Event planning should always include a follow up plan. How are you following up with your visitors.

Your Church service should be no different. How are you following up with your first time guests?  How are you tracking the effectiveness of your follow up?

Nearly all church management software programs will include fields for ‘membership type’ (or similar wording).  Many offer automated process queues or follow-up alerts.

Use those features and allow them to help you better see where each person is in the process.

We’re answering the questions from yesterday based on case studies from actual churches.

Who is your software administrator – a paid employee or a trusted volunteer?

This will depend on your resources and structure.  Whoever has this position, there are four key elements:

1. Have a vetting process – check references.
2. Set clear expectations and boundaries – job description and parameters.
3. Grant authority – allow your administrator to make some decisions.
4. Be a champion – make sure other ministry team leaders are aware of the administrator’s authority to make decisions on software usage.

Read: Seth Muse’s blog post on 6 ingredients of a great volunteer.

Who has access to financial information?

This will depend on your church structure.  Above all, I recommend this be a very small circle.  Start with one person, and branch out from there, continually evaluating.  I know of one church of 300+ where every Deacon (volunteers voted to their position by the Congregation) has access.  I know of another church of 300+ where only 4 key volunteers have access, one of those volunteers is the Elder who oversees finance.

Software features will also dictate this.  A software based on role-based permissions will grant everyone with the same role, the same set of permissions.  For example, everyone in a Deacon role will have the same set of permissions.

A software designed for individual permissions will give  you that.  Church Community Builder will allow you to give permissions based on the person, rather than their role.

Who has access to basic information – names, addresses, phone numbers?

This is virtually an on-line director and will force you to answer another question – are you using this as an office productivity tool or do you want the congregation to use it for church communications.

In almost all Church Management Software programs, there are ways to partition what people see.  In some, this is done from the office/administrator role and in others, each individual user has the ability to set up their own communication and security preferences.

Who is using this for messaging? Have your driven communications into the hands of group leaders or is this a staff tool to help improve productivity?

Most software programs that offer role-based permissions will somewhat limit who has church-wide communication abilities and in some of these, permissions cannot be ‘stacked.’  For example, I’ve found using Breeze, that if I give all Children’s Teachers the same permissions to check in and view their students, but one of them needs additional permissions to create schedules and send messages, I need to create a different role just for that one person.

On the other hand, Church Community Builder offers person-based privileges to that I can modify the individual’s profile and set up the privileges they need.  CCB also offers group privileges.  I may be able to give one group leader the ability to publish their events on a public calendar (ie, a community outreach group), but another another group leader (ie, the church parking team), may not have that same ability.

What questions do you have regarding access and communications?

 

An important decision you’ll  make often while using your Church Management Software is: who is using this?

• Is your software administrator a paid employee or do you trust a volunteer in this role?
• Who has access to your financial information?
• Who has access to basic information – phone numbers, addresses?
• Who is using this for messaging?  Have you driven communications into the hands of group leaders or is this a staff tool to improve productivity?

There are no right or wrong answers. Each church has to make decisions based on their structure and resources.

Tomorrow we’ll break down these questions and offer some real answers from real software users.

Church Management Software is software for the entire church.

When discussing Church Community Builder (CCB) with a friend, who was then serving as Executive Pastor for church, he said, “this is worth any amount you pay for it, even if you only use it for children’s check in.”

This Church did have a high ratio of children (birth – elementary) to adults and they were more than likely maximizing that area of the software.

If you want to maximize your software and get everything you are paying for, it’s important to know everything it will do and how it all fits together.

Do the people who input financial contributions know to look for families who may have been entered at children’s check in prior to entering a new contributor?

Does your Next Steps Director know how to run reports to see who was entered and how to merge family members together?

There are two important things that can help you maximize your software.

• Who is your software administrator?  Designate one person who understands how the software affects the Church as a whole.  This is one person who will have access to the entire software and should have authority to make judgement calls on where, when and how it is used. The software administrator may not reflect the structure of the Church.  The Senior/Lead Pastor is leading the Church, but may not be the best person to act software administrator. The software administrator should be trusted with all affairs of the Church. Choose your software administrator wisely and make sure Ministry Team Leaders understand their authority in making decisions as to how the software is used.

 

• Regular ongoing training.  Your software administrator should participate in any training provided by the software company.  But most importantly, anyone within your congregation needing upgraded permissions to perform tasks, should be trained on it’s use.  Since every action within one area of the software has the potential to affect other areas, it is important that everyone is on the same page and understands how to use it.

How did you choose your software administrator?

How is your church providing ongoing training to Church Leaders?