3 things I learned from hitting the road that can help your ministry
By Shanda Boyett
Everything Pushpay does is driven by its purpose to bring people together by strengthening community, connection, and belonging. What better way to live that mission than to hit the road for a weeklong tour of churches in the Houston, Texas area?
As part of our “Together We” campaign, whose focus is on celebrating the impact our products bring to our customers and communities, a team of Pushpay associates and I jumped into our blinged-out SUV to visit Bear Creek Church, Faithbridge Church, Higher Dimension Church, Houston Northwest Church, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, United City Church, and Woodlands Church.
My colleague and Pushpay Customer Reference Manager, Pam Flanery, said it so well.
“We started our Together We campaign because we wanted to get out amongst our customers and share our heart. We wanted them to see that we’re not just a great software company, but there are people behind Pushpay who have a heart for the Kingdom and for our customers. It was a way for us to get to know our customers in a better way — to drop off swag, to build relationships, to hear their stories, to see how they’re making a difference in the Kingdom, and to solidify that relationship we have with them — that #TogetherWe can do great things.”
As we listened to the churches share about their ministries, there were three key takeaways that inspired us, and can help your church achieve its mission more quickly.
1. Giving technology can help you weather a crisis
Many of the churches we spoke with were impacted by the destructive floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey. Many had just opened new buildings when COVID hit. In-person worship and the proverbial passing of the plate came to a halt. Digital giving was a lifeline.
“Toward the end of 2021, we were facing about a million dollar shortfall,” said Faithbridge Church Business Administrator Michael Sullivan. “We just announced to the church a few weeks ago that we closed the gap. So, we’ll finish this campaign fully-funded through a pandemic, which is just amazing. Now we have the space.”
2. Engaging volunteers is easier with the right tools
We spoke with volunteers at every church and learned how critical they are for helping churches achieve their missions. Having a ChMS solution that enables you to easily identify and communicate with your volunteer army? It doesn’t get any better than that.
At Houston Northwest Church, their vision is to make Houston more like heaven — and it starts with volunteers. Karen Stamps, the Director of Connections and Communications, said it’s important to make sure volunteers are put in the right role and receive the right training.
“It is very important to us that we allow people to serve in their area of giftedness and passion. So we’re able to connect a spiritual gifts test [using forms in Pushpay’s ChMS], have people go online, take that test. We can recommend for them where they should serve. And then we have onboarding processes. Processes [also part of Pushpay’s ChMS] have made our lives so much easier here. But we use Pushpay to set up processes to onboard our volunteers, to plug them into schedules. We can communicate with our volunteers through those schedules, and then they even receive reminders as their volunteer time comes up. So we are so excited to be able to take advantage of schedules and all of the pieces of the volunteer process using Pushpay.”
3. Using data can help you grow more quickly and disciple more effectively
More and more, churches are using data in unexpected ways to be more effective in ministry.
Ryan Shook, Creative Director at Woodlands Church, said it has been critical there.
“Over the past several years, Pushpay has come alongside us and really supported us through ministry at first through giving and the way that the Pushpay giving system has supported us has been amazing with exposing data that we otherwise would’ve missed out on. Being able to look into the lives of our givers, our members, our donors has been such a great tool for us because before Pushpay, we were kind of running blind, trying to figure out who was giving, when they were giving, how their giving was changing over time. And Pushpay really gave the insights and tools that we needed to not only make giving simpler, easier for our congregation, but to also help us connect with them in their heart.”
Focusing on tech so churches can focus on people
Each church had unique ministries that help their communities in powerful ways — student outreach, new church buildings, spanish ministries, feeding the hungry, and sex trafficking ministries.
And for every church, technology was key to those ministries. It’s given us a real sense of the impact that our products are making in not only our church communities, but the communities around us as a whole. I’m just so appreciative of the blessing this #TogetherWe trip has brought all of us.
Learn more about Pushpay’s #TogetherWe campaign.
Shanda Boyett is the Director of Corporate Marketing for Pushpay. For more information about how we’re working with churches to build community and inspire generosity, visit pushpay.com.
I appreciate your sermons, and I miss going to this northwest church, which I want want to see. It’s just that I had to relocate and join another excellent church here in Houston, https://lhhouston.church/, but you’re in my thoughts and prayers!