A few weeks ago, Tracy, an 18-month-in Churchteams client, shared the illustration below with us.  It was her way to picture the consolidation process they've gone through to choose church software and to communicate their choice to their team.

Since selection and communication are both common processes for churches, I asked her if I could share the illustration in a blog post.  Then I asked her a few questions to better understand her story and the background to the illustration.  My questions are in bold below followed by her responses in italics.  See if her story sounds familiar.

My bookshelves used to be organized by topic and alphabeticized by author.  I could find anything quickly.  Not so much anymore.  I could give excuses, but they're a mess and make it a challenge to find something when I need it.  

One of our clients asked us a few months ago if we could add spanish versions of the system keywords used in Text-to-Church.  He knew he could already use spanish keywords for any group, event, or form and just wanted to upgrade that a bit to system keywords.

During a recent podcast with EST, we delved into the reasons why churches tend to fall behind when it comes to utilizing technology. As always, spending time with Sam and Josh was a pleasure.

Although the conversation with EST had a life of its own, I like to come prepared. With the assistance of GPT, I compiled four reasons why churches often lag behind in technology adoption.  You might find this a helpful evaluation tool.  It is followed by a single idea to help you get ahead.

There has been a lot of conversation since Covid about the challenges of recruiting volunteers.  I've written a few posts on it, but my favorite one was Seven Steps To Deal With The Stress of Volunteer Management from last July.  It outlines the process for everything from recruiting to caring for volunteers.

This one is much narrower in scope.  In fact, I'd like to zero in on the first month or two after a volunteer is placed by looking at 3 common problems with new volunteers and how to solve them.  Here are the problems followed by a recommended solution:

I talk about the use of Notes all the time in these blog posts.  However, a few months ago a long time user / friend pointed out that I had never done a blog post on it directly.  It's time.

Let me give you an idea of how important this topic is.  In my view, getting everyone on your team to use the Notes feature will increase staff use of the software by 200% and make your team as a whole 50% more efficient! 

Those numbers are based on my experience and gut feeling.  If we were to actually create an experiment to calculate them, those rates of improvement might be low.  Imagine that!    

Millenials have been surrounded by technology, computers, the Internet, social media, and mobile devices since birth.  They are digital natives and they are starting to lead churches full of members who are not. 

Left unattended, this difference in attachment to technology could bog down the effectiveness of the vision and strategy of younger leaders.  As a company that builds technology for churches; we think, talk, and pray about issues like this.

The oldest millenials turned 40 the last few years.  For as long as I can remember, 35-45 has been the sweet spot for churches looking for new staff, especially a senior pastor. 

Our friends on the EST podcast focus specifically on helping this new generation of leaders serve established churches.  A couple of weeks ago I was on with Sam talking about bridging the technology gap with older members.  Here's that podcast.