For years I've been following Jim Egli. His books, blogs, and brotherly love have influenced my own views toward groups, discipleship, and ministry in general.

I recently read a post Jim wrote that I believe could have a profound effect on churches, if it gets into the right hands. With Jim's permission, I'm sharing here his "4 Reasons Why Every Pastor Should Lead a Small Group." I will share only his four main points and then add my own commentary to them. To read his original post—which you should!—click on the link.
 

With each passing month, more churches begin using children’s check-in software.  That’s why more and more church management software (ChMS or CMS) companies are adding new check-in options to their products.  As the number of choices increase, choosing the right software might become difficult.  So here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering your kid’s check-in options:

IT SEEMS THAT EVERY LEADER AND ORGANIZATION WANTS TO BE INNOVATIVE.

Momentum. Few of us have it. All of us want it.

The Churchteams family would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas.  We want to thank pastors and church leaders for allowing us to partner with you in ministry.  It is our great privilege to serve you and help you accomplish your mission.  May the Lord bless you as this year draws to a close and as a new year begins.  

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:

Traditionally churches receive donation via offering plates and or offering boxes, but in the last 15 years the option to give digitally has slowly increased in popularity.  In fact, online giving is no longer a trend, it’s the new normal for churches.  It’s not uncommon for 50% or more of church revenues to come in through electronic giving.  It’s also common for churches to see a financial increase of 10 to 20% when they intentionally ask their parishioners to shift from traditional giving to digital giving.  So why then are some churches still reluctant to embrace online giving?  Because they’ve been fooled by the following three common myths about giving digitally.

There’s no doubt that one of the most toxic small group ministry moves is changing small group systems, models or strategies too frequently or flippantly. It is important to make a three year commitment and pursue it with everything you’ve got when you do decide to change. Still, there is a right time to change strategies.

[photo credit: National Geographic]

At Churchteams we whole heartedly believe that our church management software (ChMS or CMS) is the greatest value for churches.  The greatest value?  That seems like a pretty big claim.  Well to back it up, here are 12 features in Churchteams that lend credibility to this claim.