Introducing a new all-in-one online platform for churches
MEDIA BYTES
By Rev. Marty Levesque
Recently the Diocese of Huron has entered into a partnership with Tithe.ly
Tithe.ly is your all in one online platform for churches. Through Tithe.ly the diocese and its parishes will have access to an online giving platform, messaging service, apps for individual parishes, professionally designed websites for parish, Church management software (including accounting) and event coordination.
Tithe.ly is a powerful evangelism tool for the Diocese of Huron and individual parishes. The Diocese of Huron itself, Proud Anglicans Huron, All Saints Waterloo, The Parish of the Blue Mountains, St. James' Stratford, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Mark's London and St. Thomas St Thomas are all first adopters of this new system.
Signing up to the system does not mean you have to have everything. Parishes will be able to pick and choose buffet style the pieces of the platform they wish, such as professionally designed websites for $9 (US)a month or they could just opt for the all-access option.
Over the coming number of issues of the Huron Church News, I will be highlighting one part of the system.
The first place I want to begin with is websites. Tithe.ly has several professionally designed themes. Choose the theme that works for your parish. It is as simple as dropping in your images and updating the content.
In 24 hours, I was able to port images, select a few new ones, port content and customize my menus, fonts, buttons etc.
All this sounds a little scary, but please rest assured if you can fill out a Facebook profile you can build a Tithe.ly site for your church.
Some of the features I find outstanding are the integration of my live stream from Facebook right onto my site, the plan your visit feature, so parishioners can reserve seats during this time of pandemic and a customized footer that will be available for the Diocese of Huron only, that will help to create and foster a diocesan culture and brand.
Stay tuned as over the coming month I learn to build my first app so that I can push content right to peoples’ phones, stay connected, and offer more opportunities for engagement with parishioners and seekers.
Rev. Marty Levesque is the diocesan social media officer and rector of All Saints’ in Waterloo.