Last year at Orange, a children’s ministry conference, we met Brian Jones, a youth pastor that dabbles a bit in development. He shared with us how he uses our Check-Ins API to help with his ministry. We loved his ideas and implementation so much that we wanted to share two of them with you! (If you’re not a tech person, an API is an “Application Program Interface,” a tool to make one piece of software “talk to” another piece of software, especially when they’re built by different software developers.)
Live Check-in Wall
Brian’s church has a fairly common situation where families check in at a lobby, and the kids must walk from the lobby to the classroom. As a creative way to let the teachers know who is coming, Brian created a live-updating wall, which is a TV in each room that gives an overview of who just checked in, what they look like, and their full name.
This helps prepare the teacher by letting them know who is coming, and, more importantly, it allows every teacher to welcome each student by name. No more confusing Liam, Lucas, and Logan--oh my!
Prize Machine
Using Check-Ins with Jr.High or High School proves to sometimes be a bit difficult. Why would a “maturing young adult” want to use a system created for children?
Well, Brian figured out a way: prizes! This program cycles through everyone who has checked in and randomly chooses someone to win a prize.
Seeing how others use our API always gets us excited and inspires us. If you’d like to reach out to Brian, you can visit his Facebook group to connect with other youth workers to get their feedback on various projects. You can also follow his blog or visit his GitHub account.
If you have other ways you’re using the Check-Ins API, we’d love to know about it! Feel free to share below or shoot us an email.
Happy Checking In!
The Check-Ins Team,
Scott, Robert, Jake, Greg, Gabi, and Jesse