Case Study
St. Stephen Baptist Church Uses Communications Tool to Keep Believers Connected
St. Stephen Baptist Church
Location:
Denomination:
Weekly Attendance:
Staff Members:
Campuses:
Over 50
small groups for children, teens, and adults
History
Founded in 1926, St. Stephen Baptist has grown from the group of 14 worshippers it began with to nearly 3,000 weekly attendees across 3 campuses.
Challenge
With events happening nearly every day, St. Stephen Baptist Church needed a tool to communicate effectively with their congregation.
“Just about every day there's something going on. And because there is something going on just about every day, being able to send out communications through Realm about things that are going on makes life a whole lot easier.”
Solution
St. Stephen Baptist began working with ACS Technologies as an Access ACS user in the ‘80s and made the transition to Realm a few years ago when they discovered the necessity of a user-friendly communications tool.
“We’re able to send out mass communications,” says David Birch, print media services director. “Our groups have been able to communicate with each other. Realm has just been a great communication tool.”
Already established in Realm when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, St. Stephen Baptist quickly saw the benefits of the communications tools they had.
“We have been instructed in the Bible several times, not to try to do life on our own because that is the one sheer way that Satan gets a foothold on us,” David says. “So, realizing that, it has been our goal to communicate, especially during this pandemic, and reach out to everybody. It’s been crucial to make sure that we’ve remained in contact with people.”
While emails and phone calls have been essential to staying connected with their large congregation, St. Stephen Baptist has also taken advantage of the Realm Shepherd and Realm Connect mobile apps.
“For the staff, Realm Shepherd has been a godsend,” David says. “For the membership as a whole, Realm Connect has been a godsend because it allows people to know what’s coming up because we’ve been guardedly cautious about how we re-enter our physical spaces.”
Realm’s communications features haven’t been limited to staff and congregants, though. St. Stephen’s lay leadership, including their deacons, have been able to use Realm to do ministry.
“Realm is a communication tool for the deacons for a family ministry planning, and for our auxiliary administrators, it becomes a communication tool for them to experience what’s going on in the church,” David says.
St. Stephen Baptist continues to change lives, strengthen families, and transform the community in the Louisville area and keeps every believer connected to the Body of Christ through Realm.
