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If you publish a church phone number — or if your number has ended up on a charity register or directory — you may find yourself receiving scam calls from people claiming to be stranded church members or visitors in need of emergency cash. This is a known pattern targeting churches and pastors specifically.
If you already have a Twilio number set up for Church Admin SMS, you can use that same number to handle incoming voice calls — forwarding genuine calls to your real mobile during certain hours and sending everything else to voicemail, without exposing your personal number to anyone.
What this gives you
- A public church phone number (your Twilio number) that you can safely publish
- Calls forwarded to your real mobile only during the hours you choose
- Voicemail for calls outside those hours — or for all calls if you prefer
- Your personal mobile number stays completely private
Before you start
You need a Twilio account with a purchased phone number already set up for Church Admin SMS. If you haven’t done that yet, see Twilio incoming numbers first. The same Twilio number handles both SMS and voice — no extra number needed.
Twilio also has a non-profit scheme that provides significant free credit for registered charities — worth checking at twilio.com/en-us/legal/social-impact before adding paid credit.
Setting up call forwarding with voicemail
- Log in to the Twilio console and go to the Voice section
- Scroll down to Quick Deploy Apps and click the link
- Scroll down to Call Forwarding with Voicemail and click on it
- A short form appears — fill in:
- Your Twilio number — the number you use with Church Admin
- Your real mobile number — where calls should be forwarded during active hours
- Days and times — when you’re happy to receive forwarded calls. Calls outside these hours go straight to voicemail.
- Click Deploy application
That’s it. From now on, calls to your Twilio number are forwarded to your mobile during the hours you set, and go to voicemail at any other time. If you want all calls to go to voicemail — for example if you’d rather respond on your own terms and never take live calls — simply set the active hours to a time window when you’ll never actually be available.
A note on protecting your number
In the UK, registered charities are required to publish contact details with the Charity Commission — and some charity listing websites republish those details publicly. If your personal mobile has ended up online this way, log in to the Charity Commission register and check whether your number can be made private. Then replace it with your Twilio number in any public listings.