Google Voice

Techno Deacon Recommended:
Yes, a potential asset for any ministry, particularly those that are new or cash-poor.


Price:

Free for Almost Everything; Very Reasonable International Calling Rates

Overview:

Google Voice (GV) may be one of the most useful technological tools the internet offers to churches in general church plants in particular. Although it offers a whole host of impressive features (discussed below), Google Voice is at its most basic a working internet telephone and call-forwarding program. When you sign up for Google Voice, you are asked to select a new phone number which will become your own. Phone numbers are available in most U.S. area codes (at least for now, I do not know how long the supply will last) and you can even try to find a number that holds a helpful mnemonic device within its digits (like 555-555-TECH), although there are no guarantees that you will find exactly what you want.

Once you have registered your number, you can link it to one or more pre-existing phone numbers for call redirection.

Features (and a few suggestions on how you might use them):

1. Call-forwarding: Let's say that you register the Google Voice number "555-5555" for your church. Google Voice can direct all calls coming into your Google Voice number to one or more pre-existing numbers. This means that you could publish 555-5555 as your church's phone number, and every time that someone calls the church at that number, his call would automatically ring the pastor's, associate pastor's, and secretary's cell phones.

Alternatively, for a church plant, the pastor (who may be the entire staff) could register 555-5555 as the church phone number and set it up to ring his cell phone. That way, even an infant church can have an official phone number for convenience and the sake of a public presence, and the pastor does not need to give out his personal cell number.

2. Call-Filtering: Let's assume that you, the church planting pastor, have your GV number redirecting to your personal cell phone. If every call is automatically redirected to your cell phone, then your personal cell phone has now become the official church phone and might be receiving all manner of calls any time of day. "What's the point of having the number, then?" you might ask. GV has an answer for you.

GV allows you to manage your contacts both individually and as groups. This means that you could (at a very basic level) set up four contact groups: Family, Friends, Church Members, and Unknown Callers. You can then define rules for what happens when someone from any one of the groups gives you a call. You might make sure that the Family group always rings both your cell phone and your home phone, no matter the time of day. The Friends group might ring your cell and house phone, but only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Church Members might ring only your cell phone from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Unknown Callers might ring your cell phone, but only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Another scenario: Your church might have an after-hours emergency number that redirects to a different staff member each night, so that no one staff member is always on call in the case of an emergency but someone is always available.

The Call-Filtering feature is far more powerful than these examples, but these should help get your imagination stirring about the possibilities.

3. Voicemail: Google Voice comes equipped with a powerful voicemail system, which allows you to pick up your voicemail either over the phone or online (you can even retain recorded voicemail messages online for later listening). You have the option of directing only your Google Voice calls to the GV voicemail (helpful for retaining an altogether separate phone account for your ministry) or all calls, including those dialed to your personal phone number (helpful if you want to keep everything in one place).

4. Conference Calls: You can speak with four others at one time... for free.

5. Call Recording: If you receive a call on your Google Voice number, you can record it by pressing 4. Pressing 4 will trigger an announcement alerting everyone on the line that the call is being recorded (no illegal, unknown call recording). Press 4 again and the call ceases to be recorded. The recorded conversation will appear as an MP3 in your Google Voice inbox.

6. Inexpensive International Calling: Compared to the rates of many companies, international calls are quite expensive. You can see the rates here. This means that your church can keep in touch with its missionaries with less expense. Alternatively, if your missionaries have internet access, you could speak for free using Google Voice or Skype over the internet.

7. Free Domestic Calls: Any domestic (to the USA or Canada) outgoing calls from Google Voice, either from your phone or computer, will be free, at least for 2011.