Are you a church leader looking to streamline your tasks, develop healthy disciplines, and improve your connection to your congregation? As an associate pastor, I am always searching for the best apps for church leaders to maximize my time and efficiency throughout the week.
In today’s digital age, there are numerous apps for church leaders designed to support these goals. Here are five essential tools I have found to help ministry leaders simplify their lives and increase productivity:
- Streaks
Streaks is a habit-tracking app designed to help you build consistent patterns of healthy behavior. You can set up to 12 recurring tasks, and the app provides timely reminders to ensure you stay on track. With its intuitive interface, Streaks makes it rewarding to accomplish personal and ministry goals such as daily prayer, exercise, and scripture reading. Visit StreaksApp.com to learn more.
- Grammarly
Gone are the days of having embarrassing typos in your emails and social posts. With Grammarly, you have a writing assistant with you across all of your devices to help you write clear, mistake-free text. I recommend this app to leaders because excellent written communication is vital for maintaining credibility and delivering distraction-free messages. Grammarly.com
- Apple Shortcuts
If you have an iPhone or Mac, you may have this handy app already downloaded and ready to use. The Shortcuts app allows you to create custom automation to perform actions across various apps with just a tap, voice command or schedule. Examples of how this can be useful for church leaders are to schedule text messages to leaders in advance, automatically play Bible audio when you wake up, or display a memory verse at various times throughout the day. This app’s potential to automate your tasks is only limited by your creativity.
- Aro
You may be surprised to find this app in the list because it encourages you to use your devices less. Serving in ministry, I know all too well how calls, messages and other notifications seem to come in nonstop. Aro helps you reduce the amount of time you spend on your phone to help you focus on what matters most. While it shares some similarities to other apps that help you reduce screen time, what makes it unique is the companion “Aro Box” physical hub that serves as a phone charging station and gives you credit for taking breaks from your device. GoAro.com
- Brain.FM
Because ministry leaders often have demanding schedules, it’s important to make the most of the time we get to spend at a desk. Brain.fm provides truly unique background music that is designed to help you focus and increase your productivity. After spending time using their music in the background during my sermon prep, creative projects and administrative tasks, I noticed a substantial increase in how much I’m able to accomplish. Also, I love how the app features a timer to help you set aside 30 minutes or an hour to focus on a task. Brain.fm
Kendall Conner is COO of Church Motion Graphics.
