Boyd Pelley

Boyd Pelley
Co-founder, Churchteams. From 1990 to 2008 served as discipleship, administrative and family pastor of churches in New Mexico, Nebraska and Texas. Married 30+ years, 2 married adult children.
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Recent Posts

5 steps to capture and actually use data for volunteer team-building in church

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/19/25 2:00 PM

Church volunteers that serve with passion and purpose are intentionally cultivated by pastors and staff who know how to discover, manage, and deploy spiritual gifts and ministry interests effectively. The problem in most churches is not that they don't believe in the value of this information, but in the chaotic way they have managed (siloed) it. 

When churches teach on, then assess spiritual gifts and ministry interests, that information is stored in a file cabinet, a spreadsheet, or the assessing software.  Even if it is somehow stored in the main church database, volunteer leaders either don't have access to it, or they don't know what to do with it.  

We spend a lot of time helping churches solve data problems like this one.  There is so much potential for discipleship and team-building that is hidden in this data.  We want to help you get it out and make it actionable.

Here are five steps to help you enter and actually use data for team-building. 

1.  Help members learn about and discover their spiritual gifts

The first step is helping people understand the connection between God's grace to them, and the working out of that grace in the church through their own spiritual gifting. While teaching, reading, prayer, and reflection are foundational to this process; a reliable spiritual gifts assessment can be a helpful catalyst.

We highly recommend utilizing a well-regarded online assessment, such as the ones available through ChurchGrowth.org, Freeshapetest.com, and ItoWe.org. These tools provide a structured way for individuals to explore and identify their primary spiritual gifts.

2.  Make it easy for members to enter their gifts into Churchteams

Once individuals complete an assessment, the real potential comes from integrating that information into your Church Management Software (ChMS).  In Churchteams, we recommend emailing the assessment link using our Communication report "Request for Updated Info."  

This report creates a unique "Click here" link that takes people right to the page in Churchteams to input their assessment results.  No username, no login, just one click and input the information!

Here's an example of one I customized to illustrate what people will receive with links that: (1) take them to the assessment, and (2) allow them to enter their results into Churchteams.

Note:  Before you send this out, be sure to: (1) customize your People Attributes (People > Settings > People Attributes) to match the assessment results, and (2) test it by sending an email to yourself first.

3.  Use reports to find the right people

Now that data is centralized, staff can use it to find people with gifts and/or interests that fit their ministry needs.  Need someone with the gift of hospitality for your welcome team? Or a person with the gift of administration for your finance committee?  Use Reports to create a list, or, better yet, add these people into an "Interested in Serving" group.  Be sure to Save the report so that you don't have to re-create it each time you need to use it.

Once you have created your "Interested in Serving" group(s), another best practice is to link Ministry Interest responses to those groups.  This will automate the process of placing people interested in a ministry into the correct group.  Anyone with the Group Role of Leader in the "Interested in Serving" group is automatically notified. 

 

4.  Use groups to recruit and place people in teams

The role of the "Interested in Serving" group is to gather potential volunteers into one place.  Be sure Notes is one column in the layout for this group so that you can use them to summarize conversations or other interactions, and assign / schedule follow up tasks.  By doing this you can manage all your recruiting activities in one place.

When you find out a person is ready to join a volunteer team transfer them to that group.  If they decline the opportunity to serve, just remove them from the "Interested in Serving" group.      

In yourvolunteer team groups, customize the group layout to include spiritual gifts.  This will give the team leader a more complete picture of how this team fits together.  Non-staff will automatically see the groups they lead in the App making the spiritual gifts of team members more available to them.   

The person with administration gifts would be perfect for planning or organizing something, while the encourager or teacher might prefer to teach or facilitate.  This is where the data becomes valuable for team-building.

5.  Use notes to track conversations and schedule care

Once someone is placed on a team, use the volunteer scheduling tool to invite and remind them to serve.  It will also keep record of their serving attendance.  This is important to give you an idea of how much they serve and how consistent they are. Helpful information to have later on.

For that more personal touch, use the Notes feature once again to remind you as the team leader to touch base with them to see how they are doing.  This is especially important when they first begin to serve. 

You might considering setting a task to follow up with them a month after they are placed on the team to see how serving is going for them.  Then again every other month after that.

Look for signs in your conversations that people love what they're doing or if perhaps there might be another position or ministry that would better fit them.  Track this with Notes and be sure to share insights with other ministry leaders.  This is how staff leadership teams help each other.

When individuals serve in areas that align with their spiritual gifts and ministry interests, the benefits ripple throughout the entire church:

  • Increased Engagement: People are more likely to stay engaged and committed when they feel fulfilled and effective in their roles.

  • Reduced Burnout: Serving in alignment with gifts reduces the feeling of burden and increases joy.

  • Greater Impact: Teams operating within their collective strengths are more productive and impactful in achieving ministry goals.

  • Stronger Community: Shared purpose and effective collaboration build deeper relationships within teams.

By intentionally tracking and leveraging spiritual gifts within your ChMS, you're not just managing data; you're cultivating a culture of empowered service that transforms individuals and strengthens the entire body of Christ. It's a strategic approach to team building that honors God's design for His people and His church.

For more insights, check out the videos in our Volunteers showcase.  Or, email support@churchteams.com to set up a time to talk personally. 

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Tags: Volunteers

Five important guidelines to align your team on the use of Church Management Software

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/5/25 2:30 PM

Here are five important guidelines to align your pastors and staff on the use of Churchteams, or your church management software:  (1) Learn the language, (2) Be a team player, (3) Get in the game, (4) Don't litter, and (5) Join the huddles.  As you implement them you will see significant improvement in your ministry process, communication, and feedback.

In past decades entrepreneurs saw problems in the church and developed software to solve them.  Pastors and church staff who managed that problem were excited to get the help they needed and started using that solution-specific software. 

Over time churches ended up with data in many different systems. This has led to siloed data that is difficult to connect together and use for anything else. 

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Tags: Best Practices

New!  One distinctive:  2 registration, 3 communication, and 3 data management upgrades

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 7/29/25 12:45 PM

One of the distinctives people love about Churchteams is our attention to our clients.  You are the ones using the software day in and day out.  What you say to us matters.  We listen.

Here are 2 registration,  2 data management, and 3 communication upgrades that illustrate this point. 

Review them here, then click on any that sound interesting to learn more.  If you're a regular Churchteams user, they might (1) save you some time, (2) help you communicate more clearly, or (3) help you empower your leaders.

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Tags: New Release

Groupfinder has a fresh new look! Six common questions about this tool.

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 7/22/25 1:45 PM
We’re excited to share the brand-new look for our legendary Groupfinder tool! The refreshed user interface offers you a cleaner look for thesearch filters, enhanced mapping features, and beautifully aligned group image cards. Use the embed code we provide to make the groups page on your church website look and feel inviting.
  
 
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Tags: Groups, Websites

5 hidden metrics to help your church track outreach, assimilation, and connection

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 7/8/25 2:00 PM

Worship attendance and weekly giving are obvious metrics every church uses to evaluate health and growth.  But, there are a series of activities underlying these numbers that actually drive them.  These include: outreach, follow-up, equipping, groups, and serving.

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Tags: Reports

What is the best way to help church members find a small group?

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 6/24/25 2:00 PM

The most effective way to help church members who aren’t yet part of a small group is through focused, personal communication designed just for them, rather than a general announcement.

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Tags: Groups

How to track the story of worship services - important notes as well as attendance

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 6/17/25 1:30 PM

The story of your weekly service(s) involves more than just attendance.  Customize our meeting reports to capture not only attendance; but sermon topic, salvations, baptisms, guests, parking spots, weather, holidays, and anything else that adds depth to your worship history.  

Last year I wrote blog posts on How to solve the problem and see the potential of worship service attendance and The best way to collect attendance from all your worship services.  These focused on how to use Check-in (we call it All Check) and Connection cards to capture individual attendance.  This can be augmented with counters reviewing the total and adding in a # for guests to accurately reflect actual attendance.

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Tags: Best Practices

New!  How to use Precheck By Text to improve entry into ticketed events

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 6/3/25 2:30 PM
Thanks to this upgrade, gaining admission to your ticketed event is now easier than ever! Guests simply text "checkin" to your Text-to-Church number, click the provided link to confirm, and then show their confirmation text at the entrance.
 
While most church events are open to all, some require tickets for admission, either to confirm payment or to manage capacity.   Our registration and check-in features have worked together for years to sign people up for events and then check them in just like they would for a service. 
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Tags: New Release

What trends for using technology in discipleship still need addressed?

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 5/20/25 2:00 PM

The last question to our panel (context) which is the title of this blog post was open-ended in nature.  I took it as an opportunity to share two major concerns I have for technology in discipleship.  The first one relates to parenting and the use of technology.  The second one concerns church data and the use of technology.

I was a family pastor for many years and have always been interested in parenting through different seasons of technology development.  Our kids graduated from high school in 2008 and 2010, so their first phones were flip phones.  They used them a lot to text their friends, so we had to put boundaries on their access to their phones at night.  They were also not allowed to look at them at school.

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Tags: Church Management Software

How AT&T's discontinuing email to text will impact church texting

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 5/6/25 2:15 PM

In less than six weeks, on June 17th, AT&T will Say Goodbye to email-to-text and text-to-email.  In other words, your church-goers who use AT&T will no longer be able to receive texts you send through our free texting option.

When we first developed texting in Churchteams, it was done exclusively by leveraging this service which was offered by all major US telecommunication companies.  This allowed us to offer free texting for many years.  However, in 2020 and 2021, all the major telecoms launched their 10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) services, the first step in a shift away from free texting.

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Tags: Communication

How to balance the benefits of technology and personal relationships in discipleship

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 4/29/25 2:00 PM

 

The third question given to our panel (back story) had to do with finding the balance between the use of technology and the importance of face-to-face relationships in discipleship.  

I think I understand the concern behind this question, but to be honest my definition of discipleship leaves very little room for technology interference.  Here's what I mean.

Christian discipleship is about becoming more and more like Jesus.  At its core this is something that happens within the heart of a person.  This means transforming a person's mind, emotion, and will so that they align with that of Jesus.

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Tags: Church Management Software

How to turn a fuzzy blur of ministry into a clear focus on people

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 4/15/25 1:15 PM

Holy week can be a blur of admin details for pastors and church staff.  They are spending extra time this week preparing for a Seder meal, or maybe a Good Friday service, and very likely extra services over the weekend.   And, hopefully, a plan to follow-up new guests.

I just got off the phone with a part time, children's minister who put together an Easter egg hunt this past weekend.  She got a stack of cards with information from the families that attended.

She just finished manually entering that data into a spreadsheet.  One at a time she is copying and pasting addresses to send emails.  She is also typing phone numbers into her phone one at a time to send follow up texts.

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Tags: Best Practices

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