When Catalyst Church’s Next Generation Director helped test a new workflows feature, the result was a more unified system for managing data, follow-up and discipleship.
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
If Megan Hinesley — a former educator — were a student in her own classroom, she’d be the first to raise her hand to volunteer.
That instinct showed up again in her role as Next Generation Director at Catalyst Church in Woodland, Calif., when she was asked to beta test a new Workflows feature within the church’s trusted management platform. Today, Catalyst is managing its growing administrative and discipleship processes in a far more streamlined way.
When Hinesley transitioned from classroom teaching to full-time kids’ ministry at Catalyst in 2022, she brought with her a willingness to try new things.
“I’ll be an early adopter until the day I die,” she laughs. “It got me in trouble in the classroom because a curriculum or tool would come out, and I’d say, ‘My kids will be the guinea pigs!’”
Four years later, that same mindset serves her well in her expanded role overseeing next-generation ministries — and in helping streamline the church’s administrative and discipleship systems.
Taming scattered church data
At Catalyst, the Subsplash all-in-one church management platform has been a trusted tool since the church’s founding in 2013. It powers the church’s giving, website, app and livestreaming, making it central to much of the church’s digital engagement.
As Hinesley began taking on more administrative responsibilities, she relied heavily on the platform — but quickly noticed a problem.
“We’re a mid-sized church without a huge staff, so I really enjoy looking at the data,” she says. “But some of it was in Subsplash and some of it was in other tools.”
In other words, information was scattered across multiple systems.
“Data was floating all over the place,” Hinesley recalls. “I thought, what if we just had all these things together? That was the first time we really started looking at one-stop-shop options.”
Like many churches, Catalyst had gradually accumulated different tools over time — each helpful in its own way but not always designed to work together. The result was extra steps for staff and volunteers who needed to track information or follow up with people.
Enter: Subsplash One
When the upgraded Subsplash One platform rolled out in 2022, it offered more of what Hinesley and her team were seeking: an all-in-one system that unified the church’s digital tools while remaining easy for staff and volunteers to use.
“So, we jumped in with both feet and moved everything over,” she says.
Even then, one critical function remained missing: workflows — the ability to automatically track processes and ensure the right follow-up steps happened at the right time.
To compensate, the team improvised. Staff added notes to people’s profiles and manually notified each other when updates were made.
“It was super wonky, but we made it work,” Hinesley says. “Still, it wasn’t sustainable. Our lead pastor and I were mentally keeping track of who we needed to check in with and connect.”
So, when Subsplash invited Hinesley to beta test its new Workflows feature, she says she was “ecstatic.”
The tool allows Catalyst to manage ministry processes more clearly while ensuring people don’t fall through the cracks.
“At the end of the day, we want our community to connect to Jesus,” she explains. “But we also want them to connect to each other — and that shouldn’t need to be filtered through us.”
Getting everyone on board
With Workflows in place, the Subsplash platform now functions as the “engine” behind Catalyst’s connected system — though adopting it required some adjustment.
“We have wonderful volunteers who’ve been in their roles a long time and were comfortable saying, ‘I use an Excel spreadsheet for this,’ or ‘I keep a list on a piece of paper,’” Hinesley explains. “I had to say, ‘Now we’re all doing this task this way.’”
As the team gradually adopted the new system, the benefits quickly became clear. The unified platform is now accessible to the entire team — even remotely — and reduces the need for manual tracking.
For Hinesley alone, it frees up roughly five hours each week.
The shift also brought financial benefits.
“When we streamlined everything into one tool, we actually saved money compared to paying for several smaller subscriptions,” she says.
Clear paths to engagement
Perhaps most importantly, leaders are seeing stronger connections within the church community.
Using Workflows, staff can track each person’s discipleship journey from their first point of contact through deeper involvement in the church.
“From the moment someone shares their information with us, we can ‘see’ them connecting with our prayer team, small groups and even our lead pastor — who handwrites them a welcome card,” Hinesley says. “Workflows lets us assign people to follow up at different points along the way. It’s very clear.”
For instance, if Hinesley meets a parent interested in serving in the nursery on a Sunday, she can add his or her information to Workflows immediately using her phone.
“On Monday morning, I’ll get an email reminding me to follow up and send an application,” she explains. “Then the system walks me through the next steps — background checks, connecting them with the nursery coordinator, everything.”
Instead of relying on memory or scattered notes, the entire process becomes visible and trackable for the whole team.
When change serves connection
Adopting new systems can be uncomfortable, Hinesley acknowledges — especially in ministry settings where routines often run deep.
“Church and ministry is really hard because, well… it’s just really hard,” she says. “There’s a balance between ‘We’ve always done it this way’ and flying too close to cutting-edge. Within that, we lose the middle ground.”
Still, Hinesley says, she believes the temporary discomfort of change is worthwhile.
“When you’re managing data systems and trying to make sure people feel connected to God and to your church, it’s worth the pinch point at the beginning,” she explains. “In the end, you get rhythms that make everything easier.”
