Over the past year, I’ve had the same conversation with multiple churches.
It usually starts with a simple question: “How much are you spending on physical bulletins?”
When they run the numbers, it’s often several thousand dollars a year. Not because paper is expensive on its own, but because it adds up. Design time. Printing. Reprints when something changes. Volunteers folding and some of them stuffing inserts into every seat.
One church we worked with early on decided to try going fully digital. There was no no big announcement or dramatic reveal. They just stopped printing 400 copies and replaced it with a simple QR code that said, “Follow along with today’s message.”
The first couple weeks were awkward, they mentioned. Some people loved it immediately while others were hesitant. The most common concern initially wasn’t about technology at all, but about distraction. “I don’t want to be on my phone during church” they heard. I completely understood that as a valid concern.
I suggested they change the language. They stopped calling it a digital bulletin. Intead, they called it a sermon guide. You open the link, and you’re looking at the notes. No login. No app. No account required.
Within a month, most regular attenders were using it. The unexpected part wasn’t cost savings at all, actually.. It was engagement.
Because the notes were interactive, more people actually followed along. Because giving was accessible inside the same page, digital giving increased. Not because they pushed it harder, but because it was visible the whole sermon, not to mention, simple.
They also realized they weren’t limited by paper anymore. Instead of squeezing announcements into a narrow column, they added sections for events, registrations, prayer requests, and a simple connect form. Visitor responses went up. Not dramatically overnight, but steadily. It was really exciting to see!
For the few who preferred paper, they printed a small stack and set it on a side table. Over time, fewer and fewer were taken.
Six months later, printing costs were mostly gone. Time was freed up and communication was clearer. And the “digital bulletin” had quietly become a central hub for Sunday mornings.
That’s what FaithNotes is really about. It’s not replacing paper just to replace paper. It’s creating one simple place where notes, giving, events, and next steps live together.
More importantly, it’s about engagement. It gives people a way to write their thoughts on the sermon and keep them in a place they can access anytime, instead of throwing them away or losing them because they were on paper. Their notes become searchable archives they can return to whenever they want.
If you’re thinking about making the switch, the easiest way to see if it fits your church is to try it yourself. Test it out for 30 days by signing up at https://faithnotes.cloud/signup.php and test it with a real Sunday. If you’d rather not set it up on your own, just email [email protected] and we’ll help you get your first note live.
