In my last blog I showed you how to use a single registration to place people into a group related to each response.  It is a new feature called Automated Group Registration.  

Those of us who deal with database maintenance at all share the headache of discovering and merging duplicates.  The best practice for keeping a clean database in our church software is to schedule a monthly event or task to run merge reports for members and families.  We've added and detailed several options for both types of merge reports under the Members button then click Merge.  This is your foundational task for maintaining your database. 

How well are your emails really being received?  We've been on a learning curve in this area the past few years.  As many of you know we released significant upgrades to our email system back in 2016.  Here's the blog post - New Release: Built-in Email Marketing.  It contains the details. But since it came up at our User's Gathering a couple of weeks ago, here are a few best practices that some of our clients are using to increase the impact of their email communication.

We had such a great time gathering last week with staff and friends from around the country.  It was our first time to do something like this and we learned much that I hope to share with you in the next few blogs.  We broke into smaller groups and did work around tables.  One of the first questions people interacted over was, "What delights you about Churchteams." 

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.

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. 

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.

This is week #2 of applying what we learned while building a better website to church websites. Last week, we established that a website tells a story. This week, we start looking at the elements of a good story and how they apply to a website. First, the hero.

On December 31, we launched a brand new, super-upgraded website for Churchteams. If you haven’t seen it, click here to check it out. We started the process 6 months ago and for those of you who are considering redoing or building a website, here’s some things I’ve learned. I am indebted to Don Miller’s work at Storybrand whose blog and book I have consumed, and our marketing partner, Lure Studios, whose team has come alongside and mentored us through this process.  For a few weeks, I'm going to share, in my own words what I've learned about how to build a better website and how I think it applies to building a better church website.  Here is the big picture: