Churches
Church SMS in Malawi: one message to your congregation
When a service moves or a member passes away, the news should not depend on who was at church on Sunday. Keep your members in groups and reach the right people from one screen.
Messages for church life
Moni. Sunday service starts at 8 am this week, not 9 am, because of the visiting pastor. Zikomo.
We regret to announce the passing of Mr Banda, a church elder. Funeral on Friday at 2 pm at Ndirande. Please keep the family in prayer.
Building fund Sunday is on 8 June. Thank you for your support. Contributions go to the church treasurer.
Keep members in groups
A choir practice change should not reach the whole congregation. Keep a simple Excel sheet of members, upload it, and save groups like these so each message goes only to those it concerns.
| Group | Good for |
|---|---|
| Whole congregation | Service changes, special services, major news |
| Choir and worship team | Practice times and song lists |
| Women's and men's groups | Meetings and fellowship dates |
| Youth | Camps, trips and Sunday school notices |
| Elders and committees | Meeting calls and funeral arrangements |
The Excel guide shows how to prepare the file. For a name people recognise, request a sender ID with your church's name, up to 11 characters.
Writing in Chichewa and English
You can write in whichever language your members read most easily, or mix the two as many people do. Greetings like Moni and closings like Zikomo cost nothing extra.
Two small things do change the price. The letter ŵ is not in the normal SMS alphabet. And a word processor can turn the straight apostrophe in ng'ombe into a curly one, which is not in it either. Either one moves the whole message to Unicode, where a part holds 70 characters instead of 160. Type your message on your phone or straight into the dashboard, and test it in the SMS counter.
Be gentle with people's phones
Agree how often you will text and keep to it. Save the whole-congregation list for news that matters to everyone, and send early enough in the day for people to act on it. Let members tell the secretary if they want to be removed, and add them to your opt-out list.
Questions
Can we send messages in Chichewa?
Yes. Most Chichewa text fits the normal SMS alphabet, so it costs the same as English. Watch for the letter ŵ and for curly apostrophes in words like ng'ombe, which switch a message to Unicode and fit far fewer characters in each part.
Our members use basic phones. Will this work?
Yes. SMS works on any mobile phone, with no app and no data bundle.
Who should be allowed to send?
Keep it to one or two trusted people, such as the church secretary. You can add team members to the account, so nobody needs to share a password.
How much does it cost a church?
K20 per SMS part. A one-part message to 300 members costs K6,000. You top up when you need to, and pay only for what you send.
Keep reading
Set up your church
Create an account, upload your member list and send a notice to one group first.