First The Pastor, Then the Parish Staff, Then...

Your Parish App is now functional. It is ready to help your Parish promote Prayer, Study, Giving & Evangelization. It is ready to help you build Dynamic Catholics. Read this related article to give you a fuller perspective:  Dynamic Catholics - The Key to Building Your Parish.

Reach Every Phone In Your Parish Now

It is very important at this early stage that you understand the power of  PUSH NOTIFICATION -- and that it's ready for you to use immediately. With this service that you received as part of your ParishWorld Premium App, you now possess the ability to pro-actively send your message from your App service to potentially every mobile phone in your Parish. The possibilities for effective evangelization and graceful stewardship are are truly mind-boggling.

Check out this related article for a more detailed explanation about Push Notification.

Use It And Talk it Up

The successful launch of this program always rests on the shoulders of the Pastor. Read this related article: Yes, It Starts With You, Father.

And STEP ONE is something the Pastor can do right now that will only take a few minutes -- go to your mobile phone's App Store and download the App. And start using it. Allow the App to keep you connected with our Catholic Church. Let it feed you streaming Catholic articles. Read them, enjoy them. Make it work for you. STEP TWO is also a simple idea. Promote the App and talk about it every chance you get. You can find several terrific ideas on how to promote your Parish App in this article.

A Simple Eight Step Program

With a pro-active pastor, it should take just a few short weeks to build a critical mass of App users in your Parish. Never forget your motivation for encouraging download -- if they have the App, you can reach them directly with text messages. Make it spread like brush fire across your Parish. Here's a simple Eight Step Program to get you going.

ONE  - The Pastor downloads the App. He starts using it. He starts talking about it.

TWO - Require every person working in the Parish office to download the App. They start using it. They start talking about it.

THREE - Require all ministry leaders to download the App. Have them start using it and talking it up.

FOUR - The ministry leaders must require every member in their group to also download the App. Encourage them to use the App and to spread the word about it.

FIVE - Require all teachers in Religious Education to download the App, use it and talk about it. Have them use it as a resource for their Religious Ed classes.

SIX - Teachers must require all their students to download the App, use it and spread the word about it.

SEVEN - Require all parents of the students in your Religious Education Program to download the App, use it and spread the word about it.

EIGHT - And then, this will resonate with the general population.

The First Seven are groups you directly control. If you can bring them in, you are off to building a very strong core. Then go after your entire parish body using the ideas we listed in the article we mentioned above. And watch your viral campaign take off among your general population.