Last week I had the opportunity to meet with the men in my Zoom group of business owners at beautiful Lake Chelan in Washington state.  This is a group of men committed to serving the Lord and each other well.  All their stories are amazing.  I'll share more in future blogs. But, this one relates directly to my last blog on marketing and the stages of evangelism.

Tags: Best Practices

When you give a company your email address, they use it to cultivate your interest in their product or service over time.  If you like it, you read a subject line or even open an email once in a while.  If you don't, you ignore it or unsubscribe.  And, guess what, it works. 

 

What if you did the same thing to reach people in your community?  What might that process look like and what tools do you need to make it happen?  

Tags: Registration, Automation, Communication

A few weeks ago, in a blog post entitled Groups consistency, I talked about using attendance as a sign that points to faithfulness.  And faithfulness is a pre-requisite character quality for choosing leaders who multiply the ministry.  (2 Timothy 2:2)

In the same way, attendance is a sign for pastors and church staff that something may be going on in a person's life they are called to shepherd.

Tags: Groups, Reports

There are a ton of administrative details related to your ministry.  These feel like tedious, repetitive tasks that have to be done each day, week and month.  On top of the important tasks, urgent ones keep screaming for your attention.  It can make you feel overwhelmed and stressed.

Tags: Check-in, New Release, Automation, Reports

Most of us think of Excel about like we do the grocery store - you just go there  when you need something.  Others consider it their office and work in it all the time.

Tags: Best Practices

Last week we looked at our upgrade to the Group Summary report and talked about why consistency is helpful for identifying groups that need extra attention.  This has huge value for the pastor in charge of that ministry.

 

Similarly, a summary of various ministries gives the Sr. Pastor, Executive, or Leadership team the ability to identify the make up and relative health of the various ministries that they oversee.  They want to see the consistency of children's ministry compared to student ministry, or the consistency of adult small groups compared to worship.  It helps them have a feel for where the wind is blowing and which ministries need attention.

Tags: New Release, Reports

In discipleship discussions, we often quote 2 Timothy 2:2 as a pillar text for understanding discipleship that multiplies disciples.  The idea, of course, is that Paul invested in training Timothy and was encouraging him to invest in other people who would invest in others.  

Notice the adjective that Paul uses to describe the people in whom Timothy was to invest his time.  Depending on your translation, the word is generally reliable (NIV, NLT), or faithful (ESV, NASB, KJV).  It is someone in whom you trust.

Tags: New Release, Groups, Reports

Matthew 6:21 says, "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  So, one sign of how much an individual or family treasures your church is their giving.  

Tags: Giving, Automation, Reports

Another huge benefit of the Roundtables that we've been doing the past couple of months has been the amazing ideas for upgrades and tweaks we've gotten as we interact with our most engaged users.

Many of the upgrades in this post came from that environment.  Some came directly through support.  All of them are a picture of our commitment to build the best software for churches in the context of community.

Tags: New Release

Back in January I announced that we were going to start a weekly Roundtable for clients to discuss topics of interest.  The idea was to create a collaborative learning environment for clients and our staff.  We admitted up front that it would be an experiment and that we would be learning as we go.  I thought you might want an update.

Tags: Church Management Software, Best Practices

The Roundtable this Thursday starts our discussion on workflows.  We'll have different users share some of their favorites and brainstorm possibilities for using this powerful feature.  But, with Easter coming soon, I thought it would be good to consider how workflows might help with Easter communication.  

Tags: Automation

Yes!  Another great reason to consider Churchteams online giving.  Yesterday we released a new option to allow your givers the choice to cover the transaction fees for their online contribution. To be honest when I first heard of the idea of "No fees online giving," I was skeptical.

First of all, there is no such thing as "no fees" online transactions.  Banks and credit card issuing companies all charge for their services.  So, while "no fees" is technically true from the church administrative perspective, it feels misleading in that the fees are just passed on to the giver.  It seemed to me that "no fees" was marketing hype to get people's attention.

Tags: Giving