The mobile app, however, was created not only for those who attend MCC. “We’ve clearly communicated from our stage that if this app stays in our own pockets, then it’s a failure. It was designed to get the message out there,” says Scott Telle, associate pastor.

“Our hope is that people will use it as a tool to open up conversations about their church, and ultimately the message of Jesus Christ,” he says. “I know one man more than 70 years old who uses an iPhone daily and is downloading our app.”

With the MCC mobile app, smart phone users can:

• Listen to and watch previous sermons
• Share sermons by Twitter, Facebook or email
• Read the Bible
• Read MCC pastor blogs
• Give from the phone or iPad
• See current announcements
• See a map to the church.

Dismissing concerns that the MCC mobile app might replace real community experience, Telle explains that the app allows people to engage with the church only so much because “it is not meant to build a secondary ‘virtual audience’ away from our campus.”

“It’s just another way for us to reach outside our current congregation,” Telle says. “We will continue leveraging technology as long as the culture uses it for communication.”

A new generation of software makes collecting and using data so much easier.

Churches know that their websites and online presence are necessary and helpful to share and receive information from members and staff.  A church without a website today is almost unheard of, and many tools have been created to make website creation easy. Still frustrating though is making a church website a useful tool for collecting valuable data from site visitors and the congregation.

Appropriate data collection can greatly increase responsiveness from church and website visitors.  Churches around the world attempt to collect basic contact information, commitments  and attendance information on the weekends. For a number of reasons, people don’t get around to providing this information. Whether it is lack of a pen or just ambivalence, today’s technologies can help increase this data collection.

There are many churches seeking signups and data for event registrations for the latest mission trip or weekend gathering.  Simpler data collection can continue to break down barriers to getting this data. Finally, collecting money for these events, or even for regular and one-time giving, can be halted because the right intentions still didn’t lead to bringing the checkbook to church.

Using the data
Even the church that is expert at collecting data through paper forms is required to figure out how to use the data. A typical Monday morning has churches around the nation using volunteers to type data into a computer-based system so that it can be used. Even then the data can’t always easily make the leap into the systems that track giving, newsletter subscriptions or attendance management.

Like the tools that make it easier to create websites, a new generation of software makes collecting and using data so much easier. Often referred to as SaaS, or software as a service, these tools are located completely online, thus making them extremely accessible, allowing you to initially use the products for free, and typically integrate with your website with great ease.  Today’s online web apps also allow almost any user, even with little technical background, to implement the software.

Every year, Church at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, hosts many events including Bible studies, kid’s camps, Vacation Bible School, dinners, and much more. With so many events taking place in and around the church, an online application was needed to easily and quickly organize and collect information for each event. The existing process included using paper forms and having them mailed back in, along with a payment for each event. This process was time consuming, and getting the form in the hands of the right person was always a difficult task.

Looking for a solution
When the staff decided to do a website overhaul, Worship Pastor Chuck Jones knew it was the right time to begin looking for an online form solution.

Before the new website redesign took place, Jones did a Google search for online event registration forms and found a number of tools available to help. After reviewing all of the companies listed in the search, Jones selected Formstack, one of the form builders he thought to be the best value, considering the features and price.

Online form builders provide a great path for collecting data. Whether it is a one-time poll, survey, contact form, event registration, or even online giving, there is a form builder to simplify that process. Once the form is built, connecting it to your site can come in the form of a link or HTML and JavaScript embeds, creating the forms can keep the professional look and feel of the church website.

Good integration
Of the form-building options available today, the most effective integrate with complementary products. For instance, churches collect contact information for an eventual end goal. The best products will allow a visitor to enter their contact information online and then click submit. Once the data is received, behind the scenes the form can be built to automatically add the person to the email newsletter or to the church CRM.

Or, in another instance, a regular attendee might prefer to give online. Setting up debit/credit card giving can be very time-consuming and costly. Rather than going through that headache, find a form-builder that integrates with one of the basic payment providers like PayPal or even a more robust Authorize.Net or FirstData.

Church at Charlotte in the past 30 years has grown from a small rural church to a 2,200-member church. Once the new website went live, event registrations, feedback forms, and surveys all took place by using the online form builder. Not only does the application save the staff many hours, the use of features, such as conditional logic and smart routing, has also made it easier for the right person to receive the form once it has been submitted, reducing the task of finding out where the form needs to be.

Chris Byers is CEO of Formstack LLC, Indianapolis, IN. www.Formstack.com

By Lauren Hunter

For Jim Gum, executive pastor at Heartland Community Church in Olathe, KS, just connecting with people and getting phone numbers was a challenge when he first joined the church. “We didn’t have an updated directory, and our office administrator had gone home for the night. I couldn’t get the phone number for a member I wanted to help in my ministry,” Gum says.

Today, Heartland has a thriving Facebook presence and relies on its “MyHeartland” branded church management system to keep valuable data at everyone’s fingertips and allow people within the church to connect with one another and the pastoral staff.

“Trying to find tools – whether through social media or church management systems – that support the way you ‘do church’ is related to how you improve the way your church stewards and disciples people,” Gum says. “Spending time and money on quality organizational tools actually translates into greater ministry impact.”

Where does it fit?
Almost everyone is having the conversation about how social media fits into the church communication and management landscape. How can a church’s management software, Facebook page, Twitter feed, Google group, and other points of contact all contribute and work cohesively to effectively communicate and draw people into the church fold?

While it seems that Internet applications, websites, and management tools are making the process more complicated, some solutions clarify and streamline. While many Christian remakes of Facebook-like applications are born each day, some church management systems are already filling the need of social media management within their existing software.

“We don’t feel there is a need to recreate a ‘church’ version of Facebook; Facebook already exists and works well,” says Steve Caton, vice president for Church Community Builder. “What churches need is a place to drive the conversation deeper, where they feel a sense of security. Most people are not going to engage in a deep spiritual conversation on Facebook or any other online community unless it is private and secure.”

The firm’s web-based church management system (ChMS) provides social media tools within its software platform to help people have in-depth and more private conversations than its Facebook counterpart.

“It’s a both/and, not either/or. The two – a church’s ChMS and Facebook page – can coexist to share brief updates, open event invitations, pictures and videos you don’t mind going public. But the intimate stuff – detailed prayer requests, questions about discipleship and real needs – should be discussed in a safe place,” he notes.

Think through the process
Church communicators certainly have their work cut out for them. It’s becoming increasingly important to think through the process to ensure your church body is cared for with discretion.

Cynthia Ware, executive director, Center for Church Communication, says: “Handshakes between Facebook and ChMS make sense because churches need access to data such as, attendance and giving records, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and the like, but they also hope for cyberspaces where safe conversations can go deeper, create instant prayer requests and develop and foster relationships that provide a sense of value to members.”

For churches that use a private online community, one of the best ways to blend a congregations’ use of Facebook and their church-only network is to post hyperlinks on Facebook that lead deeper discussions over to the church’s private church management system group. For instance, if your women’s ministry group posts a question about struggles or Christian growth, they can simply insert the link on Facebook, and when members click the link, they login the church’s management system and continue the discussion there. It’s a simple solution to start the conversation in a public forum and drive people to a private group where they can share and connect more in depth.

Lauren Hunter is a church technology public relations consultant in Roseville, CA.
[ www.laurenhunter.net; www.churchtechtoday.com ]

In scripture, the concept of making things easier, safer and generally better is often captured with the image of making straight paths for your feet, as when Solomon advises his son (Proverbs 11:5). As any pastor I’ve known would acknowledge, ministry itself has many ravines, mountains and crooked paths. Ministers must implement processes to minimize risks and provide tools that are readily available to staff and volunteers.

One of the tools you can use to overcome obstacles to effective ministry is church management software. Arena is a browser based, shared-source church ministry system from Shelby Systems, and it offers tremendous benefits to managing the volunteer-related aspects of a ministry. The program provides volunteers access to information and tools that can be accessed anywhere, anytime and on any Internet platform. The Arena Select suite, introduced in June 2010, has been optimized to meet the needs of medium to large-sized churches.

Valuable volunteers

Volunteer management can be a deep ravine in ministry, as it is often a time-consuming process. However, given that volunteers are literally the hands and feet of ministry, effectively managing volunteers is essential.

One of the most labor-intensive tasks in volunteer management is putting the right people in the right positions, especially if your church is blessed with a large membership and a correspondingly large children’s ministry.

Before any other consideration, many churches run background checks on volunteers who work with children. Software that integrates with a service, such as Arena Select does with Protect My Ministry, can greatly simplify that process. Of course, you also want to put the people with the right spiritual gifts into suitable positions.

Another crucial aspect of volunteer management is communication. As electronic communication has become more and more prevalent, and indeed for some it is now the preferred medium for information, computer-based tools for facilitating that communication are essential.

By keeping your volunteer data in one database software package, you provide a single point of reference for e-mail addresses, Web addresses, cell phone numbers, SMS, and all other contact information. This reduces the chance that someone’s change of address will fall through the cracks.

Getting data into the database is only half the story. The other half is getting the data out in a meaningful and timely manner. Your data management software should easily generate key indicator reports that keep your finger on the pulse of the ministry activity, such as attendance statistics, income and expense tracking, volunteer placement statuses and more.

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is working with users to create customized reports that give them the information they need at the touch of a button. Of course, not all reports are elaborate enough to require the creation of custom reports. Even routine tasks such as printing contact lists and rosters are easier with management software.

Efficiency and accuracy

Of course “easier” is not the same as “effortless.” Nothing will make ministry effortless, but there are many ministry functions that software can help you do with significantly improved efficiency and accuracy.

As critical as volunteer management and money management are, where the “rubber meets the road” on Sunday morning is in classroom management. The three areas where church management software can boost the effectiveness of classroom management are speed, security and safety.

Check-in kiosks with barcode scanners or touch-screen monitors greatly increase the speed of the children’s check-in process, allowing parents to check in their own children as they arrive. Most churches that have implemented automated check-in stations see marked improvement of the speed of the process over manual methods. Of course, an attended station for visitors and for helping out when problems arise is still an important part of the check-in strategy.

Most churches have a check-in procedure for children, whether automated or not, because they want to provide security and verify the identity of the person dropping off and — even more important — picking up the children after services are over. Check-in and check-out is a way to keep the children safe from estranged parents and others with malicious intent. The automated systems generally make use of a security label or receipt printed at the time of checking in and presented in order to pick up the child.

Biometric scanning

One enhancement to the Arena software is support for biometric fingerprint scanning as a way to check children or families in and out. Because fingerprints are nearly impossible to fake (Hollywood not withstanding), and because no one would forget his own finger (unlike the ID cards many ministries use), fingerprint scanning is currently the fastest and most secure method of children’s check-in available.

Even after the children get to the classroom, it is critical to maintain a safe and edifying environment for the children. Information such as medical conditions, allergies and behavioral annotations, may be added to the children’s records in the software system. Often this information is printed on the check-in receipt, but it can be printed on class roll sheet as well.

Have you heard of BASF? It is a chemical company; their products are polysyllabic scientific terms that few people can pronounce let alone understand. Their work is entirely behind the scenes of consumer experience; no one will ever point proudly to a car or television or any other product and say, “BASF made that.” But a few years ago they had an ad campaign that summed up their role perfectly: “At BASF, we don’t make a lot of the products you buy; we make a lot of the products you buy better!”

Church management software is a lot like that. It is entirely behind the scenes of most ministry work. Management software doesn’t greet parents with a smile or encourage a hesitant child or make colorful illustrations of Bible stories. It does not pray for people, encourage the struggling, or deliver meals to the homebound, but it can increase the odds that all those things happen.

Geoff Johnson is the education team lead at Shelby Systems Inc., Cordova, TN.  www.shelbyinc.com

Saddleback Church, like most congregations, uses audio/visual equipment to enhance services as well as capture teachings and send video to other campuses. Increasingly technology is finding its way from the pulpit to youth ministry too. With youth demographics experiencing nearly every facet of life in Web 2.0 — from the classroom to the playground — why not integrate similar technology into youth worship experiences?

High School Pastor Josh Griffin leads a staff of six full-time employees, three interns and 100 volunteers who dedicate time to assisting Saddleback’s younger community. His enthusiasm for innovative teaching methods brought him to integrate response technology into his ministry, and the ministry prides itself on creative and relevant means to convey Bible teachings to its students.

With an audience that has seen incredible growth in the past year, Josh works at capturing and keeping the attention of his students. He uses tools such as audience response in order to maintain focus and direction.

Chaos with previous system

Previously, the ministry adopted a response system designed solely for classroom environments that used infrared technology. Utilizing infrared equipment — the same technology television remotes employ — often required students to run up to receivers to ensure responses were submitted. With a group of hundreds of high school age students, the system was less reliable and created more chaos than it was worth.

During one of the weekend services, Griffin and his team hosted a “choose your own adventure” series. The program allowed youth to decide on different aspects of the service — from the opening song to the topic of discussion, and everything in-between. Griffin originally wanted to incorporate a response system where the audience could easily vote with the press of a button without having to leave their seats.

He’s now using Turning Technologies’ flagship product TurningPoint, interactive PowerPoint software, and radio-frequency, credit-card size ResponseCard keypads, provided by Interactive Church Resources. Every aspect of the service during the “choose your own adventure” series was determined by the students. The system created an interactive environment and offered insight into a typically uncommunicative audience.

“Often times in youth ministry we talk to students,” Griffin says. “It’s not often that we get to hear from them. One of the fun things we were able to use the ResponseCards for is to create a very specific message based on what they wanted to hear and what they’re interested in. We used the results from surveys during the message to tailor the content to what they were struggling with and what they were dealing with.”

Used in training sessions

The audience response system was also used during several training sessions and conferences. First considered as a way to inject humor into his messages, Griffin quickly discovered that it was capable of collecting hard data as well. When more than 1,000 people joined him for a youth ministry training conference, he inserted a few ice breaker questions to relax and allow the audience to become familiar with the technology.

When he posed the question, “What method of transportation did you use to get here?” he was surprised the find that most participants had driven. By inserting a quick, on-the-fly question slide, he was able to find out how many miles the majority had driven. The answers to those two questions altered the way the conference was marketed and communicated to participants, making it a worthwhile tool in several situations.

Griffin and his youth ministry team have had great success with audience response in a variety of environments. On Saddleback’s campus alone, four different buildings have accommodated the system flawlessly and without any problems. He hopes to continue to use the system in a fun, interactive manner and also apply anonymous polling to uncover real problems that students may feel uncomfortable disclosing.

Mike Broderick is CEO, Turning Technologies, Youngstown, OH. [www.turningtechnologies.com]

By Lauren Hunter

There’s no doubt that your church members desire increased communication with their church friends, small groups, Bible studies and pastors. As more of the population joins Facebook to try and stay connected with the people they love, many church leaders are not quite sure how to leverage these new social networking tools to generate true fellowship with their congregations.

In the attempt to help church members communicate and share information, some churches decide to establish a Facebook group, a Google or Yahoo! group, or even a private social networking group on other free or paid sites. While these groups can serve a purpose, rarely does it function in ways to help the church leaders oversee the groups and work with a church’s already established means of record keeping and membership management.

Uncertain of approach

I currently serve on my church’s technology committee and can personally vouch for our church staff’s uncertainty of how to approach this conundrum; we’re unsure about using public social community tools as a formal means of communication within our church, yet our members desire a way to stay connected that supersedes methods we’re currently using.

Sure, I’m on Facebook, and many of my church friends are as well; still I would hesitate to go too far in my communications with them about personal prayer requests and small group concerns for fear of privacy. Instead, our church, like many other churches, is turning to Web-based church management software solutions (ChMS) that incorporate many of these social networking features within the safe walls of a trusted provider that we can adopt into our church family as a ministry partner.

One such provider, Church Community Builder (CCB) differs from many of the other church management software providers out there in that its framework was designed with community features built-in from the beginning, not added on as the social networking craze has taken off.

Connect with online community

“We have integrated useful social media components into our church management solutions so that a church may track member involvement and needs, while also allowing the members and church participants to connect with the church and other people through a private and secure online community,” says Steve Caton, vice president of sales and marketing for CCB.

One of the questions we’ve been asking at my church is: “What does our congregation need to stay better connected and how can we facilitate their communication needs more effectively?”

Hope Bible Church in Washington, D.C., had been asking this same question in order to better serve their 300-member congregation.

“We aspired to build an application ourselves that would better facilitate community and allow us to give access to more than 50 leaders and ministry coordinators within our church,” says Ross Levin, church administrator for Hope Bible Church. “With only two and a half paid staff members, and no facility of our own, there was no way for us to do ministry if we didn’t use some type of technology solution to keep track of everything.”

Setting up ‘Hopebook’

While setting up their new management solution, Levin was sharing the program’s functionality with his young daughter, an avid user of Facebook and currently the number one social networking application, who promptly suggested that it be called “Hopebook.”

Because Hopebook has become the church’s centralized point of communication, the church is now building community in new and exciting ways.

For more churches looking to technology to empower deeper relationships and establish firm connections, having one management system that can do it all is a wonderful, practical and feasible solution.

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer and owner of Lauren Hunter Public Relations, Roseville, CA. [www.laurenhunter.net]

By Lauren Hunter

Puget Sound Christian Center in the greater Seattle area has undergone significant technology updating in its 30 years in order to meet the congregation’s needs and desires to connect and communicate with one another. A component of these changes in the past six months alone includes taking donations in a way that helped to streamline the church’s accounting and records management, on top of providing simple ways for the congregation to worship through giving.

“Accessibility was huge for us,” says Justin Isenhart, pastor at Puget Sound. “We have a culture of people who are open to new things, and we knew that it was time for the church to make some changes in order to increase accessibility — both in community and in giving.”

Although the church already had implemented online giving, it was looking for a way to integrate all online activity into one system. The church staff thought it was best to have one seamlessly integrated approach to membership management, financial records, and online community for both the church staff and members.

After using one provider for a few years, they began their search for a church management solution that incorporated aspects of web-based management together with all the functionality they needed. “We went with Church Community Builder (CCB) because of the way each function tied together so well in one simple-to-use system,” Isenhart says.

Online giving options

Some providers require creating a full profile in order to give, even though the individual might not want to see their history or give again in the future. “One of the reasons why I liked CCB is that people can give without a login, or if they want to see their giving history or set up recurring giving, they can create a login or interact with other CCB functions, if they wish,” notes Isenhart. “Some people just want to click and give, but not set up a profile.”

In CCB setting up a profile is how people become a part of the church community; it is the first step necessary to update contact information, connect to volunteer opportunities, and engage with the online church community.

With online giving, users have the option of giving without setting up a profile, or setting up a full profile first, then giving. Puget Sound Church has branded CCB as “MyPSCC.” Because each church gets its own landing page, the church can make it appear totally integrated.

“If a person logs in to MyPSCC first, then the system auto-populates the giving form and goes through the process to confirm and approve all profile data that’s in the system. This helps keep our records accurate,” Isenhart notes.

Currently one-third of attenders at the church give online. The church also provides envelopes during the in-service offering for those who want to give using a debit or credit card, which the church enters into the giving system manually.

Setting records straight

When gifts come in online, they are easily matched with the profile in the church database. If a person isn’t in the database, adding a new record is fast and straightforward. The matching process helps to prevent duplicate records.

“If a person is logged in when they give, it’s an automatic match, but if the person isn’t logged in, the church can quickly determine whether they are already in the database so that you don’t create duplicate records,” Isenhart says.

In fact, CCB includes a complete and dynamic contribution, pledge tracking and reporting system. It allows givers to divide a contribution into several categories and also set up recurring giving. An individual can securely see their giving record and at the end of the year print out their own giving statement. Church administration can call up batches for deposits, reports and graphs for staff meetings and print out giving statements for those who do not have Internet access in their homes.

CCB uses BluePay Payment Gateway as its merchant and gateway service for processing payments. BluePay is Payment Card Industry Compliant, which means that all transactions are totally secure and your church is completely protected from potential fraud or identity theft.

Summarizing the benefits

Online giving offers a variety of benefits for the church as well as those who support it. Many people today prefer not to carry checkbooks and therefore appreciate the convenience of giving online. Various studies over the years have also shown that people will often give more online than they do offline. Furthermore, when people miss a service because of vacations or other commitments, they can still participate in the weekly offering.

When this benefit is integrated with your overall church management strategy, there are some additional advantages: Members are able to access their own giving records and print out giving statements at the end of the year, thus cutting down on mailing/printing costs. Churches can track and report on giving trends for regular offerings, a building campaign, ministry drive pledges, or to reach other goals.

If recurring gift functionality is made available, congregants can create personalized giving schedules for their tithe as well as other funds that they wish to support, such as missions and benevolences. This in turn helps create more stable and predictable income flow for the church. Bottom line: Today’s churchgoer probably already manages much of his or her personal finances electronically via the Internet. Adding online giving as an option on your church Web site simply meets their expectations. Not providing it simply makes them wonder.

“I’ve talked to many other pastors about implementing online giving, and I always tell them that the consistency outweighs the cost in the end. It’s really worth it,” Isenhart says.

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer, blogger and church technology public relations consultant in Roseville, CA [www.laurenhunter.net; www.churchtechtoday.com].

Puget Sound Christian Center
www.pscc.net

Church Community Builder
www.churchcommunitybuilder.com

MyPSCC branded site
www.mypscc.net

BluePay Payment Gateway
www.nationstransactionservices.com/ccb372/NationsWelcomeCCB.htm

Payment Card Industry Security Standards
www.pcisecuritystandards.org

• Ease of operation for the user — simple and clear, yet thorough
• Availability for people to give whenever and wherever
• Encourages consistency because it’s automated and highly flexible