Matt McKee has developed a company to spread spiritual guidance across the world through ROAR. “ROAR is a mobile software company focused on providing solutions to churches and non-profits,” said McKee. The company was founded in January 2010 and focuses on making a difference by helping churches use applications to reach their surrounding communities.
ROAR doesn’t stand for a fancy acronym; instead their company logo is “You Will Be Heard.” McKee’s business has worked with over 500 churches and non-profit organizations. “We have worked with many hundreds more though with their social media strategies and mobile presence, “McKee said. “Our goal is to see as much faith-based content onto cutting edge technology as possible.”
McKee was a pastor for 10 years prior to starting ROAR. He has a degree in communications and always questioned, “How can I leverage technology to spread a message?” The team of ROAR is located throughout the world and they help to make the bigger picture a reality. McKee said, “It's great that we can be all over the world working with partners who are all over the world as well.”
McKee believes that over the next seven to ten years, the digital mobility of religion will shift the thoughts of religion and how often they worship because the access to the religious community is currently reserved to once or twice a week. “Teenagers will adapt quickly because they have grown up in a culture that is always connected,” McKee said. McKee says that teenagers understand the impact that they have on a person that is not physically in front of them because they are currently more involved in technology and social media.
ROAR believes that each organization, which they work with, must have an offline and online strategy. “It should be about people, not the process of technology. We should strive to be human whether we are online or offline,” McKee said. Everyone should be able to function with or without technology, rather than being solely dependent on their computer or mobile device.
Security is always an important issue when it comes to technology. McKee said, “We spend a lot of time, money, and effort to make sure that churches and non-profits can do what they do best which is deliver on things like hope, love, joy, and forgiveness while we take on problems like privacy, security and coding.”
Technology continues to evolve every day, and ROAR is continuing to make expansions and improvements as well. ROAR is about to launch a new division for small businesses. “This is so that we can give back more to non-profits while helping those that fund the non-profits,” McKee said. ROAR will also launch their own mobile website version 2.0 in a few weeks so that they can take any website and make it mobile.
As if he is not busy enough with a booming company, McKee volunteers and is a Bible Story teller at North Point Community Church for their kids department and teaches conferences for pastors. “I consider myself a pastor to pastors now. I couldn’t imagine myself not being able to preach, teach and communicate on a regular basis,” McKee said.
ROAR is a great business that is helping others spread their faith and cause. “ROAR, I hope, will always be about the message and how to leverage technology to increase how that message is heard,” McKee said.
