Customer story · Joy Fountain Church
How Joy Fountain Church Does More Ministry With Less Work
Joy Fountain made signups, reminders, and follow-up easier to manage—giving its team more capacity to support ministry throughout the week and during busy seasons of prayer and fasting.
Active contacts
Joy Fountain Church needed a better way to stay connected with people beyond Sunday services.
Before Engage Spot, Joy Fountain was already collecting signups online and communicating by text, but each task happened in a separate tool. Staff copied names into spreadsheets, checked whether someone was already listed, moved information from one tool to another, and created a new reminder list every time they needed to follow up.
With one of the texting services Joy Fountain used, message delivery was a recurring problem: texts regularly failed to reach the people the church was trying to contact. Signing up for updates took too many steps, the team could not create every form it needed, and event signups were disconnected from reminders and follow-up.
While serving as Joy Fountain’s Digital Team Leader, Daniel Lemky began developing Engage Spot around two priorities: dependable communication and the simplest possible way for members and visitors to connect. Joy Fountain became the first church to use Engage Spot in July 2023.
What changed for the team
Doing more without adding more work
- 01Publish the signup
- 02Re-enter the response
- 03Check for duplicates
- 04Move their information
- 05Build a reminder list
- 06Send the messages
Publish the signupCreate the event, form, or updates list.
Everything stays organizedNames, signups, and how people chose to hear from the church stay together without extra work from the team.
Send the messagesSchedule confirmations, reminders, and updates.
Reliability and ease
Designed to make connecting easier for everyone
Joy Fountain needed more than a way to send group texts. The team wanted dependable communication, a simple way for church members and visitors to sign up, and less manual work for staff.
Engage Spot gave Joy Fountain one place to manage signups and communication. When the church began using it in July 2023, the team brought its existing list of 115 contacts into the platform.
By July 2026, that list has more than quadrupled to 544 active contacts—a net increase of 429. The team could manage that growth without returning to spreadsheets and separate tools, while church members commented on how easy it was to sign up and choose the updates they wanted to receive.
“When we began building Engage Spot, the first priorities were reliability and making it as easy as possible for church members and visitors to connect with the church. We wanted signing up and staying connected to feel simple for them.”
How Joy Fountain uses Engage Spot
An indispensable part of ministry at Joy Fountain
Here’s a snapshot of how Joy Fountain has used Engage Spot from July 2023 through July 2026.
- Active contacts
- 544
- Published events
- 186
- Event registrations
- 411
- Broadcasts sent
- 644
- Total messages sent
- 52,772
The total is calculated from recipient counts across all broadcasts. The same person may be counted more than once, and the figure does not confirm delivery.
Events and registrations
No more juggling spreadsheets
When someone previously registered for an event, a team member copied the response into a spreadsheet, checked whether the person was already listed, and moved their information into a separate texting tool. Confirmations, updates, and reminders meant maintaining separate tools and lists.
Now, the team can see who has registered and communicate with them without copying information between systems. Confirmations can be sent automatically, while reminders and updates can be scheduled for the people who signed up.
The team can also send invitations without repeatedly messaging people who already responded. For a women’s event, for example, Joy Fountain’s Ministry Coordinator, Suzanne Lemky, can send an invitation to the Women’s list without sending it to people who are already registered. The people who still need to register receive the reminder; those already registered do not receive another ask.
Prayer and fasting
Keeping people connected during prayer and fasting
Prayer and fasting is a recurring part of Joy Fountain’s ministry calendar. Each campaign has its own theme and dedicated list. Pastor Andaza Hezekiah, Joy Fountain’s Founding Lead Pastor, prepares the devotionals; the team prepares and schedules the communication ahead of time.
Devotionals and prayer points arrive in the morning so participants have them when they wake up. Reminders and links go out before livestreams and gatherings. When a livestream is only for those taking part, the church sends the link directly to them instead of sharing it publicly.
At the start of each prayer-and-fasting season, people choose whether to sign up. Previous participants are invited again, while everyone else avoids receiving frequent updates they did not request.
A typical campaign day
- Devotional and prayer pointsReady when participants wake up
- Morning prayerLivestream reminder and direct link
- Midday prayerLivestream reminder and direct link
- Evening gatheringIn-person and livestream reminder
“There are ways we communicate now that we simply could not before because of the time involved. During prayer and fasting, Engage Spot helps us keep people engaged between gatherings and connected to as many as three prayer meetings each day—online and in person.”
Small groups and next steps
Putting next steps clearly in view
Before each small-group meeting, Suzanne sends leaders the links and materials they need to guide their sessions. Attendees receive their meeting or content link, along with an earlier reminder that small groups are happening that day. The messages are scheduled ahead of time instead of rebuilt manually every week.
The same approach helps Joy Fountain communicate with women, men, youth, young adults, parents, married couples, volunteers, ministry teams, and other groups within the church.
People can use simple forms to sign up for baptism, orientation, small groups, volunteering, and missions pledges; submit prayer requests; update giving-receipt information; or ask a general question. Members also text the church with questions about events and prayer needs. Suzanne sees their messages in one shared inbox, receives an email when someone writes, and passes each request to the appropriate team.
Ministry coordinator perspective
Suzanne Lemky
“Everything is in one spot instead of everywhere. It’s easier to stay organized, and it saves a ton of time and manual administration. We can text people registered for an event or subscribed to a group without manually creating another group.”
If Engage Spot disappeared tomorrow“We would need about five different platforms and would have to handle so much manually. We simply wouldn’t be able to do a lot of what we now do for communication.”
Technology in its proper place
Helping people stay connected beyond Sunday
Texting makes it easy to reach many people, but broad messages can still feel impersonal. Engage Spot is designed to make communication more personal: people choose the updates they want, and they can reply directly when they have a question or need.
A prayer-and-fasting participant receives the devotional and meeting link they asked for. A women’s event reminder goes to people who may still want to register, not those who already have. When someone asks about an event, the team can see that they signed up and respond personally.
Engage Spot is not a replacement for personal ministry, relationships, or leadership. It keeps administrative work from getting in the way. People can take a next step, submit a prayer request, or ask a question, while the team can see why they reached out and respond personally.
“Engage Spot has helped us grow the number of people we can stay connected with. It’s easy to use and has enabled us to communicate consistently during prayer and fasting, around events, and throughout the week in ways we couldn’t with other platforms.”
Since moving to Engage Spot, Joy Fountain has relied on it for consistent communication in everyday ministry and during busy prayer-and-fasting seasons.
How this case study was prepared
Where the numbers come from
The figures in this story come from Joy Fountain’s original contact list from July 2023 and its Engage Spot account as of July 2026. The experiences and quotes come from conversations with Joy Fountain’s ministry leaders.
Communication that works together
What could your church do if the tools worked together?
See how Engage Spot can make signups, reminders, group communication, and personal follow-up easier for your team.