Almost six months ago I started a blog series on the top ways to use registrations for events and forms in Churchteams.  Our support and onboarding teams deal with these applications of the software all the time.  In addition, our Knowledge Base is full of related articles that need to be optimized. 

The goal of this series was to draw attention to specific ways to use the feature and then point to articles and video resources to help build out these applications.  I did some research on how some of our top churches were using the feature on their websites and used those findings to outline this series.

A growing number of churches use Prepare your visit forms to make the first visit experience as hospitable as possible.  I had written on that as part of a series on workflows a few years ago.  In addition to that use of the registration feature, here is a summary of this series with a link to each topic for quick access.

If you have kids or grandkids, you may know that many preschools and private schools start registering for the following school year in February and March.  My kids were talking about it for our grandkids just the other day.

If your church or organization offers a preschool, elementary school, or any other program that requires paying tuition or installments over time; you know managing that entire process can be a challenge.  We've navigated these waters with many churches through the years and now have an incredible solution that addresses pretty much every concern you are likely to have.  Here are some examples:

How do you register parents and kids for Camp and VBS currently?  Is it all by paper?  Do you use a third party tool or your website provider form to capture the information electronically and then have to export it to Excel or manually enter it into your database?  What about accepting and tracking payments?  

In Meet The Software every week, I talk about how we empower leaders by integrating their multiple data sources (including sticky notes and Excel) into a single database.  Instead of their information being scattered, leadership is empowered when their information lives and works together!  Join me in that Zoom webinar for additional insights into why and how technology evolved to create this frustration and how we resolve it.

The last few months I've been making my way through the top 10 ways churches use Registrations for events, forms, and more.  If you are a part of a church, you know well the purpose of potlucks and meal trains.

Potlucks are an incredible time for people to gather and fellowship around food.  Rather than hiring a caterer, potlucks share responsibility for bringing the meal.  They are a great time to try different family favorites and just have fun!

As you may know Churchteams started out as a small group software.  We grew because of the innovative ways we developed to help churches connect people to groups, group leaders communicate, and staff to coach and care for groups.

The advent season is upon us which, for church finances, means end of year giving is here, and sending statements season is a month away.  These are important parts of a church stewardship development plan.

Asking people to make a pledge or giving commitment is another, common practice for many churches going in to a new calendar or fiscal year.  There are several benefits to this practice:

From my experience, if a person memorizes around 200 of the Bible verses that are most important to them and that they hear the most in sermons and elsewhere, they have a really good grasp on scripture and are able to use it in any situation throughout the day, every day.  One of these is a familiar verse that you likely already know - Philippians 4:6-7.  

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus."

So far in this series we've looked at using registrations (forms) for Connection Cards, New Members Class, and Membership Commitment.   Most churches expect fully engaged members to be part of a small group where they belong and grow; and that they will serve somewhere using their talents and spiritual gifts.  That's why we included small group and serving questions in the membership form. 

In a perfect world members stay engaged in groups and serving, but in the real world they don't.  You need on-ramps for these members and for regular attenders who prefer to engage before they join.

The Connection Card is the way to capture information from guests and regular attenders who are interested in learning more about your church.  The Membership Class is the most important call to action in your communication to these people because it directs everyone to a single place to share their faith, identify their people, and begin to live out their purpose.

Here's one way that I've illustrated the importance of the New Members class.  It is the endpoint for the outreach and assimilation process, but it also marks the beginning of the equipping and engagement process.

The New look! launch went really great last week.  If you're a client and haven't made the switch, login and give it a try.  After a day or two of using it, you will join hundreds of others who see and feel the difference.

Last month I also started a series I'm calling the Top 10 ways churches use Registrations & Forms.  We did a deeper dive into the why and how of Connection Cards then.  This week let's talk about the New Members Class.

Connection cards are the best way to capture people's information.  Use this information to set up a series (or workflow) of emails, texts, and personal calls.  Besides getting to know them, the goal of this workflow is for people to register for a New Member's class.

The next few weeks are going to focus on the exciting announcement I leaked last week.  You are going to love what's coming.  But, today and after the upcoming release blogs we are going to share insights on the use of registrations and forms.  

After interviewing our support team, and looking at church websites that use registrations and forms well, I've come up with 10 of the top ways churches are using this amazing feature.  We're going to start today talking about Connection Cards.

Managing enrollment, especially payments, for events like preschools, camps, or Christian School tuitions is a time-consuming challenge for many churches.  These programs require registrations, forms, initial payment, accounting, payment reminders, attendance, email or text communication, and syncing at least some of the information in the church database.