I talk about the use of Notes all the time in these blog posts.  However, a few months ago a long time user / friend pointed out that I had never done a blog post on it directly.  It's time.

Let me give you an idea of how important this topic is.  In my view, getting everyone on your team to use the Notes feature will increase staff use of the software by 200% and make your team as a whole 50% more efficient! 

Those numbers are based on my experience and gut feeling.  If we were to actually create an experiment to calculate them, those rates of improvement might be low.  Imagine that!    

Millenials have been surrounded by technology, computers, the Internet, social media, and mobile devices since birth.  They are digital natives and they are starting to lead churches full of members who are not. 

Left unattended, this difference in attachment to technology could bog down the effectiveness of the vision and strategy of younger leaders.  As a company that builds technology for churches; we think, talk, and pray about issues like this.

The French writer, poet, and aviation pioneer, Antoine de Saint-Exupery famously said, "A goal without a plan is just a wish."  

Easter was just a couple of weeks ago.  Hopefully, your church saw lots of visitors and twice-a-year attenders. How has your follow-up with these people gone?  Are you working the plan or was your goal for them to return really just a wish?

What do you think about your website?  Does it accomplish what you wish it would for your church or organization?  This past year we spent a lot of time asking and analyzing these questions for our website.

That's why we were so excited last week to publish the results of our work.  Check it out.  There are all kinds of articles and blog posts out there from professional marketing and website design firms that are incredible.  We don't pretend to compete with them.  But, we did learn some things along the way.

I recently found an article on Mobile Vs. Desktop Usage worldwide.  It confirmed my suspicion that in recent years mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage overall.

Think about how many people spend their working day on a computer.  Then compare that to time spent on the phone.  According to the article, the U.S. population spends 50% of their time online on their desktop / laptop, 46% on their phone, and 4% on tablets.  This trend toward mobile will surely only increase.

Last week I shared how church is critical to understanding the self-evident truth that all people are created.  This week I want to look at how a teams world-view is developed and how it gives people the best chance to realize the second self-evident truth - that all people are equal. 

Together I hope this two-week, Fourth of July inspired series of blogs gives a little perspective on what we are seeking to do as a company.

The second paragraph of the U.S. Declaration of Independence begins, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The other day I did a podcast on using ChMS for discipleship with my friends at Missional Marketing.  I have loved learning from them and thought you might as well.  So, I asked them to write a guest blog post for me. 

This morning we released an upgrade to automate important database changes that need to happen when someone is marked as deceased.  Usually this comes up because a surviving family member has received a letter, an email, a giving statement or some other communication that includes their deceased loved one's name or other information. 

For many churches the most disruptive way that life happened over the past two years has been the stress level of staff.  

Our senior pastor resigned after 25 years, we are now searching for a new senior pastor.  Our children's minister also resigned.  Both in 2021.

Some churches thrived the last couple of years in the areas of evangelism and missions by serving their community as testing / vaccination sites or food distribution centers.  These raised their level of visibility.

But, the more common experience has been like this one from our January survey.