Church texting rules: consent, STOP replies and 10DLC registration

A church that texts its people has three jobs to do first. It gets each person’s permission, it stops texting anyone who asks, and it registers its phone number with the phone carriers. A church that skips the third job may find that its texts never arrive, because texts from an unregistered number are blocked.

The sections below summarize a federal rule and one provider’s requirements, and they are no substitute for a lawyer’s advice.

Get each person’s consent

The federal rule on texting is 47 CFR 64.1200, written by the Federal Communications Commission. It restricts calls and texts placed to cell phones with an automatic telephone dialing system. The rule defines that as equipment with the capacity “to store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator” and to dial them. Whether the software your church uses to text a list fits that definition is a question for a lawyer, so treat every text to a list as covered. Where the rule applies, it asks for the “prior express consent” of the person being texted. A business that texts advertising needs that consent in writing, and a tax-exempt nonprofit does not.

Get it in writing anyway, in one of the ways below. A written record is the proof you will need if someone complains, and the carriers ask how you collect consent when you register.

Put the same sentence on the form and the card: “By giving your number, you agree to receive text messages from Grace Baptist Church about services, events and church news, up to eight a month. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop.” Use your own church’s name and your own number of messages.

The keyword route works the same way. A person texts JOIN, and the first reply from the church repeats what they agreed to, so the record shows what they saw.

Grace Baptist: You are on our text list for services, events and church news, up to 8 a month. Msg and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop.

Twilio’s registration guide adds two requirements for a form on a website. The site “must have both a privacy policy and terms of service,” and the privacy policy has to say that the church will not share mobile numbers, how often it texts, and that message and data rates may apply.

A phone number in the church directory is not consent to text it. Ask each person once, and text only the ones who say yes.

Stop when someone asks

The same rule says a person may take back consent “by using any reasonable method.” It names seven words that always count when someone texts them back: stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel and unsubscribe. A church has to honor the request “within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days.” Stop at once, and treat a phone call or a word after the service the same way.

The rule allows one last text that confirms the person is off the list, sent within five minutes, with no other message in it.

Texting software handles the common words for you. Twilio, a company that sends texts for other software, stops sending to anyone who replies STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, END, QUIT, STOPALL, REVOKE, OPTOUT or CANCEL. Check that your service does the same, and that a staff member can mark a number “do not text” by hand.

Keep to daytime hours

The federal rule bars telephone solicitations “before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.” in the time zone of the person receiving them. Its definition of a solicitation leaves out messages “by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization,” and it is about selling goods and services. A reminder about Wednesday’s prayer meeting is outside that rule. Keep to daytime anyway, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and save a late text for a real emergency such as a cancelled service. Some states have their own texting laws, so ask a lawyer before your church texts about a paid event or a fundraiser.

Register the church’s number

Phone carriers require any organization that texts from software to register first. A text sent from software is called application-to-person, or A2P, and a local ten-digit number is called a ten-digit long code, or 10DLC. The registration for those numbers is called A2P 10DLC.

Twilio’s documentation says anyone who sends text or picture messages “over a 10DLC number from an application to the US must register for A2P 10DLC.” Its error page for unregistered numbers says Twilio “blocks messages to U.S. numbers when you send from a +1 10DLC number that is not associated with an approved A2P 10DLC Campaign.”

If your church uses a texting service, the service files the registration for you. Ask what it charges and how long the last one took. A church with its own Twilio account files it in two steps.

The fees come from Twilio’s fee schedule as read on October 12, 2026, and the times from its registration guide as read on October 13.

Check three things before you file.

1. Type the legal name and address exactly as they appear on the church’s IRS letter. Twilio’s guide says a new tax ID can take 30 to 90 days to reach the databases a registration is checked against, so a newly planted church may have to wait before it registers.
2. Choose the low-volume mixed campaign. Twilio describes that type as one that “covers multiple use cases,” which fits a church that sends reminders, announcements and schedule changes. It allows fewer than 2,000 message segments a day on T-Mobile’s network. A segment is one billed piece of a text, at most 160 plain characters, so a short text to 500 people uses at most 500 segments. Twilio also has a cheaper campaign for charities, and its documentation says that one “Does not include religious organizations.”
3. Put the consent form on your church’s website before you file, because the reviewer opens the page to check it.

Twilio charges $0.0083 a segment, by its price page for October 2026, the carriers add $0.0035 to $0.005 a segment, and a local number costs $1.15 a month. A text longer than 160 characters is split into segments of 153 characters, so a 300-character text is billed as two segments. One emoji, or one curly quotation mark pasted from a word processor, changes how the whole text is counted, so that a single segment holds at most 70 characters and each segment of a longer text at most 67. Twilio’s page says such characters “increase segment counts,” so a count by eye is not a safe guide. Leave emoji out of a text to the whole list, or have your texting software count the segments before you send.

A toll-free number

A toll-free number uses a different process called toll-free verification. Twilio says “Toll-free numbers must be verified before you can use them to send messages to the United States or Canada,” that verification “is free to complete,” and that it “reviews TFV requests within three business days.” A toll-free number costs $2.15 a month at Twilio. A church that needs to text before a 10DLC review finishes can verify a toll-free number first.

What to keep out of a text

A text can be read by anyone who picks up the phone. Keep health details from the prayer list, giving amounts, counseling and church discipline out of texts, and use a phone call or a visit for those.

Before the first text

For prices at seven texting services, see church texting services compared.

The registration, the consent record and the STOP handling are the parts a church gets wrong, so Free Church Texting is built around them. It runs on your church’s own Twilio account and walks you through the registration. Here is the message screen.

Free tool you can try here

Text your members for free

Type a message and see how it reads on a member’s phone. Free Church Texting, software from our partner, sends it from one shared inbox.

Who gets it Youth groupEveryoneNursery volunteersChoir

Your message Cedar Hill: Wednesday youth moves to 6:30 tonight. Pizza is on us. 0 of 160 characters

C Youth group
Cedar Hill, shared inbox

Cedar Hill: Wednesday youth moves to 6:30 tonight. Pizza is on us.

Count us in!

We will be 10 minutes late.

Open Free Church Texting

The software is free. A church opens its own Twilio account and pays Twilio’s rates directly, and nothing is added.

Church Posting partners with Free Church Texting and recommends it. They share owners.