We have been building software for churches for over twenty years and have regularly heard from clients about how cumbersome reports are across the industry. 

Some systems are so complex that creating a new report takes a degree in computer science. Others provide so many options that you're not sure which report is for what purpose.  Still others allow everyone to create reports and over time you're not sure who created what and which ones are still useful.

We've been through a traumatic few years in the life of our country.  It is the topic of sermons, podcasts, blog posts, conferences, books, and everyday conversations.  But, for some of the people in your congregation the trauma has been far greater than for others.  And it may have nothing to do with either Covid or culture. 

The trauma I'm speaking of is the loss of a spouse, family member, or close friend.  It is during these dark times that the church often shines the brightest.  And, when it does the spouse or family members are forever grateful for the encouragement, prayer, help, and care they receive. 

All of us realize that email marketing and website hosting are two different things. However, as we talked about last week's release of email links for text and social with our development team; we recognized that hosting email content was just a half step from being able to provide hosting for landing pages.  

It was so close in fact that we decided to build a Landing Page feature and released it with Email Links last week.  You can find it on Content Pages option under the Communicate button.  

Our team has been busy the last few months responding to customer ideas that make the software just a little always-better. 

These are listed in order of their release with the most current one first.  All of these were released in June, July, and August. 

It just happens this time that my favorite one, the update that I think may be most useful, is #1.  It was released a little over a week ago.  I think you'll love how it improves your website registration experience.  

1. Use pop-ups for registration from your website.
2. Use text message templates with free texting.
3. Guardrails for group auto-registration from forms.
4. Button and page title changes in service volunteers.
5. Print option added to service volunteer schedule.
6. Check-in Adults and College roles with other families.
7. Incremental search now includes legal first name.
8. Donor portal option shows giving for entire household.
9. Filter reports for families with or without children.

I recently found an article on Mobile Vs. Desktop Usage worldwide.  It confirmed my suspicion that in recent years mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage overall.

Think about how many people spend their working day on a computer.  Then compare that to time spent on the phone.  According to the article, the U.S. population spends 50% of their time online on their desktop / laptop, 46% on their phone, and 4% on tablets.  This trend toward mobile will surely only increase.

Trust is foundational to every relationship.  

In an article on building trust for Focus on the Family, Dr. John Townsend tells us that successful marriages are built on trust.

In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni makes it clear that a lack of trust on a team is foundational to every other team problem.

Proverbs 3:5,6 makes it clear that our ongoing relationship with God has to be founded on trust.

Last week we looked at lessons we've learned for helping connect people to groups.  Once people are in groups, though, how do you pray for and shepherd them.  We learned that an effective data capturing system can be used for attendance and much more.  

Before we start, it's helpful to realize that there are different perspectives on taking attendance.  Here are a few.

Churchteams started out in 1999 as a tool for making disciples and building teams. A year or so later we were referring to it as a small group software.  Within a couple of years it started gaining traction with churches all over the country. 

I was a small group pastor at the time and had been for almost a decade.  I wasn't new to the challenges of starting and building a small groups ministry, I was exhausted trying to do it.  When I understood cloud computing for the first time, I had a hunch this was the answer.  And, I had a friend who was willing to pioneer this idea with me using his skills as a software architect.  Mark and I have been doing that for 23 years now.  

People typically think of solving the problem of scheduling when they consider software for volunteers.  In this third and final post of this series on volunteers, we’re going to focus specifically on this, most complex , step of the volunteer system.

The best way to solve a problem is to define it.  Here are the seven problems and how scheduling software solves them.  It’s actually pretty complex.

Generally, staff are the catalysts and budgets are the fuel for ministry. It doesn’t matter whether a church has a lot of these or not, it takes volunteers to make church happen.

But, there has to be a deeper calling to volunteer than just making church happen. Like stewardship, volunteering or serving is a matter of discipleship. It is an important part of becoming more and more like Christ.