Test Driving Realm
While traveling this week, I had some time between flights to take our new congregational communication platform, Realm, out for a test drive. You know what? It was really useful…and actually kind of fun!
Over the years, Trinity and many other churches have come to rely on social media platforms like Facebook to help us stay connected. But we know that there are great limitations to this, and that social media is more about attracting attention than about building healthy organizations. What if there was an app that could replace it for members of a church?
That’s actually what Realm does, although the greater emphasis is on the kind of useful communication that helps to build community. You can see the congregational directory, view events, and easily communicate with groups that you’re a part of. Simply go into the app and send a message to your group, and it goes directly to their email and their own realm app (unless they change settings to see it somewhere they prefer).
This works best if everyone gets on board. First, you can’t be in the directory unless you download the app and opt in. So that’s the most important part!
But then, take it out for a test drive. Send a few fun messages to your group to see how it works – and feel free to say “just test driving the app!” Add a picture to the message, tell everyone in your group your favorite dessert, or connect with folks and invite them to an offline conversation (which is the whole point). Just be sure to make it clear that you’re test-driving!
Test-driving also helps us to know where things aren’t working, or who might need a little extra help, and how to make this work better.
Most importantly: we are a stronger church if everyone gets connected to this (safe and secure) app!
The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens