Church Landlines (or not)

[Jon Twitchell]

Last night at board meeting, someone raised the idea of possibly eliminating the landline at church. I keep my office in the parsonage, since I don't have a secretary (other than our volunteer, unpaid secretary (my wife)), and since we don't want to heat the church just for one person to be in the office. I will often meet people at the church if needed, but the phone serves mostly as a gateway to the church answering machine, and a number to be published in the phone book.

Does anyone go landlineless at church? What are the pros/cons of doing so?

It seems like there must be a way to port that number to another service--either an add-on cellphone or a google voice number. But would we lose our listing in the phone book?

[Daniel Hamlin]

I've gotten rid of my landline at home and have gone with Verizon Home Connect. It's a small unit about the size of a wireless router and it allows you to use your normal phones to make calls via the Verizon network. It has unlimited local and long distance calling and is only $25/month. It has voicemail, call forwarding, caller id and call waiting (I called Verizon and had them disable call-waiting since I can't stand it). Verizon was able to port my landline number over to Home Connect. It's not necessary to have any other Verizon service. I know the Baptist church in our town is using it for their phone line. With the call forwarding you could forward your church's number to your cell phone if you wanted to.

[Jon Twitchell]

I've gotten rid of my landline at home and have gone with Verizon Home Connect. It's a small unit about the size of a wireless router and it allows you to use your normal phones to make calls via the Verizon network. It has unlimited local and long distance calling and is only $25/month. It has voicemail, call forwarding, caller id and call waiting (I called Verizon and had them disable call-waiting since I can't stand it). Verizon was able to port my landline number over to Home Connect. It's not necessary to have any other Verizon service. I know the Baptist church in our town is using it for their phone line. With the call forwarding you could forward your church's number to your cell phone if you wanted to.

That's fascinating... it's a bit cheaper than the $40/month we're currently paying... plus features that we don't have (call forwarding, voicemail, etc.) One benefit would be maintaining the ability for people to call out--especially during an emergency. I see that this unit has E911 support, as well as GPS 911 support (whatever that means). I suspect that would be better than simply hoping whoever happens to use their cell phone would remember the street address. (I bet less than 5% of our congregation could tell you the street address if they had time to think about it... let alone under the stress of an emergency.)

Is it EXACTLY $25/month? Or $25 + taxes and fees? I see that the unit is $20 if I buy a 2-year contract.

How long have you used it? Does it work well?
Do you know if the Baptist Church was able to keep their number in the phone book somehow?

[Hans Deventer]

We don't have a landline, in fact, we don't even have a mailbox.

[Jon Twitchell]

We don't have a landline, in fact, we don't even have a mailbox.

Interestingly enough, our church doesn't have a mailbox either... everything comes to the parsonage.

[Hans Deventer]

Interestingly enough, our church doesn't have a mailbox either... everything comes to the parsonage.

We have a PO box. I don't know about the USA though, but here, less and less mail is received in the regular way.

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

I can see the case for some churches to do away with their landline. If you don't keep office hours, etc. Our building is pretty busy with stuff going on many days of the week, but most everyone has a cell phone with them.

Our phone is also used by our security system, so that complicates things. Frankly, I doubt that our leaders would want to do away with the landline.

At home I have two numbers. One is my regular voip line. The second is a virtual voip number. It does two rings instead of one. At the church, we have the phone set up to forward to my two ring number if no one picks up at the church - that way I catch church related calls and can answer appropriately.

[Ryan Pugh]

We got rid of our landline several months ago and replaced it with a cell phone that we buy minutes for. It just seemed like the logical/responsible thing to do. I'm not sure how much we pay each month since it varies by minutes, but I know it's much less than what we were paying for the landline. We were also able to keep the church phone number and pay a small fee for transferring it to the cell phone.

[Roy Richardson]

Jon,

2 concerns that I would have are 1) any security system you have and 2) 911 calls. If something happens at the church, it's nice not to have to give the address. Especially since many of your parishioners probably don't know the address.

I understand the savings idea, but these are things to think about.

Do you have cable internet at church? If so, can you drop a Vonage line on there?

[Jon Twitchell]

1) Our security system does not utilize a landline.\
2) 911 is my concern as well. I know that a lot of cell phones can transmit information... and this Verizon Home Connect device seems to have a built GPS chip. But our church doesn't have a mail receptacle... so most people don't actually know the street address. On the other hand, it's a pretty small town... so that may mitigate the concern.

There is no internet at the church, or I'd look into Vonage or MagicJack or something like that.

[Jon Twitchell]

We got rid of our landline several months ago and replaced it with a cell phone that we buy minutes for. It just seemed like the logical/responsible thing to do. I'm not sure how much we pay each month since it varies by minutes, but I know it's much less than what we were paying for the landline. We were also able to keep the church phone number and pay a small fee for transferring it to the cell phone.

Ryan,

I'm assuming that you're talking about a TracPhone sort of thing... a contractless cell phone? That's an interesting idea.

Did you lose your listing in the phone book when you ported your number over to a cell phone?

[Jon Bemis]

We still have a landline at our church, but its seldom used. It's part of our internet package which is essential because it controls our heating and cooling schedule, media, etc.

[Kyle Borger]

Security system? I thought everyone was still afraid that God would strike them dead for stealing from Him. But I guess not since many in our church fail to recognize that God already owns everything including that which we refuse to give back.

We get our landline as a package deal with our internet. I don't have a home phone.

If you do not have a traditional landline you will lose your white page listing, but you can purchase a one line ad in yellowpages.

[Wilson Deaton]

We were a "portable" church (mostly a middle school cafeteria) for several years before completing our building. Throughout most of that time, we simply put out my home phone as the church's contact number. Eventually, I dropped my home phone and went exclusively with my cell phone which then became the church contact number. When we finished our building and moved in, we discussed it and decided not to bother adding a landline. Thus,for the present, my cell phone remains the church phone. (For calling out, everyone can use their own cell phones...) I suppose someday, when we start getting more and more church calls that aren't for me, we'll have to make a change of some kind...

Wilson

[Ryan Scott]

First of all - are they still using phone books in Maine?

Second, we need our landline because most people in the congregation won't pick up the phone if I call from my cell. Of course if they did pick up then they could realize it's me, but they just see a number without the right interchange (our whole town still has one interchange) and they ignore it.

[Jon Twitchell]

First of all - are they still using phone books in Maine?

Second, we need our landline because most people in the congregation won't pick up the phone if I call from my cell. Of course if they did pick up then they could realize it's me, but they just see a number without the right interchange (our whole town still has one interchange) and they ignore it.

Well... I'm actually on an anti-phonebook crusade from time to time... I loathe the fact that this big hunk of paper gets thrown out into a snowbank in the middle of my lawn, and that I have no recourse to pursue the wasteful litterbugs. But yes... in reality... people actually use the phone book.

I haven't had the caller ID problem you indicate, so I won't worry about that so much.

[Pete Vecchi]

We've actually gotten rid of everything BUT the land line at the church. In think it ends up costing about $30 per month to have a minimum amount of minutes for local calls, then like 8 cents per minute after the minimum (I think 30 minutes). We have no plan for long distance, so we pay a relatively outrageous amount for any long distance calls we make. But I think that's come into play for about 3-4 phone calls since June. Since I have an unlimited long distance plan at home, I generally make the long distance calls from home. I don't think we've ever gone over our 30-minute minimum on local calls since we made two changes to drop our voice mail service and drop our internet service.

Before we dropped those things, we kept having charges show up for minutes over our minimum (local) and couldn't figure out why, because we were actually keeping logs of outgoing calls. It ended up that when someone would call in and leave a voice mail, the internal workings of the phone system was such that each time the phone went to voice mail it was actually making a "call" to the voice mail service. So we purchased an answering machine for about $20, and it paid for itself in savings of not paying for voice mail in 3-4 months.

When we looked at the internet service, we realized that we were paying like $30 per month, and using it generally less than 10 times per month. So we simply disconnected it.

I generally work from my home, for much the same reason Jon mentioned--not having to use climate control in the building for one person being there. Most people from the church know to call my home number (and if they don't they aren't paying attention). The majority of the messages left on the church answering machine are sales calls (including cold calls from people saying "We have a great southern gospel group that is available to share with your church"--and it's almost ALWAYS southern gospel groups leaving messages), and people calling looking for financial help (our congregation starts with the letter "A", and many people have said that they called us because they were going through the phone book).

In all, I think it's good for us to keep the church land line at this time for the $30 monthly fee, because I don't want all of those sales calls and calls for assistance coming to my house (especially the ones that come in the middle of the night--even after midnight according to the answering machine at church).

I suspect, however, that each congregation's situation will be unique, and that there's no "one-size-fits-all" answer to the church telephone situation.

[Dennis M. Scott]

Simple answer: WWJD? Would He have a landline?

We don't even have a church building, and don't know where we would put a landline.

[Hans Deventer]

Simple answer: WWJD?

I'd say He did not have a phone but then again, on NazNet, each and every statement can and will be challenged. So this is just my opinion.

[Cam Pence]

I'd say He did not have a phone but then again, on NazNet, each and every statement can and will be challenged. So this is just my opinion.

C'mon Hans! Jesus didn't have a phone? You are better than this! Seriously!? ;-)

[Gina Stevenson]

C'mon Hans! Jesus didn't have a phone? You are better than this! Seriously!? ;-)

No, how could he when they didn't even have your basic tin cans to tie a string between, before we had electricity and the AG Bell type of phone!?

[Bill Morrison]

When my eyes quickly looked over the thread list, it looked as if this one was on "church land mines".
I must admit it wasn't near as interesting to read as I thought it would be (that is until I got to Hans post #19!)
I did have eye surgery last month, so please forgive me.

BILL

[Ryan Pugh]

Ryan,

I'm assuming that you're talking about a TracPhone sort of thing... a contractless cell phone? That's an interesting idea.

Did you lose your listing in the phone book when you ported your number over to a cell phone?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is a TracPhone. Definitely one without a monthly contract.

As far as I know, we have not lost our listing in the phone book. I will check tomorrow at the church building... since I don't have a phone book at home

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

Maybe for another discussion - but does anyone still use the phone book? I can't remember the last time I looked up a number that way.

When we put up our new church sign, we put the church's url on it rather than a phone number.

[Jon Twitchell]

Maybe the only people who use the phonebook are the ones looking for handouts...

[Ryan Scott]

I tried to file a littering complaint the last time we got a phone book. It did not work. I've called the company to get off the list - they literally laughed at me.

Of all the useless things we have in this world that mess with the environment this is one we can get rid of painlessly.

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

I tried to file a littering complaint the last time we got a phone book. It did not work. I've called the company to get off the list - they literally laughed at me.

Of all the useless things we have in this world that mess with the environment this is one we can get rid of painlessly.

They go from my doorstep to the recycling bin. In our Houston area we're talking about thick phone bookS.

[Gina Stevenson]

Have to admit using the paper variety recently. But could be related to having been with no web access here for nearly a month. Got to the library just 1x during that time, too, as there was some nasty wind/snow/ice for a bit before this most unusual warmish (relative ... still cold to me!) winter spell ... think the other times they have gotten used by me were PC down times, too.

Ma does use paper ones, refusing to touch any computer, tho she has typed in the past ... long ago.

Do look for the paper coupons in them, since there's no use wasting yet more ink/paper printing the same off computer, after they have already wasted so much of the same.

[Susan Unger]

Maybe for another discussion - but does anyone still use the phone book? I can't remember the last time I looked up a number that way.

When we put up our new church sign, we put the church's url on it rather than a phone number.

I used it two years ago to look up a friend's snail mail address. I noticed in the newest phone books it had no residential numbers, only business ones. So, I saved the old phonebook.

[Gina Stevenson]

Come to think of it, as Susan mentioned, we saved the last ever one to have residential listings in it, once we noticed only business listings, too.

[Rich Schmidt]

Last night at board meeting, someone raised the idea of possibly eliminating the landline at church. I keep my office in the parsonage, since I don't have a secretary (other than our volunteer, unpaid secretary (my wife)), and since we don't want to heat the church just for one person to be in the office. I will often meet people at the church if needed, but the phone serves mostly as a gateway to the church answering machine, and a number to be published in the phone book.

Does anyone go landlineless at church? What are the pros/cons of doing so?

It seems like there must be a way to port that number to another service--either an add-on cellphone or a google voice number. But would we lose our listing in the phone book?

When we started our church in 2000, we got a landline number so that we'd be in the phone book, even though we didn't have a permanent location. (I think the phone number went to my house? I don't remember.)

A few years later, we ported it to a cell phone that our part-time secretary kept with her. The next year, we vanished from the phone book... and from Google Maps. We got ourself back into Google's listings... at least partially.

A few years later, we ported it back to a landline. We're back in the main phone book, but it took a couple years for us to reappear in the secondary phone book that gets distributed here. Sometimes it seems like a needless expense, since I almost never use it, and most everyone in the church knows that if they want to reach me, they should call my cell. (I'm out of the office more than I'm in it.) But it keeps a consistent number for people to use for us. And it keeps us in the phone books... which then get transfered to various online listings, etc.

[Daniel Hamlin]

That's fascinating... it's a bit cheaper than the $40/month we're currently paying... plus features that we don't have (call forwarding, voicemail, etc.) One benefit would be maintaining the ability for people to call out--especially during an emergency. I see that this unit has E911 support, as well as GPS 911 support (whatever that means). I suspect that would be better than simply hoping whoever happens to use their cell phone would remember the street address. (I bet less than 5% of our congregation could tell you the street address if they had time to think about it... let alone under the stress of an emergency.)

Is it EXACTLY $25/month? Or $25 + taxes and fees? I see that the unit is $20 if I buy a 2-year contract.

Last month's bill was $24.44, which included all fees, taxes, etc.

How long have you used it? Does it work well?

I've been using it for about 8 months now, my in-laws (3 households) are all using it as well as my boss at work. No one has had any issues. About 99% of the time you can't tell any difference from a landline as far as quality. Once in a great while you can hear a slight delay.

Do you know if the Baptist Church was able to keep their number in the phone book somehow?

They were able to keep their number and I think they paid a small amount to get their number in the phone book (I want to say $5 but I could be wrong).

[Jon Twitchell]

Time to provide an update on this thread...

The finance committee recommended (and the board approved) a move to Verizon Home Phone Connect. The approval happened at last night's board meeting.

I went to the VZW store this morning... and within about 10 minutes walked out with the HPC box. I paid $19.99 up front for the box, and signed a 2 year contract. The bill will be $19.99/mo + tax, and the first month will include a $35 setup fee.

To port the number over, I needed the phone number and the account number from the previous provider. While I can make outgoing calls using the unit right now, it will take 4-10 business days until it will receive incoming calls on it. In addition to porting the number, Verizon initiates the cancellation of our service.

I made my first call using the unit a few moments ago, and it seemed like it works pretty well. I have it at home, so I can monitor the porting process more directly.

Once the number is ported, I'll take it to church, and hook it up. I'll disconnect the church phone line at the source/network box, so I can just plug the unit into the wall... which will reach our other phone jack in the building. We want to maintain our public phone in the coatroom... which is a simple corded handset that doesn't require AC power. At the same time, we're adding a wireless handset so we can have an additional unit downstairs in the kitchen.

If you have any questions, post them here, and I'll do my best to answer them. This seems like a pretty good intermediary step for a church that isn't sure $43/month for a "business" line is a justifiable expense.

[Jon Twitchell]

Here's a picture... in case you can't quite envision what we're talking about. The black box on the left is the HPC box. It can sit flat on the table, sit upright in the stand (as pictured), or even mount on the wall. You plug the HPC box into the wall... and plug your landline phones into the HPC box.

[Jon Twitchell]

Another update.

The church number finished porting over to the VZW network in about 4 business days. I bought the unit on Friday, and by Wednesday AM, I had an email telling me that the number port was completed. I rang the church number, and sure enough... the phone attached to the HPC box rang!

I'm still fiddling around a bit with the best call forwarding settings... (which really has nothing to do with HPC, except that we never had call forwarding as an included option before). Anyway... here's what I've got:

• I set up an additional Google Voice number for the church. I've recorded a "Church Greeting" on the GV number.
• The Church Phone is set to *71 to the GV number. *71 is a busy/no-answer forward, which lets the phone ring BEFORE it forwards to the GV number. If someone picks up at church, then they converse with the caller and hang up as usual.
• If nobody answers at the church, then the *71 kicks in... and the call is redirected to the Church Google Voice number.
• If it's between 9PM and 8AM (nighttime), then Google Voice puts them directly into voicemail. They hear the "Church Greeting," and an email is dispatched to me. I can read the transcription (maybe), or listen to the message through my email, on an internet connected computer, or through a telephone.
• If it's between 8AM and 9PM (daytime), then Google Voice forwards the call to my personal Google Voice number. It attaches the Church GV number as the Caller ID, so my personal GV number knows how to handle the call.
• My personal GV number will ring my cell phone. The Church GV number shows up as the Caller ID, and I have the name set to "CECN Inbound," so I can answer the phone accordingly.
• If I don't answer the cell, (or hit the reject call button), then the call is now dropped into my personal GV voicemail. HOWEVER... since the CECN GV number is still attached to the call, my personal GV knows to play a different greeting... they get the same greeting they would have gotten if they'd landed on the Church GV voicemail... so they don't necessarily realize they got transferred to a different number. Their message is now handled in the same way as my cell phone... I get the message and the transcription through my GV app on my phone.

A couple of notes:

• VZW HPC now allows you to set the outbound Caller ID. If I call you from the church phone, instead of seeing "Wireless Caller," you'll see "Cape Nazarene."
• While it seems convoluted... this was better than my first solution... which was to try to remember to turn call forwarding on and off every time I was at church.
• Using *71 has a downside--the phone could ring a lot before someone gets to voicemail. I have a question into VZW about whether we can adjust the number of rings. I'm afraid some people may just give up after 4 or 5 rings.
• Using GV to handle the forwarding to the cell phone allows me to do a couple of things: 1) I can turn the forwarding on or off from any internet-connected computer... without having to go to church, 2) I can (fairly) easily forward the number to the parsonage... or to someone else altogether... let's say I was going on vacation... or even just wanted someone to answer church calls for a day or two. I suppose that someone could use a GV number to setup an on-call system... simply identify which phones get rung at which times.

Anyone have any ideas on how to improve this even more?

[Jon Twitchell]

In hindsight... it might have been better to port the church # to Google Voice... and then setup a separate number for the HPC box.

But it's probably too late for that now.

[Jon Twitchell]

• If it's between 8AM and 9PM (daytime), then Google Voice forwards the call to my personal Google Voice number. It attaches the Church GV number as the Caller ID, so my personal GV number knows how to handle the call.
• My personal GV number will ring my cell phone. The Church GV number shows up as the Caller ID, and I have the name set to "CECN Inbound," so I can answer the phone accordingly.

I realize that I actually said this wrong. GV won't let you forward to another GV number.

So... I should have said:

Church # forwards to Church GV#.
Church GV# forward to my cell-phone number.
If I don't answer, then my Cell-phone number forwards to my personal GV# to handle voicemail.

Even more convoluted than I had initially stated.

[Rich Schmidt]

In hindsight... it might have been better to port the church # to Google Voice... and then setup a separate number for the HPC box.

But it's probably too late for that now.

If the church number was a landline previously, then you wouldn't have been able to port it directly to Google Voice anyway. They only take cell phone numbers... and not all of those, as we discovered. We wanted to port our home number to Google Voice, so I followed the directions I'd found online, got a pay-as-you-go cell phone, ported our number to it... and then discovered that Google Voice won't accept it. So now our home number is a cell phone that just forwards to my cell phone, and I have to pay $25 every 90 days just to keep it active. That's a lot cheaper than we were paying for our hardly-used landline, but it's still $100/year I'd rather spend on something else.