One of the topics we've discussed many times over the years has been how to provide secure check-in for children without printing labels.  With Text to Check-in and a few recent upgrades we released yesterday, this is now possible.  

Here's the big idea.

Text-to-Church, especially the Check-in feature, is one of the distinctives of Churchteams in the ChMS market.  Parents check in their kids simply by texting the word CHECK to your church's T2C number, which is often the church office number.  They get a Security Code, good for the day, texted back, and they show it to the volunteer or greeter.  This confirms they have checked in.

It's back to school time!  Families are prioritizing their fall and school year activities.  Many of them are thinking about how  church fits into those plans.  

In today's culture, parents are deeply concerned about safety and count on churches to be prepared.  This is a major factor in their choosing a church.  It is also a factor in their choice to discount or even leave a church.   

There's no reason for young families to count out your church just because you don't have security in place.  If you're really small and just have a few kids, keep it simple by issuing check-in wristbands.  You can Google to find those.  

We had a church sign up for Churchteams the other day because they saw what we call "All Check" in action at another church. The big idea with All Check is that you can use it to check everyone in to everything they are involved in on a Sunday morning.

Not only is it used to check in kids and print out security tags, but all your students and adults use it as well to check-in to their small groups, serving teams, and worship.  Literally, everyone check-in to everything.

Reid Hopkins is the Executive Pastor at The Brook in Madison, AL.  He also is the founder of XPMinistry.com, a website dedicated to encouraging Executive Pastors and helping the church be excellent with the administrative side of ministry.  We encourage you to check it out.

Next to our church is a busy Chick-fil-A.  At lunchtime, it’s hard to get in the parking
lot. Even though it has two lanes, the drive-thru line is so long people have to wait 30 minutes or more to place their order.  One of my best friends works with the team that built the Chick-fil-A app.  My favorite feature is the ability to place my order ahead of time for curbside pickup.  I order from the office, then go over and pick up my meal skipping the line completely.

The Churchteams Check-in system does for your church what the App does for Chick-fil-A. Our church is experiencing growth right now. We just completed a big construction project (a new worship center), and our church campus is located in a rapidly growing area of our city.

Imagine QR codes attractively posted for quick access as people gather for church: outdoor signs, indoor signs, signs on the back of chairs.  Picture people conveniently pointing their phone cameras and clicking a link to check-in.  Attendance is taken. Name tags are printed for kids.  The family security number is texted back.  And people receive a digital version of today's bulletin.

None of us will forget 2020, that's for sure.  As churches are starting to meet back, it's good to see check-in start to pick up again.  Here are a few blog posts since Covid started on ways we've adapted check-in to this new world.

Room Check-in, Count and Close
Medical Affirmation Before Check-in?
Text-to-Check-in for Virtual Attenders

As both veteran and new clients are thinking about their new approach to check-in, we often get asked if we can accommodate their different ideas.  Because our system is so robust we are almost always able to accommodate. 

Another Covid 19 Pandemic audible.  Last week an Executive Pastor friend, David Jordan, called to talk through including a medical form in the check-in process.  They had decided to continue to meet live even with much lower numbers - around 20% of old normal.  Like most XP's, he's a planner anticipating when they start back with children's ministry and check-in.

All of us miss being together on Sundays but we're finding new paths to stay connected.  Like the creative ways many of you are using Text-to-Church to help.

One recent idea was to use All Check to have people text to let us know they were watching the live-stream or video.  It also gives them an opportunity to respond, give and stay informed.  Like a church bulletin, but on steroids.

But there was a problem.  The system required starting up a label printer in order to use Check-in.  So, we changed development priorities last week and are excited to release an upgrade to Check-in that allows you to create an automatic check-in start up schedule without having to start a label printer.   

"How do I set up check-in for our church?"  The answer to that question continues to evolve as we continue to adopt newer and better technology.  I'm going to skip the history lesson and jump right into the decisions you need to make now about check-in and then give you a general process for implementing them.