The Table Project – effective, no-cost, small group site for your church.

Posted by Bryan in Low-Cost Solutions for Ministries

Are you looking for something for your sunday school classes or other groups within the church, to communicate and share ideas, prayers, etc.?

I first heard about this “app”, around 7 months ago on Twitter. Being one to jump on any new social app I’m able to, I checked it out. After 10 minutes, I had set up a “table” site for the church I was on-staff with at the time, which included 3 groups (1 private), and 10 invitations sent out to other staff members. I’m not exaggerating - and it doesn’t require a tech degree to become know your way around the interface.

Small group sites may seem daunting to set up, with passwords, permissions, etc., but the Table Project (http://www.tableproject.org) to help provide just that. Well-designed, easily navigable, and absolutely free – the non-profit app was set up to provide churches a way to have their own controlled “social network”.

The process is simple. You visit their website, click “sign-up”, input the information from your church, and that’s it. The link to reach “your” small group site would be set up at the time of signup, so don’t make it too long (ex. site: ”yourchurch.tableproject.org”).

Once you’re registered and within your site itself, you can either start creating the groups (Men’s Sunday school, Children’s Music, etc.) right away, send mass email invites to join, or just look around. The permissions allow for segmenting users into “roles”, including “staff”, “allow to join teen groups”, or whatever custom roles you set up. It has a very safe, structured, and easy-to-follow way to manage the users.

You site allows a variety of communication tools, including pulling in Facebook/ Twitter/podcast feeds, setting up prayer and service-need listings, mass and private messaging between each small group member, and more.

It’s a perfect way to foster strong communication between your church members, at no cost. Because of the no-cost,consider donating and/or getting the word out about it, if it improved communication and true fellowship within your church.