After interviewing our support team, and looking at church websites that use registrations and forms well, I've come up with 12 of the top ways churches are using this amazing feature. We're going to start today talking about Connection Cards.
Our friend, Nelson Searcy, from Journey Church NYC and Boca Raton has trained thousands of pastors on the use of Connection Cards. His book, Fusion, is a best seller with the subtitle: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. If you are committed to the idea of assimilating new people into your church, this is a must read. Here is a paragraph from chapter 4.
"Without contact information, the Assimilation System breaks down. So once your first-time guests have successfully made it from the street to the seat, getting their information should be one of your primary goals - not just inspiring them with beautiful music or impacting them with your preaching. Your focus should not only be on getting them to respond to an invitation but also on knowing how to invite them back so that they can witness the power of God in a consistent, strong way."
In this chapter and other places he shares the method their church has used for many years for collecting guest information using a Communication or Connection Card. This is usually a cardstock form used for capturing email, phone numbers, interest areas, prayer requests, and more.
Responding to people once they submit the form is paramount for assimilation success. In many churches follow up is done by handing the cards out to staff or some other analog process.
We can help you up your game here by providing a digital way to make assignments and set up accountability processes. To do this though, you have to manually enter the data into your Church Management Software. Read this Knowledge Base Article to learn how we streamline data entry.
In recent years there has been a lot of interest in providing a digital connection card option. With Text-to-Church people simply text a keyword like "connect" to the church office number to receive a link to the form. Some churches use a QR code as well. The advantage here is that the respondents themselves do the data entry.
When we developed the digital connection card system, we incorporated our automated workflow system to help make follow-up assignments and provide accountability. This Knowledge Base Article on Creating a Digital Connection Card walks you through those details.
The big idea is that once a person completes the form, the software can automatically register them for groups related to whatever responses they indicated. The leader of these groups are then notified that someone has been added to their follow-up group.
The group is set up so the leader can see everyone they are responsible to follow-up, all pertinent information including email and phone number, and the Notes feature where they can log their activity and make any follow up assignments they need to. Once finished, they can remove the person, transfer them to someone else, or leave them in the group for further follow up.
Sr. Pastors and other leaders can access the group to review and provide accountability for the follow up they expect. They can also create, save, and schedule reports that show the notes or comments group leaders make. These are automated to show up their inbox and the group leader's inbox monthly or weekly as desired. There is no longer a reason not to know with confidence how well your assimilation system is working.
And, it all starts with people completing a Connection Card.