Many churches that receive hundreds of checks every week use check readers and scanners to help with data entry. We recently did some research on these systems and built then released what we believe is a much more streamlined approach. Here is what we learned and our application.

He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.  Malachi 4:6

The highlight of the youth ministry year is often that week everyone gets on a bus to go sleep in a cabin, play lots of games, and learn more about what it means to follow Jesus as a teenager. Lives are changed forever at youth camp. 

Easter is this weekend. Once you do your follow-up from this weekend, the final run for the ministry year begins. This is a great season for recognizing volunteers and celebrating milestones like school graduations. But, for many of us, those things are already in motion and we are looking ahead to plans for the summer. In the next few blogs I'd like to help you get started on that planning and how to use church software and Churchteams in particular to help you make it happen.  To get started, check out this model of the role of software in ministry.

In my last post I mentioned that our "Better Website" hadn't performed like we had hoped the first month. As I wrap up this series of blog posts, it's important not just to present a plan to your folks, but also to have a process in place to help avoid failure and find success.

The team has been busy the past few months adding a number of items that you may have already seen and not realized.  For power users, take a moment to review these 12 items, all of which sharpen your Churchteams experience.  

My guess is that most of you will especially appreciate the new pinned attributes.  Third on this list.

These few blogs on building a better website are really just a synopsis of my thoughts as we've gone through the process. We released our website just over a month ago and are tweaking it along the way. To be honest, it hasn't produced like we had hoped it would. But, it certainly is not a flop either. Reminds of Proverbs 16:9.

This is #4 in this series about making a better website.  The big idea is that your website needs to tell a story.  If you are not the hero, see #2 in this series, then what is your role as a church?  What is our role as a Church Management System provider?  The answer: We are the guide. 

Whether you are new to Churchteams or power users, plan to join our team and other CT users for our first ever User's Gathering on Monday afternoon, April 23rd before Watermark Church's Church Leaders Conference April 24-26, 2018. 

All stories have a bad guy.  The bad guy, of course, is the problem that the hero of the story must confront and be victorious over if the story (our software, church, etc.) is going to be at all interesting. When thinking about our website, we typically assume everyone knows who the bad guy is and start by showing the hero gaining victory over whatever problem they are facing.  That is the goal.  But, what if we add more depth by personifying the bad guy better.