It seems everyone is talking about “apps” these days. A term once associated with dinner parties is now synonymous with mobile applications.

With this app craze, people everywhere are thinking, Hhmm, maybe I should get an app for [insert creative thought here]. A few words of caution: Not all app ideas are worth the investment, and not every organization needs its own app.

So, how do you know if your church should go on an “app-venture”? And if so, where do you start? The road of mobile development can be daunting, so it helps to plan well.

2 critical steps
There are many kinds of apps. So, for the sake of this conversation, I’ll  focus on apps built for churches and ministries.

For churches looking to build an app, two simple rules must be followed: The app should (1) provide content and (2) deliver quality. Both steps need to be executed really well; an app must offer a reason for people to use it regularly.

Step 1: Provide incredible content. An app won’t be very successful if there’s no reason for someone to download it, and then repeatedly want to use it. You need content — lots of fresh, meaningful content.

Fortunately, quality of content is one of the biggest reasons many churches and ministries have wildly successful apps.

At Subsplash, we created The Church App and have had the subsequent opportunity to work with incredible ministries of all sizes. Overall, we see more than half a million page views daily on our platform. The No. 1 reason people use ministry-based apps is to access media, and churches are in the unique positions of being content creators.  There’s always a new sermon they want to get into people’s hands.

Not only that, but there’s a whole host of other offerings unique to church-based app-builders, including blogs/news, events, online giving, sermon notes and bulletins, music, small group resources, Bibles and reading plans — and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Keep in mind, however, that an app shouldn’t just be a duplicate of the church’s website; rather, it ought to be a vehicle to deliver relevant content into people’s hands. Keep it simple, and put your church’s best foot forward.

Step 2: Deliver on quality. Along with content, your church needs to make sure its app is executed incredibly well. As technology continues to develop, people demand more. They want the app to be cooler, faster, smarter and really fun to use. So, if your church has incredible content, but it develops a sub-par app, people will hit the eject button before you get a second chance.

A church app is a powerful tool — but only if it’s done well. Take audio features, for example: If your app audio player only allows users to hit “play” and “pause,” or to do a simple fast-forward/rewind, it’s going to be frustrating for the end user. What happens when a user gets a phone call while listening to a 45-minute sermon? Shouldn’t the app remember where he or she left off? Or, what if a user lives in a place without great cellular coverage? It would be nice if he or she could download that audio for offline listening.

These are just a few examples. They might seem like “luxury items,” until you start using the software and realize how truly important they are. Often, app users don’t notice quality until they use something that doesn’t meet their expectations. Don’t get caught being the church that built an app that was frustrating to use.

Overall, your app should be simple and user-friendly. It should work as expected. And, it should look really nice. It doesn’t have to win awards — but, make sure it’s visually appealing and offers a delightful experience.
Most of the churches that have used our software have seen more downloads of their app than attendees in the pews on a Sunday — as much as 50 times more.  Most church-based users also see their sermon downloads increase, as well as a spike in online giving. As an example, one church with a membership of 1,000 people saw 2,000 downloads, 22,000 launches and increased giving in the first six months of offering its app.

So, if your ministry has content — and wants to present it well — launching an app might be the right next step.

Chris Sharpe is marketing director at Seattle, WA-based Subsplash, a design-centric software company and creator of The Church App. He can be reached via the Subsplash website: www.thechurchapp.org.

“When you look at the logistics of managing a church, it can be a little daunting,” says spokesperson Chris Hayden. “Using a paper system to keep track of everything would be a mess.”

Instead, Excellerate takes all that information (member tracking, visitor follow-up, classes, small groups, organizations and contributions) and stores it in one place. “Any member of the staff can go to find exactly what they need,” Hayden explains. “With our installed software, they’ll never have to rely on an Internet connection; the church houses its own member database and will always have the information on hand.”

Tracking contributions is another important — and sometimes complicated — issue, he continues. To simplify matters, Excellerate enables easy tracking of giving income across all church’s funds. In a matter of minutes, users can even print year-end giving statements.

Another handy feature of Excellerate is ServePoint, which simplifies volunteer management, says Hayden.

“There are two main factors in growing an outreach: making the outreach known to your volunteers and communicating the details to them,” he adds. ServePoint can help a church do just that, by letting users organize volunteers into different teams. “This way,” he explains, “they can be notified of upcoming opportunities, scheduled to specific events, or even reminded of their current assignments.”

— RaeAnn Slaybaugh

An expert offers practical advice for evaluating and choosing the right management software for your church’s unique needs.

Church Executive spoke with Mark Peterson, president of Carlsbad, CA-based Web Church Connect — provider of database software for the religious market — about the “next big thing(s)” in church management software, or CMS.

From all-in-one solutions, to transparency in the fee structure, to privacy concerns surrounding members’ information, it seems church executives are more sophisticated than ever about what they want (and need) their church management software to do.

In the end, he says, the first step in the selection process should be to pair the software tool’s capabilities with a short list of church-friendly characteristics and functions, including:

A one-stop solution. First, from a financial stewardship perspective, Peterson says church clients want to invest in one tool that meets all their software requirements. “We’re finding that they’re looking for an all-in-one [software] solution so they aren’t stuck using two or three different systems — one to [keep track of] money, another to do kids’ check-in, a different one for member directories, and another to manage members,” he explains.

One price, with no hidden charges. Peterson says churches are looking to “ditch the different platforms” in favor of a single, all-in-one solution — at an all-in-one price. To this end, he and his team designed Web Church Connect, or WCC, to offer all modules (from team management, to attendance tracking and more) for a monthly fee.

“We’re finding that churches … need all the modules — kids’ check-in and online giving, for example — but often find these modules to be extra [on top of] what they’re paying already,” he says. As a result, churches end up either paying too much for their software or simply doing without the modules they need for their ministry.

All kinds of accessibility. Oodles of accessibility is another trend Peterson has noticed among CMS users — in particular, the ability to access the church database remotely via smartphones, iPads and tablets.

Aside from accessibility on all these platforms, WCC’s architecture also reflects a move towards more Web-/cloud-based CMS, enabling access to the database using any computer, at any time.

Going further down the accessibility path, Peterson and his team recently integrated WCC with the most popular social media platforms and Google Calendars. WCC Calendar events can be synced with Google Calendars, as well as allow users to sync their Google calendars to their Calendar in the WCC database. “Through WCC, church members can connect with, ‘like’ and follow their church home on Facebook and Twitter,” he explains. “And, more social media integration options are in development.”

Deciding factors

• When deciding on a new CMS system — or an upgrade or retrofit to an existing one — Peterson says churches should follow a checklist of components and capabilities specific to their unique software needs. These include:
• New member/visitor follow-up tools — WCC’s assimilation module enables users to send new visitors automated emails and text messages, as well as to generate welcome letters. “By making this process automated, it frees up church leaders’ time,” he explains. “It also makes sure no one goes unnoticed.”
• Free, unlimited support and training — “The dollars can really add up anytime you need help,” Peterson points out. “If you can’t pay the extra money for support or training, you’re not getting the most out of the software.”
• Multiple-administrator access — “Many times, churches realize [too late] that they can only have a limited number of admins access the database,” he cautions.
• Unlimited member-add capabilities — In Peterson’s experience, many CMS users are shocked to find they can’t keep adding members to their database without paying extra.
• Customizable content — Peterson and his team designed WCC to customize a church client’s terminology according to its culture. “For instance, you can rename small groups ‘life groups,’ or ‘connect groups,’ or whatever you want to call your small-groups ministry,” he explains. “In fact, you can take any term in the database and rename it.”
• Privacy of member data — Peterson advises church clients to make sure their CMS provider won’t share or sell its members’ information to a third party. “Check the fine print,” he says. “Some providers will share your members’ information with anyone who’ll pay.”

“People are the best investment”
Peterson believes that having a church database your church can afford always pays off. “If it costs you X dollars to get someone saved, [who then becomes] a passionate pursuer of Jesus Christ, how do you put a price on that?” he asks.

“By having the latest technology — created by pastors for pastors, and at the most affordable cost — churches grow and their people feel connected and loved.

“And that’s what it’s all about: the people.”

1. According to Colleen Hogue, marketing coordinator, three trends are top-of-mind among her clients right now:
   A big emphasis on where data “lives.” As Hogue explains, many churches want their software hosted on-site — but, hosting data “in the cloud” is gaining quite a bit of popularity because of the ease of access that it provides. “Hosting data [this way] is actually a very secure operation, as well,” she points out.
2. Accessibility via mobile devices and tablets. Hogue says more and more churches are looking for the ability to access their information from any location with an Internet connection. “Since [we] offer browser- and Web-based software, our users are able to log in to our software, Arena, from any device that’s Internet-accessible.”
3. More efficient ways 
to manage outreach projects. To address the growing demand for better management of outreach projects, Shelby Systems has created a Missions module. It enables churches to accept online registrations, payments and contributions, as well as to scan passports and other important travel documents. “This module will … simplify [their missions trip] planning,” Hogue says.

Long-term outlook

While many ChMS programs come with standard membership management capabilities, Hogue contends that it’s more important to look for additional features that will meet the church’s unique needs several years down the road.

“Review your ministry’s five- to 10-year plan, and narrow down your software options even more,” she advises. “Remember that it must be able to keep up and assist your church with constant growth.

“If a [CMS provider] is only striving to keep up with other CMS companies, it might not have the ability to fully assist your church on its path of growth,” Hogue adds.

Simple. “Without question, a CMS should have tools that are easy to navigate and update,” he emphasizes. Although Connell acknowledges that church-based users are more tech-savvy than ever, they’re also exposed to a wide range of Web-based applications — “and we can’t be subject-matter experts in all of them.”

Additionally, since most church help is voluntary, CMS needs to accommodate a wide range of skill levels. “Easy block updates, drop-in widgets and straight text updates with basic word processing knowledge should all be mandatory for a rich CMS platform,” according to Connell.

Scalable. Because a healthy, growing church is more complex than just a single weekend service and some Bible classes — extending to youth ministry, women’s groups, outreach, small group studies and beyond — the next non-negotiable CMS criteria is scalability. “A scalable solution can handle everything you throw at it, including unlimited pages, ministry ‘faces’ and so on,” he points out.

“Who you are today isn’t who you’ll be a year from now.”

Platform-agnostic. With the variety of devices used to access Web pages these days, features such as responsive design become really important. “[Such capabilities ensure] your website will look equally great on a large monitor or on a tablet,” he points out. “Site content that responds to changing displays is an indication of a CMS that’s designed for today’s and tomorrow’s needs.”

4 steps to a solid choice
Choosing a scalable package that meets the church’s needs is critically important. To that end, Connell recommends the following steps:

1. Determine if the current system has an upgrade the church has neglected to take that will improve its performance. “If not, consider the advantages of moving to a new CMS platform,” he suggests. “Will you get more media storage? Easier content management? Fresh designs?”
2. Investigate CMS providers that focus specifically on the local church. “They need to understand its vision and be able to provide the tools to reach it,” he says.
3. Remember: You get what you pay for. Connell contends this adage is true even when it comes to website CMS platforms. “A ‘free’ solution potentially means little or no support, incorporation of ads in your church website, and other ways of offsetting the provider’s costs.”
4. Assess the platform’s limitations. Details including page and design limits, and the SEO value of the final product, can all be significant depending on a church’s vision for its website, he advises.

— RaeAnn Slaybaugh

Three churches find easy-to-use Web-based solutions to their room scheduling, facility management and online ticketing challenges.

If anyone at First Baptist Church-Hendersonville, NC, needed to schedule an event and secure a space for an event back in 2001, the staff would have had to use a large planning calendar, write entries on it in pencil, and transfer the information to a Word document.
Amy Parce, a student ministry assistant, says the method was cumbersome and time-consuming as “we are a big church with lots of activities and rooms. It was difficult to read the paper calendar and make changes to any event.”

This prompted the church to purchase ACS Facility Scheduler, “a hosted, central calendar coordinator designed specifically to synchronize calendars and manage facilities across your organization,” according to the company website. “Now, only one person makes changes to the calendar,” says Parce.

That person is receptionist DeeDee Shehan, who is also responsible for tracking the use of the church’s five buildings. Keeping up with facility use would be nearly impossible without the ACS program, she says.

Shehan is not the only one who appreciates the usefulness of the ACS Facility Scheduler. The maintenance and custodial departments also depend on it daily. They have to make their weekly and monthly schedules based on what rooms are booked at that time.

This is how the process for booking a room at First Baptist-Hendersonville works: First, the request is put on a form. Next, Shehan takes the request to their weekly calendar meeting where the request either gets approved or denied. If approved, Shehan adds the event to the calendar.

“I have a notebook full of all the upcoming requests that have been approved so I have all of the contact information on everything that is scheduled in case we need to make any changes,” she says.

To explain the complexity of scheduling events, Shehan gives a specific scenario: One ministry has a banquet. They use the gymnasium to eat, after which they transfer to the fellowship hall to view some displays, and then they move to the worship center to hear the guest speaker.

This takes a lot of planning. Shehan says the custodial crew checks the online calendar ahead of time to determine how many people are needed to prepare the rooms and clean them after the event.  Also, the security crew looks at the same calendar to know what time to unlock the facility and to do the rounds of locking up and setting all the alarms.

When there is a big event at the church, Shehan says she can decide quickly, by looking at the online calendar, whether it is OK to book other events. Problems arising from overlapping or not having enough parking, equipment or things like chairs and tables can be easily prevented, she adds.

Managing resources faithfully
For Sean Moyer, facility manager at Savannah Christian Church, a light bulb moment came after learning that his assistant  had been spending at least 20 hours a week just scheduling rooms. At the time, the church had one building and 37 reservable spaces and was building a youth center.

Moyer says he knew that as the church grew, managing the spaces and resources for various meetings and functions was only going to get worse. Immediately, he searched for a better way to ease the process and came across a scheduling and event management solution called Events Management System (EMS).

The difference is night and day. What is most helpful, says Moyer, is that all facility reservations can be viewed via the church’s network in real time and on any computer or mobile device. In contrast, the old system was installed on only one or two computers, and the calendar had to be printed out “for the rest of us to see it,” says Moyer.

Before Savannah Christian Church purchased the EMS software, room scheduling consumed most of the working hours of Moyer’s assistant. With EMS, all that responsibility is put on the requester. “They input all the information that we require, as well as times and contact information. It only gives them the option to request a room that is available for those times,” says Moyer.

Only staff members are allowed to request rooms. This puts the responsibility on their respective ministry and prevents unauthorized use. And if the room is left in a disorderly manner, Moyer says it’s easy to know who is the responsible party.

“A process that took at least 20 hours a week for 37 rooms now takes about an hour a week to handle 120 rooms in nine buildings on three campuses,” says Moyer.

As far as managing resources, Moyer says EMS has been a stepping stone for his church. The room scheduling software alone saves Savannah thousands of dollars a year on manpower, he adds. But by integrating it with HVAC scheduling software, which automatically controls the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, Moyer says his church has taken stewardship one step further. Air is cooled only when rooms are in use, saving the church energy, time and labor.

Previous to using HVAC software, Moyer says the church was running its HVAC units 515,424 hours a year. Now, it’s down to 128,856 hours a year. “Not only are we extending the lifespan by three years for every year we have the units, we also have been able to reduce our maintenance costs,” says Moyer.

Reaching its community effectively
Phoenix First Assembly of God in Phoenix, AZ, is another congregation that stepped outside the box to provide efficient and convenient service not only to its members but the general public as well.

The church hosts hundreds of outreach ministries, but one of its most successful events is “The Celebration of Christmas,” which has been going on for more than 30 years. A case study done by Active Network shows how the company’s 100 percent Web-based ticketing software, ServiceU Ticketing, has helped Phoenix First streamline the ticketing of nearly 24,000 patrons over nine performances.

Richard Buoscio, director of facilities, says the church started using ServiceU Ticketing in 2004 and tested it on a very small area of seats within their facility. “Everything worked so smoothly that we slowly integrated the system into our entire event,” he adds.
Despite increasing attendance every year since, Buoscio says the church has actually reduced its full-time ticketing staff from four to one.

Having tickets available online has also been incredibly convenient for community members who no longer have to stand in line to purchase tickets, says Active Network.

Although the church still sells tickets at their box office for people who don’t have Internet capabilities, more than 70 percent of the tickets sold are through ServiceU Ticketing via online sales. The church offers free seating – which is on a first-come, first-served basis – along with reserved seating – which is almost always the best way to go.

“ServiceU Ticketing has proven to us over time that they will be able to meet all the technological needs we may have as our church and productions grow,” Buoscio says.

_________________________________________________

• www.acstechnologies.com
• www.ActiveNetwork.com
• www.ServiceU.com
• www.SavannahChristian.com
• www.PhoenixFirst.org

Cloud computing has taken the business world by storm. So why not churches, too? At Faith Promise Church, we have embraced cloud-based applications and by doing so we save money and effort, allowing us to accomplish our mission more easily.

Faith Promise Church is a nondenominational, multicampus church in Knoxville, TN, with an average weekly attendance of 4,200 people.

We had been using an on-premises accounting system, but as the church increased staff and members, we found ourselves doing more and more manual work. We couldn’t keep up with purchase order (PO) requests. It was a tedious process of shuffling paper forms back and forth between individuals for approvals, and then back to the finance department where employees entered the data into the accounting system. POs alone was becoming too much to handle.

Another problem entailed budget reporting to our various ministries, which required more manual effort from finance. We reconciled and printed the budgets monthly and distributed the reports into staff mailboxes. These infrequent budget updates meant that at times, people overspent their budgets because they didn’t have the latest data. In other cases, staff members delayed spending on critical projects.

In 2008, we began to look for a new solution for our core financials. We evaluated several traditional software applications including Blackbaud, Microsoft Dynamics and Sage MIP, but ultimately, we were impressed by Intacct’s cloud financial management system. We were excited about the prospect of having a more modern and flexible financial system that didn’t require us to install or manage any technology ourselves. At the time, we didn’t have IT staff, so eliminating the need to purchase hardware, install software, and maintain the software updates was quite appealing. We considered going with a hosted solution, but this only partially solved the IT issue and didn’t offer us the contemporary applications and cost savings.

Financial visibility
Now that we have our financial and operational systems in the cloud, it is remarkably easier to run our church. Being able to access information and reports on our members, facilities, donations and budgets at any time, from anywhere, and using any device has really helped us be more productive.

Managing POs occurs with a few mouse clicks. The process is entirely electronic – which means that employees log into Intacct via the Web to submit their own PO requests, after which the request is routed, approved and updated in the accounting and budget modules within a few minutes using automated workflows that we define. Previously, that process took a week with all the paper shuffling. This also helps us better achieve our ministry goals as some purchases are time-sensitive, such as equipment and technical supplies required to launch new campuses.

Reconciliation reports, which used to take 15 minutes or longer to create every time are now created once and then refreshed in the future instantly. Reporting, for any employee with approved access, is now instantaneous. A user can pull up a dashboard view to see the latest budget, historical spending and pending POs. We’re no longer playing guessing games when we plan our spending, since we’re always working from the latest information.

We can also see financials for the church as a whole and then drill down into financials for each campus, such as to analyze performance by donation levels or across various funds. As a nonprofit, this level of real-time financial visibility is critical not only to our longevity, but also our ability to serve our members and communities.

Doing more with less
Moving to the cloud has given us confidence that as we grow, our systems will easily scale up without incurring extra overhead. Switching to Intacct has eliminated the need for finance to hire an additional full-time employee, an estimated annual savings of at least $50,000. Finance has also slashed the percentage of time spent entering data from 40 percent to 5 percent. When the church adds a new campus, updating the financial system is simple. All the account information transfers to the new entity and we don’t have to manually enter data or create a new organizational structure from scratch.

Aaron Goin and Josh Whitehead serve as CFO and executive pastor, respectively, at Faith Promise Church, Knoxville, TN. www.faithpromise.org

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AV integration unites First United sound

First United Methodist Church of San Diego is the largest Methodist church in southern California and occupies one of the most architecturally splendid campuses in the area. Over many decades, First United has struggled with sound reinforcement systems for its multiple venues.

“Either they cobbled a fix together with spit wads and glue or they separately hired a system designer and a system installer,” says Paul Svenson of Sound Casework Inc.  Svenson has designed and installed audiovisual systems in hundreds of churches.

“When things went sour after the installation, as they always did, the designer pointed the finger at the installer and the installer pointed the finger at the designer,” Svenson adds. “Unfortunately, the church was always left holding the bag.”

After 27 years of trying to get First United’s business, Svenson finally got to fix the church’s AV problems by unifying the sound systems in all its five venues (sanctuary, chapel, lounge, social hall, and a small space for miscellaneous events) under a common, easy-to-use, foolproof paradigm centered on the Symetrix Jupiter 8 signal processor and the Symetrix ARC-2e wall panel remote.

After the overhaul, Svenson says all five spaces now have the same system, enabling volunteers to work comfortably and competently in any of the five venues.

“The church officials and the volunteers at First United are in love with the new systems. It’s been a long time coming,” he says.

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 ]