Church Admin Plugin

Twilio Incoming Numbers

⭐ Premium

To receive SMS replies from your congregation, you need to tell Twilio where to send incoming messages. This is done by pointing your Twilio phone number at a webhook URL provided by Church Admin. Once set up, any reply sent to your Twilio number is captured and displayed in the SMS Replies screen in Church Admin.

Before you start

You need a Twilio account with a purchased phone number and Church Admin’s SMS settings already configured. If you haven’t done this yet, see SMS settings first.

Step 1 — Find your webhook URL

Go to Church Admin → Communications → SMS replies. The webhook URL you need to give to Twilio is shown on this screen. It looks like this:

https://YOURDOMAIN/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=church_admin_twilio_listener

Copy the full URL shown on your screen — it includes your actual domain name.

Step 2 — Configure your Twilio number

  1. Log in to your Twilio console at console.twilio.com
  2. Go to Phone Numbers → Manage → Active Numbers
  3. Click on the phone number you use with Church Admin
  4. Scroll down to the Messaging section
  5. Under A MESSAGE COMES IN, make sure the first dropdown is set to Webhook
  6. Paste the Church Admin webhook URL into the URL field
  7. Make sure the method is set to HTTP POST
  8. Click Save configuration

From this point on, any SMS sent to your Twilio number will be forwarded to Church Admin and appear in the SMS Replies screen.

Step 3 — Test the connection

Send a test SMS to your Twilio number from your own mobile phone. Go to Church Admin → Communications → SMS replies and the message should appear within a few seconds. If it doesn’t appear, double-check the webhook URL is pasted correctly in the Twilio console and that there are no extra spaces or characters.

How replies work in Church Admin

Incoming SMS replies are stored against the person record in the directory if the sender’s number can be matched to an e164 mobile number in the directory. If no match is found, the reply is still stored but appears as unmatched — you can review it and manually link it to a person if needed.

Replies are displayed in Church Admin → Communications → SMS replies, ordered by date with the most recent first. Each reply shows the sender’s number, the message content, and — if matched — the person’s name from the directory.

Important limitations

  • Replies go to Twilio, not to your personal phone — when someone replies to an SMS sent through Church Admin, the reply goes to your Twilio number, not to the mobile phone of the person who sent the original message. Recipients need to understand they are replying to a church number.
  • STOP replies are handled by Twilio automatically — if anyone replies STOP, Twilio removes them from your SMS list at the infrastructure level. Church Admin will not receive these replies and cannot override them.
  • Costs apply to incoming messages — Twilio charges for both outgoing and incoming SMS. Check current rates at twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing.

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