Your birthday is a pretty big deal on Facebook.  If you use it a lot (or a little), you get to hear from dozens or hundreds of friends and family.  Even if you know that all they did was click a link or take 30 seconds to jot a note, it still makes you feel special.

Kids love getting mail, especially on their birthday.  Many children's ministries I know do a great job of making kids feel special by sending them a simple card on their day.

Last week in our Roundtable on Reports, we talked about different ways to use group reports.  If you're interested in more, here's the podcast.  It's Episode 13.

Typically, you probably think of group reports as enrollment rosters or group attendance.  Of course, those are important because they help you see how well the ministry is doing.  But, data can also be a life-saver for dealing with two challenges that every church faces during this season of the ministry year.  Let's personalize those and see how group reports can come to the rescue.

If you've ever created reports in software, you know that it can be challenging.  So, last week we started our fall Rountable on the topic of reports.  Check out episode 12 in the Roundtable Podcast to view the entire briefing.

If you ask around, I think you'll find that our clients love our software not just because of the technology, but also because our team cares about them.  Here's an excerpt from an email I got just last week from a Media Arts and Tech staff person after James helped them set up check-in.

"My friend was 100% right. ChurchTeams has been fantastic as we have gotten set up.  If you ever need an example person for a new church getting started please consider giving them my contact information. I would be happy to talk to anyone who has questions about what it is like to work with your software and your team."

If you follow this blog, you know that last week we released an important change to our look and feel.  The post focused on the ability to quickly look at a series of pinned attributes to have a sense of where someone is on your discipleship profile spectrum.

As you can see it gives a picture of their involvement with just a glance.  And it's fully customizable to accommodate the attributes you define as discipleship measures.  (Check out the Discipleship Signs series for more on that.)

If you haven't stayed up with recent blogs, check out the Tracking Discipleship Signs series.  In these posts I had a great time relating scripture application to data.  Then using this data to provide analytics that give you feedback on your discipleship effectiveness as a church.

Imagine QR codes attractively posted for quick access as people gather for church: outdoor signs, indoor signs, signs on the back of chairs.  Picture people conveniently pointing their phone cameras and clicking a link to check-in.  Attendance is taken. Name tags are printed for kids.  The family security number is texted back.  And people receive a digital version of today's bulletin.

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said,“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:31-32

Here is another place that Jesus makes it clear what His disciples look like. 

"Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23

Here is another place that Jesus makes clear what he expects of his disciples and thus what you and I should expect of them. Our first sign in this series was commitment or surrender.  This is self-denial. The next expectations from this verse are cross-carrying and following.

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34, 35

This is one of those times Jesus makes crystal clear what his followers look like.  This quality is so outstanding that people don't miss it.  Love.