Let me first tell you, you DO want a church management software.  Eventually you’re going to out grow simple spreadsheets and cloud-based file sharing.

A good church management software will offer a lot of benefits, so it’s best to start with a few questions:

• What do you want?
• Why do you want it?
• What are your resources?

A few years ago our Lead Pastor walked in and talked about all the features he’d like in a “perfect” program.  I pointed out that he already had CCB (Church Community Builder).  He asked me if I knew how to use it and I told him I did.

CCB just partnered with @ChurchNumbers, but if you’re not too interested in data metrics, this won’t be of interest to you.  Breeze offers custom user roles and permissions, but unless you have someone dedicated to managing user roles and permissions, this is not a benefit to you.

What do you want?

• Are you looking to track attendance on events or main services?
• Do you want children’s check-in?
• Do you want financial tracking?
• Do you want group management features?
• Do you want spiritual gift fields for getting people connected to ministry opportunities?
• Do you want to manage resources – such as buildings and grounds usage?

Why do you want it?

• Are you tracking attendance for the purpose of follow-up, first time guest engagement, or church growth?
• Do you want children’s check-in only for attendance or will you use a check-out feature as well?
• Are tracking financial contributions for office staff use or do you want the congregation to be able to access their own financial information?  Do you need online giving?
• Is there a current problem or potential problem that can be solved with the use of a good church management software?
• Are you looking for a more organized office or are you looking for something the congregation will embrace as an overall church communications tool?

What are your resources?

• What are you willing to pay financially?  (If y ou’re not able to pay for the higher priced software, don’t expect a lower priced software to give you all of the features y ou want.)
• What are your staff and volunteer resources?  (How much time commitment is involved in database management?)

Start with these questions. In the coming weeks I’ll begin to break these down based on how I’ve used church management software.

What questions do you have?