Client Spotlight: LifeGate Denver

It was only a year ago that Pastor Nirup Alphonse and his family moved from Indiana to plant a church in the busy, urban center of Denver. With support from back home, he and his wife, Hannah, settled into one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. with the hope of advancing the kingdom of God, and helping people start new lives in Jesus. At LifeGate Denver, their deepest desire is to “make Jesus famous and to make heaven crowded.”

Subsplash (aka The Church App) has been working with LifeGate Denver almost as long as the church has been in existence, and it has been a joy to partner with them to see the Gospel move forward, and the good news of Jesus spread throughout the city of Denver.

LifeGate Denver utilizes Subsplash mobile apps and it has made a huge impact on their ministry. Nirup and his team have definitely maximized the use of their app to reinforce their church’s vision. Though the church is still growing and averaging about 250 people in weekly attendance, their app has been downloaded nearly 600 times and has received close to 15,500 impressions.

Here’s what Nirup had to say about how their app has helped them move the message of the Gospel forward:

TCA: What goals are you aiming to accomplish with your app?

NA: We really want people to know what’s going on at our church, so we make full use of the Events feature and social integration so that people can stay connected to the life of our church. We just started using the app as a “program” of sorts so that as soon as people show up on Sundays they can open their app and know what that week’s service is going to look like.

TCA: How has your app added value to LifeGate Denver?

NA: The app is a great way for people to learn what we are about. We even market our app separately. It’s one of the first things I tell people about when I first meet them. When I tell them about our church, I tell them about the app right away. So many people are taken back by the quality of the app. In a city like Denver, where it is difficult to see the Gospel take root, it is so helpful to have a high-quality app to show to people who really value creativity and commerce.

TCA: What results have you seen through the app?

NA: Hundreds of people have downloaded our app. I get emails all of the time from people all over the world who have downloaded the LifeGate Denver app. It’s a really attractive aspect of our ministry.

TCA: Would you like to share any other comments about your app or the Subsplash Platform, and how you’re using it to engage your audience?

NA: I love the simple design of the Subsplash Dashboard. The push notifications are so helpful. I’ve always really appreciated the quality of customer service at Subsplash. Everyone always goes above and beyond to answer my questions and the support team are some of the most patient people in the world to talk with. They walk with you step by step.

I really appreciate that the Subsplash Dashboard allows you to create an app that is unique and customizable. The Subsplash Platform allows churches to showcase their personality. In the future, we hope to focus on getting more messages out on push notifications and take advantage of music, blogs, and other features as our church grows.
 

We love partnering with churches like LifeGate Denver and seeing how different ministries’ apps bless people all over the world. Learn more about The Church App and find out how a customized app can benefit your organization. We’d love to hear from you!

Stories from the Church: Web Player

The Subsplash Web Player is the perfect compliment to your app to reach your audience in new ways! Whether your content is consumed on a mobile device or a desktop, we’ve got you covered. The content uploaded to your app is encoded and maximized for playback across every medium. This means there is no dual entry–upload in one place and your media is instantly delivered to your app, web player, and podcast feed. We’ve seen great adoption rates of the Web Player so far, but want to encourage everyone to check it out and see how it fits the need of your organization. Simply check out the ‘Web Player’ settings page in the Subsplash Dashboard to turn on this channel–it’s as easy as that, and it comes fully loaded with your content.

I had the opportunity to chat with a few of our lovely clients to hear how they’re liking the Web Player. Here are their stories:

ALL SAINTS CHURCH, SEATTLE WA

All Saints is a small church of 100 people in the heart of Seattle. By the grace of God, their app has had over 3,000 downloads! They cut their time uploading media to different sources in half by adding the Web Player as their media page on their website. Not only does the Web Player satisfy the functional requirements for them, but they are thrilled with the design of the page and how seamlessly it works with their current website. They love that it is 'easy to share and easy to update!'

ELEVATE LIFE CHURCH,  ORANGE PARK FL

Elevate Life Church in Florida implemented the Web Player onto their website immediately after release. Elevate Life fully utilizes the Web Player, Apps, and Podcasting. They promote the App and Web Player to their congregation often, and consider it a key part of their communication strategy. Because they only have to upload their media in one place now, they have seen significant time savings from what used to be hours updating across multiple services. They ‘love the streamlining capabilities’ and even based the look and feel of their website redesign on the Web Player. Elevate Life just launched their second campus and is a congregation of roughly 1,900 with over 4,500 app downloads!

LIFEGATE CHURCH, ATLANTA GA

Lifegate Church in Atlanta is a 1,000 member church. They use their App and Web Player as the resource for their congregation. By streamlining their processes, they’ve noticed that the Web Player saves several days worth of work per week. The adoption by their congregation of a centralized location for video, audio, and podcasting has ‘been awesome’. All ages have responded well to the app and Web Player from teens to members in their eighties. “The amount of people listening is over and above what we could have ever thought”.

Want to hear more about how this tool can be customized to fit your needs? We'd love to chat with you! 

Client Spotlight: CRISTA Ministries

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Watch the official CRISTA Ministries app video

"CRISTA is a family of ministries loving God by serving people worldwide in the areas of education, international relief & development, senior living, and media. Our seven Christian ministries serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender."

We love when our clients innovate and find new ways to reach their audience and share their apps. CRISTA Ministries did just that in this nice little video sharing the features and value of their app.

CRISTA Ministries is a multifaceted organization that encompasses everything from a K-12 school to World Concern, a ministry focused on global relief efforts.  I was able to speak with Ben Wilson from CRISTA on their app experience. "As a unique organization comprised of 7 different ministries, we love the ability for this app to provide an outlet to all parts of CRISTA on the first screen that pops up. Live streaming events, from high school football games to devotions to CEO addresses to our staff, has made this app functional for the staff we have throughout the country. All in all, the creation of the app and our relationship with Subsplash have been seamless. We’re proud to have you as a partner and thrilled at how our app will be able to evolve over time."

Client Spotlight: Grace Christian School

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How do you keep busy parents up to date on everything that’s happening at their children’s schools? For Grace Christian School, a private K-12 school in Alaska, the answer was simple: with an app!

“The app is simply a great connection tool,” explains Shannon Dow, the school’s Publications Coordinator. The Grace Christian School app includes school announcements, calendars, lunch schedules, blog entries, forms and other tools for parents.

In addition to schools, Subsplash powers apps for radio stations, businesses and a broad variety of organizations. “Our platform is incredibly versatile and can accommodate a wide range of needs,” says Chris Sharpe, Director of Marketing at Subsplash.

Dow and her team first became acquainted with Subsplash when a local church created an app with Subsplash. “We knew we wanted an app as a tool for our families.  We wanted to be up-to-date and put all the information they needed right in the palm of their hands in a very accessible way,” says Dow.

In addition to providing parents with all the information they need in one consolidated place, Dow notes that the app also provides a connection point for parents who don’t use social media. “Not everybody is into Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  So when they don’t have an account for one of those social media sites, they usually don’t get to see the content we are sharing there,” Dow explains. “The app bridges this gap for us.”

With close to 1,000 downloads, Dow and her team are thrilled with the app. “We saw the download numbers grow quickly.  It was exciting to see our vision play out and to know that we were giving our families the connection point they had been looking for.”

Dow plans to continue to expand the app’s offerings. This school year, she plans to add weekly chapel sermons so that parents can listen to the messages and discuss them with their kids. “It’s all about connecting,” says Dow.  ”Connecting our parents to the information they need, as well as giving them an opportunity to connect more deeply with their kids about what is going on during their day, and ultimately it makes them feel more connected to the school,” she explains.

If you’re interested in creating an app for your school or organization, contact us!

Download the Grace Christian School app here.

Stories from The Church: The Village Church

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"Thank you to all the Subsplash staff who worked to get our mobile app live this week. We’ve received rave reviews already about it because it provides one more medium to extend our messages about the gospel out to the world. Your team worked tirelessly and patiently with us to get this accomplished. I cannot thank you enough for all you guys have done. We love you guys and pray the Lord’s rich blessings on you and your team members. May the gospel be shared over and over through the work you guys do and may our great King’s name be glorified.”

-Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor of The Village Church

The Village Church, lead by Pastor Matt Chandler, is a church of 10,000 people across four campuses in the Dallas, Texas area. "The Village Church exists to bring glory to God by making disciples through gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, gospel-centered service and gospel-centered multiplication. The gospel is the story of God reconciling and redeeming a broken creation and fallen creatures to Himself through the life, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus Christ. Our hope and desire is that the gospel would stand at the center of all that we do. It is what directs and defines us. It is our identity." Since launching in May of 2012 The Village Church App has had almost 150,000 downloads, 15x more than their congregation.

I was able to catch up with Scott Ballard, Web Manager at The Village Church, to talk about the impact that The Church App has been having on their church.

Q: What was the heart behind creating your app?

A:“The purpose of creating the app for us was another way to get the Gospel out to an audience we may or may not have been reaching in the first place. We really appreciate the ease of getting the Gospel in the hands and hearts of people through The Church App. We’ve really enjoyed the experience so far and it is serving us really well.” said Ballard.

Q: Have there been any surprising benefits of the app?

A:“We have been especially pleased with the amount of traffic/impressions coming through the app. Social traffic has been huge and much greater than anticipated. Not only that, but the global impact has been really tangible through the app.”

Q: Do you have anything you'd like to share about your experience with The Church App?

A:“Your level of service has been exceptional. TCA is fantastic and your heart to get the gospel out really struck me. We like to partner with people that love the Lord and the Gospel. There is nothing remotely negative to list. The Church App has been a welcomed addition to our family, and has really met our need and served the body well.”

 Download The Village Church App here.