Build your text message list
What you’ll do: Get the right phone numbers into EBENEZER so your devotional texts reach the people who asked for them.
Depends on your list
Go to Settings → Devotional SMS. The top of the page shows how many active subscribers you have.
Text messaging is regulated in a way email is not. Everyone on this list must have actively agreed to receive messages from your church — a form they filled in, a card they signed, a text they sent you.
Having someone’s number is not permission. Being a member is not permission. Never buy or borrow a list. Getting this wrong carries real penalties, and more to the point, it’s not how you want your church to turn up in someone’s pocket.
Adding people one at a time
- Press + Add Subscriber.
- Enter the phone number. Include the country code — for the US that’s a number like +1 (555) 123-4567.
- Add a name if you have one. It’s optional and just helps you recognise the row later.
- Press Add Subscriber.
This is the right approach for a handful of people, or for adding someone who signed up on Sunday.
Adding a whole list from a spreadsheet
For a list you already keep somewhere else, export it as a CSV and import it in one go.
The first line must name the columns, exactly like this:
phone,name
Then one person per line underneath. Without that first line the import finds no columns to read and brings in nobody.
So a working file looks like:
- phone,name
- +15551234567,Jane Smith
- +15559876543,Tom Baker
Then press Import CSV, choose the file, and EBENEZER tells you how many were added, how many already existed, and how many rows it couldn’t read.
Make a small file with a few numbers first and check they land correctly. Fixing five rows is much easier than untangling five hundred.
Syncing from Planning Center
If your church runs Planning Center, EBENEZER can pull a list straight from it. Enter your Planning Center credentials, choose the list, and press Sync Now. It matches people by phone number, so anyone in that list without a number on file is skipped.
Sync again whenever your Planning Center list changes — it won’t update on its own.
Removing someone
Press Remove on their row. They stop receiving messages immediately. Their record stays so you keep a history of who opted out and when, which is exactly what you want if anyone ever asks.
When people remove themselves
Every message you send carries instructions to reply STOP. Anyone who does is removed automatically, right away, with no action from you. That’s required by law, it’s built in, and you cannot switch it off.
Usually they replied STOP at some point — sometimes months ago, sometimes by accident. Check their row on this page. If it shows them opted out, they need to text START to come back; you can’t re-add them yourself, and that restriction is deliberate.