Agility is the ability to improve speed and grace.  It is the way an athlete moves on the field that gives him or her a competitive advantage.  It is the way a lawyer exudes confidence with clarity and timing before the judge and jury.  It is the way a software company innovates quickly, efficiently and beautifully to serve their clients.  Agility is also the way some churches are able to constantly improve how they attract, equip and release people.

Last week I visited with the Executive Pastor and IT director of a church about an hour from me.  Over a decade ago they built a really useful software application to manage their church.  It is especially good at automating follow-up of guests.  We talked back then about Churchteams and I was impressed with what they built.  Obviously, they didn't need us.  

We are part of the Plano campus of Watermark Church here in Dallas.  It was a Saturday morning in July, I was at our church for the second week of training on speaking.  I had spent the week putting together a 10 minute talk using the structure we had been given.  I had also had 3 lunch meetings that week, a morning ministry team meeting, an early morning accountability group and an evening spent with a couple's group.  I was tired that morning and wanted to be home to get stuff done around the house.  As I was talking with a good friend, I found myself complaining about all the time I had invested in ministry that week.  Now, that's not really like me.  I love ministry and am grateful for the opportunities to invest in the lives of people.  But, something was happening in me that morning that happens all the time in the lives of your most engaged leaders.  I was feeling over-engaged.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."  

This article was updated with new and more accurate content on 2/25/20.  Here is the link to the new article.

We just released a check scanning feature within the contribution batch data entry screen.  It is designed to work with a Magtek 22523009 scanner (pictured below).  This scanner has a USB keyboard interface so it plugs into a PC or Mac and acts just like a keyboard when you scan a check.  It requires no setup other than plugging in the scanner.  When you test it by scanning a check, you will see that it types for you.

You'll love this!

Do you need a directory look up with less information/access than a full member profile - maybe even for some staff?

Earlier this week we released a new searchable directory.  Here's what it looks like:

Thanks to over 100 different churches who jumped on the volunteer webinars last week and this week.  Others have asked about it, so I added another one next week on Tuesday at 11:30 Central.  Double check for your time zone and then sign up here if you missed or want a redo.

We've already upgraded 2 parts of the feature based on the webinars: