tags — small labels for anything you track (“baptized 2026,” “needs a call”).
• Stages — where someone is on their journey (New, Guest, Regular, Member). Stages power the message-to-visit report.
• Custom fields — add your own for anything the standard fields miss.
• Households — family members are kept together, so you can see and message a whole household at once.

TextConnect gives the front door of your church several ways in. Each one drops a new person straight into People, with their consent recorded.

• Digital connect cards. A guest fills one out on their phone and appears in your list at once; your team can be alerted. Share it as a link or a QR code.
• Welcome QR. Print one code where guests arrive. A first-timer scans it, sees a warm welcome, leaves their details, and it records who invited them.
• Plan a visit. Someone new can tell you ahead of time they are coming, so a familiar face is ready to greet them.
• Embeddable forms and pages. Build a form (sign-up, RSVP, prayer request) and drop it into your own website, or share it as its own page.
• Live polls. A form set to “poll” collects quick answers and shows results as they come in.
• Text-to-join keywords Coming. Put a word on the screen; people text it to join a group in seconds.
• QR generator. Make a QR for any link, keyword, form, or page.

The inbox is where conversations happen. It has three panes:

• Reply in the box at the bottom. The whole team shares one inbox, so a message is answered by someone who knows the person, with gentle handoffs.
• Templates: insert a saved message to start from, then make it personal.
• Links you paste are automatically shortened to your church’s short address and their clicks are counted.

The inbox comes to life when the sending engine is on. Until then, the people and consent it relies on are already in place.

A broadcast is a single message sent to a group.

1. 1

   Start a broadcast

   Open Broadcasts and start a new one.

2. 2

   Choose who

   Pick the group or filter, for example “First-time guests this month.”

3. 3

   Write it

   Write your message. Add a photo if you like (MMS).

4. 4

   Send or schedule

   Send now, or schedule it for later.

TextConnect only ever sends to people who have opted in, and always includes the way to stop. Email broadcasts are live today Live; text and MMS broadcasts Coming with the sending engine.

Automations do the gentle, repeatable follow-up so nobody falls through the cracks.

• Welcome workflow: a new person gets a warm first message automatically.
• Reminders and wait steps: “three days later, check in,” “the morning of an event, nudge.”
• Date triggers: birthdays, anniversaries, a set number of days after a first visit.
• Done-for-you templates: proven sequences you can turn on and edit.
• Staff alerts Live: get notified the moment a new connect card comes in.

Automations are always polite: they respect consent and quiet hours, and a person can stop at any time.

• Branded link shortener Coming: every link is shortened to your church’s own short address, and clicks are counted. You see what people open, right in Reports.
• QR generator Live: make a QR for any link, keyword, form, or page.
• Live polls Live: ask a question and watch answers come in.

Reports pull everything together: people reached, replies, new guests, opt-out health, link clicks, and the full message-to-visit picture. Reporting on the data you already have (people, guests, forms, visits) is live; the reply and deliverability figures fill in when the sending engine is on.

Texting people is a privilege that comes with rules. TextConnect is built to keep you inside them without you having to think about it.

• Opt-in: people choose to hear from you. Every connect card, keyword, and form records that choice, when, and how.
• STOP always works: anyone can reply STOP to stop and HELP for help. Honored automatically, status updates on the spot.
• Consent is always visible: you see a person’s status before messaging them.
• Carrier registration Coming: before a church can text through a real number, carriers require a one-time registration (10DLC). TextConnect walks you through it.

• Settings: your church’s name, logo, contact details, team members, and their roles. Add staff and volunteers and give each the right access.
• Campuses (multi-site) Planned: a church with more than one location runs each campus separately under one login, using the campus switcher at the bottom of the left menu. People, messages, and reports stay scoped to the campus you are in.

TextConnect is part of InviterVideo, which is why it can do three things a texting-only tool cannot.