Which code where
| Job | Code type | Static or dynamic | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giving | URL | Dynamic | Pew cards, welcome desk, screen at the offering |
| Newsletter and notices | URL | Dynamic | Noticeboard, service sheet, porch |
| Sermon audio and video | URL | Dynamic | Pew card, service sheet |
| Volunteer and event sign-up | URL | Dynamic | Coffee table, noticeboard |
| Add the service to a calendar | Event | Static | Posters for special services |
| Building Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi | Static | Hall, meeting rooms |
Giving
Fewer people carry cash, and the plate reflects that. A giving code on the pew card and the welcome desk, and on the screen during the offering, lets a visitor give from their seat. Two rules keep it safe. First, the code points at your own giving page, on your own domain or the provider your treasurer already uses. Second, the address of that page is printed beside the code, so anyone can check that what their phone shows matches.
Make the giving code dynamic. Providers change, and a Christmas appeal or a roof fund can take over the same code for a season. Put the code next to a short line about what giving supports, not just “Give”.
Newsletter and sign-ups
One dynamic code on the noticeboard and the back of the service sheet for this week’s notices. Whoever does the newsletter repoints it on Friday. The card in the porch never changes, and the person who forgot to pick up a sheet scans on the way out.
Sign-up codes work best after the service, on the coffee table, when people are relaxed and talking about the thing they might help with. A code that opens a simple form with a name and a phone number, nothing more, gets filled in. A code that opens a spreadsheet does not.
Sermon audio
A “listen again” code on the pew card that always opens the most recent recording is the gentlest introduction to QR codes for a congregation. It costs nothing, it does not ask for money or data, and it lets someone who missed a week catch up. Dynamic, so the card lasts.
For special services, an event code on the poster adds the date and time to the phone’s calendar in one tap. The payload builder makes the event payload.
Getting the pew card right
An older audience changes the numbers. Hands are less steady, eyesight is poorer and phones are older.
- Pew cards: 5 cm, not the 3 cm a café gets away with. Reading distance is 30 to 40 cm, and a bigger code locks on faster on an old phone.
- Noticeboard and porch: 10 cm.
- Screen and banner: read from the back of the nave, 10 m or more, so 25 cm at least, and leave it on the screen for a full minute. Check with the size calculator.
- Contrast: black or a deep colour on white or cream. Church lighting is warm and dim, and stained glass throws coloured light. Purple on white works; gold on cream does not.
- The printed address under every code, in a large clear typeface. It is the fallback and the reassurance.
- Laminate the pew cards. They are handled by hundreds of people a year.
Do this
A laminated 5 cm level Q code in deep purple on white at the end of each pew, 'Scan to give, or visit stmarys.example/give' beneath in 14 point type, pointing at the church's own giving page.
Not this
A 2 cm code in gold on a cream card, no address, pointing at a personal payment app account, with the screen version shown for eight seconds.
In practice
Ask two members of the congregation who do not consider themselves good with phones to try the card before the service. Watch where they hesitate. Whatever they stumble on, fix on the card, not in an announcement.
Security note
Giving codes are a target because they lead to money. Keep printed cards where a stranger cannot swap them, glance at the porch and the pews each week for stickers, and print your name and the address as part of the design so a plain replacement is obvious. Tell the congregation plainly: the church will never ask you to pay through a code that does not show our address. More in the security explainer.
Try it yourself
Enter the distance from the back pew to the screen and the calculator gives the minimum width. Then make the giving code dynamic in QR Studio so the appeal can change behind the same card.