Both, actually.

It’s all about giving people options they are comfortable with.

Some of your first-time guests will prefer using their phones. Since they know they are not going to get spam from you, they will feel comfortable texting a keyword to your PastorsLine number to get things going. 

A big advantage of digital connect texts is that once they reply, the guest’s contact information—and perhaps even comments/requests for next steps such as prayer requests or small groups they are interested in—is already in your PastorsLine database. There is no need to manually enter their data as with physical connect cards.

And you (or your scanner) don’t have problems reading their handwriting either.

Here is more about why we recommend including a digital option as part of your church communication strategy.

If you decide to offer this option, note that we recommend digital connect texts rather than digital connect cards and here’s why. 

For some tips on how to encourage people to respond digitally, read this post.

Other first-time guests will feel it is more natural for them to connect using a physical connect card.

As you can see from this PastorsLine Facebook thread, quite a number of churches are using physical connect cards with good results. Check out the comments—and connect card images—here.

PastorsLine is now integrated with CCB Process Queues.

This means you can create a CCB process queue step to add people who will fill out a physical connect card. This process queue will be synced to a group in PastorsLine, and you can have that group use the same automated message campaign that your texters use.

This article gives more information.

You or a staff member will need to manually digitize the information on the physical connect card. In other words, enter it into PastorsLine and/or your Church Management System.

There is the issue of legibility.

Some handwriting is very hard—or impossible—to read. Scanners can misread information or not read it at all.

Again, we are not suggesting that your church choose one or the other. 

An ‘AND’ communication strategy tries its best to offer comfortable, natural, human options to connect with ALL the people who reach your church.

We feel this type of strategy gives the top results overall.