Leveraging Technology for Prayer and Community Building with Stephanie Murphy Ep3.7

Stephanie Murphy [00:00:00]:

One thing that's super important to our members and our staff is prayer. So we had been looking at a lot of places to find us a thing that would help us stay connected, not only on Sunday, but during the week, so that our people could pray for one another. And so we looked at technology for that. We used Facebook groups, we've used planning center, we used Text In church for quite a while, and those things were pivotal in helping us stay connected in those ways.

Nina Hampton [00:00:38]:

Hello, and welcome to the Tech In Church podcast, where we talk to everyday church communicators who use simple tech tools to go from frazzled to focused. I'm Nina Hampton, and I'm here with my co host, Jeanette Yates. We believe that you should spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and in your personal life.

Jeanette Yates [00:00:57]:

Today, we welcome Stephanie Murphy from Stonebridge Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Stephanie and her husband Dan, are empty nesters, which has allowed them to stay busy in new ways. Good busy, as Stephanie calls it. We're talking to Stephanie today about digital ministry and how Stonebridge's tech stack helps them strengthen and supplement their disciple making ministries and relationships. Hi, Stephanie. How are you? Hi, Jeanette. Hi, Nina.

Stephanie Murphy [00:01:21]:

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

Jeanette Yates [00:01:25]:

Why don't you start us off by just telling us a little bit more? I gave them a little taste. But tell us a little bit about you and your church.

Stephanie Murphy [00:01:32]:

Great. Yes. As you said, I'm stephanie and I have been working at Stonebridge Church since 2006, and Stonebridge is located in the Midwest. We are in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Stonebridge is probably a mid sized church, I would say. And like I said, I've been on the communications teams for quite a while, and so it's just been a real adventure and a lot of fun.

Jeanette Yates [00:01:58]:

Yeah, it says in the notes that you gave us since 2006, I think that might be a record. Nina on the longest staff person I've heard of in the church base. So congratulations.

Stephanie Murphy [00:02:10]:

Thank you. Thank you.

Nina Hampton [00:02:13]:

So, jumping right in, just tell us about a specific problem that your church was facing and how you're trying to solve it. Maybe not succeeding at solving it, but just kind of ways that you guys were going about it.

Stephanie Murphy [00:02:25]:

Sure.

Jeanette Yates [00:02:25]:

Yeah.

Stephanie Murphy [00:02:26]:

So our church, I would say one thing that's super important to our members and our staff is prayer. And so we had been looking at a lot of places to find us a thing that would help us stay connected, not only on Sunday, but during the week, and especially so that our people could pray for one another. And so we looked to technology for that. We're trying to find out, hey, how can we actually get that done? And so that was one thing. We used Facebook groups, we've used planning center, we used Text In church for quite a while and those things were really pivotal in helping us stay connected in those ways.

Jeanette Yates [00:03:08]:

I love that you said prayer is important because more and more working with Text In Church, we talk a lot about the guest follow up tools and resources we have. But really what we're hearing from a lot of churches, especially since the year 2020, we've heard a lot about how prayer really kept people connected and united and how they used Text In Church. So that's good to hear. But I want to hear more about you said you mentioned some technology pieces. I want to hear more about the strategy you used for solving that problem of how do we stay connected, how do we keep people safe, how do we keep those prayers private, things like that. Can you talk a little bit about how technology and what strategy used to help with yeah, sure.

Stephanie Murphy [00:03:57]:

So originally we started out by using a Facebook group. That was a place where a lot of people used and they were able to connect with us that way. And we shared a lot of different prayer requests in that Facebook group. But I think there's limitations know, I think Facebook groups as well. And so we started just what's helped me a lot is just connecting with other churches and getting out there and researching things. And I'm an early adopter so I like to kind of find the new things. And so that's where we stumbled on Text In church and planning center and those were products that we could have that were basically ours, where we could actually invest in those things and then we didn't have a limitation on what we could use or how we could use it. So we ended up moving away from the Facebook groups and started using text and church and planning center to help our people connect in a private and secure way also.

Stephanie Murphy [00:05:03]:

So that was just the strategy that we had. And so we actually sat down and hammered out kind of a philosophy on what we wanted to use and what was important to us that went along with our mission as well. So that helped us kind of choose things that we do want to use and maybe things that we don't want to use.

Nina Hampton [00:05:24]:

I think that's a really interesting piece of trying to find the right tech tool is that to have a conversation beforehand of what are we looking for. I feel like a lot of sometimes in conversations that I've had.

Jeanette Yates [00:05:39]:

People kind.

Nina Hampton [00:05:40]:

Of skip that step or don't realize that it's necessary, you know what I mean? They don't realize that. I think we talked about this a few weeks ago with Molly that you need a strategy before you implement the tech. Like a lot of people rely on the tech itself as the strategy, you know what I mean? But if you have a plan, if your team has a plan regardless of the tech or not, you know what I'm saying? It makes it just that much easier when you actually go to use this tool, you know how you want to.

Stephanie Murphy [00:06:11]:

Exactly. Yeah. And that was very important to our leadership.

Nina Hampton [00:06:14]:

Yeah, that's huge. So how did Text and Church and other tools that you guys have that you guys use as a team really impact the success of your strategy, like implementation, you know what I mean? When you went to go pull the trigger on this and those tech tools that you used because you had a strategy on how you want to use them, how did those specific tools really effectively change your guys'community?

Stephanie Murphy [00:06:38]:

So for us in 2020, we actually took that time to be able to implement some of these things while we were at home and doing a lot of that work at home. So the two tools that really helped us a lot were both planning center and Text and Church and we were able to get our people all signed up for these different products and we were already needing a way to connect. And so our elders and our pastors were also able to connect with people and find out who needed help during that time as well because not only did we have the issue of COVID here in Iowa, but on August 10 of 2020, we also had it to Rachel.

Nina Hampton [00:07:22]:

That's right.

Stephanie Murphy [00:07:23]:

And that is something we've never had before and it's an inline hurricane, if you don't know. And a lot of even our church, we were completely displaced. And so relying on technology for this issue really helped our elders and our pastors connect with each person after we got them into these platforms. And so they were able to find out, hey, who needs help right now and who can help? And so those were two things that really helped us a lot and solved that problem for us to get the help to the people that needed it.

Jeanette Yates [00:08:02]:

First of all, thank you for sharing that and that is horrible that you had to everybody in 2020 had a hard time but then to have the double whammy, that just proves that of course we say it all the time, but it's true that the church is not the building. And so I love that you were able to use Text In Church to get connected, stay connected and help communication keep at I know we at Text In Church and then I believe that communications is a ministry, not just a way of telling people about ministry. And so I love that it was borne out in the example that you another I love that your church, your communications team has what you call a tech stack. I told my direct report at Text In Church, I was like, stephanie's going to be talking about a tech stack today. We love a good tech stack here at Text In Church. And so you have mentioned that planning center. And Text In Church is something that's in your tech stack, but you have something else that is in your tech stack that you've been able to implement fairly recently because Text In Church launched something new. Do you want to tell us a little bit about Talkin'church? We had April on in our last episode talking about Talkin'church and how it can help churches.

Jeanette Yates [00:09:34]:

But now we have you an actual user of Talkin'church, and I would love for you to share how your church has utilized it to bolster and hold up that digital ministry philosophy that you created.

Stephanie Murphy [00:09:47]:

Yes, great. Yes, we did. We actually decided to jump on, like, I think I've mentioned that we're early adopters and we saw something new. So we went ahead and jumped in with Talk In Church. And our pastors are busy, our staff is busy, and we're not really tied to desks these days anymore. And so we decided, hey, let's try Talk In Church because it will give us the flexibility to do ministry on the go and to just even use the one thing that we use all the time, and that is our cell phone. And so we decided to try it and we've implemented that for about three months now. And it has just been wonderful.

Stephanie Murphy [00:10:31]:

We've just been able to not only get it started and not have to have an It background in order to do this, we've been able to implement it with our team, and our team's been just jumping right on board. And they can get their phone calls when they're out and about. They can get their voicemails at their own convenience. And it's just been really helpful. And again, one of those things that maybe you're afraid to jump in, but it's been very easy to use and very easy to set up too. So I've liked the ease of use not only for us administrators to set it up, but for the people using it as well.

Jeanette Yates [00:11:11]:

Yeah, that is so important because one of the biggest things I found when I was working for my church was that you could have any tool, you could get all the tools right, but if people weren't willing or able to use them, then it wasn't going to matter. So kind of like we talked about that strategy first, then tool the same thing as like, you also have to have a tool that people are willing and able to use. So that's definitely important. So looking back at the ways that you implemented things over the last three years, the different tools as you're building your tech stack, is there anything that you would have done differently or changed about your strategies? Were there any unexpected obstacles that you faced and then tell us how you overcame them?

Stephanie Murphy [00:11:57]:

Yeah, I feel like just trying things is okay. It's not as though we've kept everything we've tried, but just giving it a go and seeing if it works for you because it's not always easy to know what things will work for you. It's okay to not keep something and to keep something else.

Jeanette Yates [00:12:22]:

Yeah. So trial and error is another way to say that. I just was talking with somebody about this today. Is that experimental mindset. You're like, oh, Text In church, this sounds like it might help us. Let's try it out. Talk In Church. It sounds like this might help us.

Jeanette Yates [00:12:36]:

Let's try it out. Somebody at one time was like, hey, if I take this stick and I scrub it on this random leaf, it's going to write something. I can make symbols. And if it sticks, it sticks. And if it doesn't, it becomes like Sega and we never talk about it anymore. So just little things like that. I think that experimental mindset. I know that one of the people that spoke for our Engage conference, Nina, was Michael Hyatt, and he talked about how his team had the experimental mindset when trying out slack.

Jeanette Yates [00:13:11]:

So they were sending emails to each other constantly. And it was all those group emails, know, replies and all, you know, they didn't want to have to learn a new tech, but they also knew that wasn't working, so they tried something new. And so I think that like you said, Stephanie, that trial and error is so important because you can always change your mind. You can always decide not to continue with something if it's not working. But if you try it and it does work, it becomes another stack in.

Nina Hampton [00:13:38]:

Your also, I think what's really important about having that trial and error mentality is that you kind of have to make sure you keep the main thing, the main thing. And that ultimately you're trying to serve your people right, like you're trying to reach them for the cause of Christ. And so by whatever means I can do that with if this tech tool is going to help me do that better, great, let's try it. And if it doesn't work, and if it's not the thing that's best serving us, our team, our people, our community, okay, then we can pivot and we can try something else. And so I think keeping that mentality at the front of mind is what really helps kind of keep you limber in that and so kind of rolling right along in that because that's the purpose of why we use tech in the first place. Can you tell about how you know that the strategies that you were using, maybe a story of how this technology made a really meaningful impact in your church? Because we can talk about the strategy all day, talk about the Pivots that we made and okay, we tried this out and it went really well. But the ultimate reason why we're doing any of this is to reach people right and to make an impact in the community and the people's lives that we serve. So if you have a story that you would care to share or let us in on, that would be amazing.

Stephanie Murphy [00:14:56]:

Sure. Yeah. And we've also implemented our plan. Your visit. And so when I think of a story to share, I think of people that have taken advantage of that opportunity to Plan Your visit, which we've got on our website and that is also part of Text In church as well. So we've got those kind of working together, our website and Text In Church. And so we've had a number of people use the Plan Your Visit that we may not have ever seen before and we're able to connect with those people and let them know what we offer, but also give them a very warm welcome before they even get there. I think any of those Plan Your Visit options, I think people using that and coming and being welcomed by our team even as they walk in the door, I think has just been a real blessing to see and a success story.

Jeanette Yates [00:15:58]:

What I love about the Plan A Visit too is know, and it doesn't sound like this is the experience at your church, Stephanie. It sounds like everybody's really on the same page, which is great. But I know that a lot of times church communicators, they feel like nobody understands even what they do. They think they just sit on Facebook all day, know, comment and whatever. And so sometimes it's really hard for maybe the leadership or different teams to even understand what's going on in that communications role other than you print the bulletin or whatever, send out the email. But when you have somebody that shows up at your church and say, well, I went to your website and I felt welcomed and I filled out that form and then I got an email that told me how to get here and directions. A lot of times that is the AHA moment for pastors or other church leaders to be like, oh, now I see how technology is really helping us reach more people and start building those relationships. So I love that you shared that particular version because that actually happened at my church where my pastor came running up and he was like, I just met people and they said they came because we had the best website and the most easy.

Jeanette Yates [00:17:12]:

And I was like, oh, thanks, so that's really great. Okay, so I want you to pretend that you are talking directly. Well, you're not pretending, you actually are talking to them, but I want you to give some advice or encouragement to a church leader. What encouragement do you have for them? That they want to use technology to improve but they might be a little nervous. What would you say to them?

Stephanie Murphy [00:17:44]:

Yeah, I would say give it a try. The products are very easy to use. It seems like a big project and it seems like maybe a huge learning curve. But honestly, if we can do it, anybody can do it. And I feel like the tools are easy to use and connect with other people. That's one thing that has helped us. We've just kind of connected with other churches, and other churches have contacted us as well just to find out, hey, what are you guys using? And get some stories from other people that have used the products. And I know they'll be able to help you out just because we've been able to help others and others have helped us.

Nina Hampton [00:18:30]:

Yeah, that's awesome. And I think that's one value point that I feel like not a lot of people talk about is, like, talk to other churches in your area, reach out with each other. I mentioned my sister the other day on our episode with April, but I told her that actually recently it was like, you all need to talk to the church down the street to see what they're doing in your same neighborhood because it's such a value. We have more to offer each other than not. So that's awesome. So just as we kind of wrap up our time together here, this is a little bit kind of a similar question, but just a little bit more broad. What encouragement would you give to the overwhelmed church? Communicator? Doesn't know where to start. Frazzled as all get out, stressed out, doesn't feel like what they're doing makes an impact.

Nina Hampton [00:19:22]:

What encouragement would you give them?

Stephanie Murphy [00:19:24]:

Yeah, so I'm just thinking back to 2006 is when I started working in communications a long time ago and we didn't have any of these tools, and a lot of things were actually harder at that time, I feel like. And as we've progressed and technology has gotten better, it's actually easier to do ministry and to use communication tools these days. And so that'd be my encouragement and we were able to do it. And I think that these tools do make life easier and they make ministry easier, and they give you more time to do what you really love to do, and that is connect with your people.

Jeanette Yates [00:20:08]:

Well, Stephanie, thank you so much for your time today and sharing your words of wisdom. Like I said, 2006 to 2023, that's a record for me on people working in the communication space in the churches. So we value your wisdom. You've seen things come and go. You've seen things come and stay. So we appreciate you sharing your wisdom and insight and how your team works. Again, I just love that you have that digital strategy and that you all work together. That's so important.

Jeanette Yates [00:20:37]:

Strategy, then tools, then stories come after, right? So that's a wrap on today's show. We'd love to hear from you. Head to the comments of this video to share your tips or questions.

Nina Hampton [00:20:49]:

And if you want to learn how to create your own tech stack using tools like text and church so you can spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and your personal life. Make sure to subscribe to this wherever you're listening to this episode so that you won't miss out on future ones.