QR Codes – you’ve probably heard about them. you’ve most likely seen them. But how could you use a QR Code?

QR Codes are like barcodes – they might look just like a bunch of black and white squares grouped together but the way they are laid out enables them to store all kinds of information – for sharing in different ways.

You can create QR Codes which will:

create and store Contact card information
create and send an SMS text message to a set number
give an Android device details it needs to join a particular wifi network
create a direct link to a website
create and send an email including message to a specified email address
link people to your Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook profile
store location information
create a direct link to a Youtube video
create a calendar event

Using QR Codes missionally?

How you could use QR Codes:

Church announcements on the big screen – create QR codes which contain calendar event details. These can be scanned by the congregation from their seats then easily stored in phone calendars
Church newsletters – have QR Codes within printed material to easily link readers to websites, podcasts, videos, PDF files online, calendar events, Facebook pages. QR codes make it easy to go from Printed media to online media.
use a QR code to direct scanners to an online recording of the Gospel message
On the Welcome Desk at church have a QR code containing church contact information
Place a QR Code on the collection tray containing a link to the church PayPal account
Use QR Codes on business cards so people can quickly scan the contact details into their Address book
Use a QR code to link someone quickly to a video message
create QR Code stickers linking to an evangelistic video – place the stickers in busy areas around town or food courts

So using QR codes can make it easy for people to access digital information and resources. Don’t make people type out long web addresses (URLs), teach them how to scan and use QR Codes.

Creating QR Codes

So how do you create a QR Code? There are plenty of websites and apps which will make it easy for you to generate the QR Code you want.

Id suggest first looking at these QR code creation sites to see what each offers:

One thing these sites will often ask is if you want a Dynamic or Static QR code. The difference is that the details on a dynamic QR code can be changed after its been created.

So say you create a Dynamic QR code containing your contact details and then your email address changes – you can log back into the QR code creation website, edit the QR code containing your contact details and save it. No need to create a whole new QR code and no QR codes out there with the wrong email address on it.

There are also apps available which will generate QR codes – my favorite on iOS is QRafter