Transparency and organization are key to ensure fairness and accountability on the operations side of churches. No matter the size of a church, keeping the finances, membership, tithing, and events calendar organized in one easily-accessible location is an excellent way to be a good steward of the ministry God has entrusted to you. One of the easiest ways a church can accomplish these goals is by using an online church management software tool like Faith Teams.
An Introduction to Faith Teams
Faith Teams is a web-based church management software designed specifically with small to mid-sized churches in mind.
Faith Teams includes the following features:
- Manage people and families via a church database
- Create tags and custom fields
- Communicate through email and text
- Track event attendance and check-in
- Plan services
- Schedule volunteers
- Automate follow-ups
- Track contributions
- Use online giving and Text-to-Give
- Create custom forms
- View trends and data
Functionality of Faith Teams
#1 – Manage People and Families
Faith Teams’ foundational feature is a database that lets you upload and access your entire list of church members and families. Each individual is given their own profile page that houses their personal data. This includes contact information, membership status (which could include member, inactive, child, visitor, etc.), tithing contributions, volunteer background, and other information like family members and personal interests. There’s no limit to the amount of information you can add or the number of people you can include in your church directory.
#2 – Leverage Tags and Custom Fields
Some other great functions within the membership database feature are the custom and tag fields. These allow you to add information such as baptism records or other pertinent information of individuals. By adding tags to certain names, you can easily create organized filter lists that come up as “Small Group Members,” “Music Leaders,” “Volunteers,” etc. From there, you can send text or email messages directly to these specified groups or individuals.
#3 – Communicate Using Email and Text
There are several notable sub-features within the email and text function of Faith Teams, including:
- Local Phone Number — you will be given options of local phone numbers to choose from to use for sending and receiving text messages through Faith Teams. You’ll even be able to see replies tracked in your account.
- Email Creator — Create customized email blasts using Faith Teams’ built-in email creator, which allows you to design email campaigns and send out newsletters.
- Automation — One of the greatest aspects of Faith Teams is its ability to automate communications. You can set up your account to automatically follow up with guests within the “Follow-Ups” tab of your account, send messages on special holidays or birthdays, or send out confirmation emails for event sign up.
#4 – Track Attendance and Check-In
One of Faith Teams’ highly-touted applications is its function in attendance tracking for events, services, and child ministry. Within the “Events” tab of your account, click on “Calendar” to choose the event you’d like to check-in for. From there, you’ll choose the “Check-In” option and create classes for various groups. Within these classes, you can check-in attendees with a simple click of the mouse.
Faith Teams includes the ability to host “Child Check-In” stations. Parents can check-in their children and receive printed labels for both them and their child. Going even further in the safety measures, Faith Teams has an “Enforcing Required Information” option that would require certain information be confirmed before a person can officially be checked in. This required information can be customized to your church’s needs and is up to your discretion. One example is to include an “allergies” box that is required to be checked off in order to check in a child for the nursery.
Overall, attendance input is simple. You can track attendance by marking individuals as present (as described above) or you can add in a head-count number. Your dashboard will show you a visualization of attendance data over time, making it easy to see how those numbers trend over time.
Plan Your Services and Volunteer Scheduling
#5 – Plan Your Services
Through this Faith Teams feature, you’ll be able to map out your entire service or event flow. From the songs you’ll play (and in what order) to the speaker’s information and volunteer scheduling, you can plan it all in one spot. There’s also a Song Library function that provides a music resource to pull from when you’re needing new songs for upcoming services. In fact, you can also link directly to YouTube and iTunes in order to quickly reference content for later.
#6 -Volunteer Scheduling
The Volunteer Scheduling tool does exactly what you’d think: allows you to easily schedule volunteers for upcoming events, services, or ministries. Within the “Volunteer” tab, you can either set up volunteer teams, create volunteer teams, or blackout their calendars for certain dates. In one screen view, you’ll be able to plan out volunteer schedules for several weeks. You can also send notification requests for volunteers to accept or decline, set up automatic reminders for volunteers, and view which positions still need to be filled.
#7 – Automate Follow-Ups
As mentioned above in “Communicate Using Email & Text,” automation is key for any church management software. To set up automated workflows, Faith Teams allows you to create “Rules”, which serve as triggers. An example of a rule would be this: When a guest checks in as a visitor at a church service, Faith Teams will send an email the next day to follow up with that guest. You decide what action should occur and write the text or email that will go out based on the trigger specified. Then, Faith Teams makes it happen. You can also create follow-ups that assign tasks based on a trigger.
Track Contributions and Ways to Give
#8 – Track Contributions
Faith Teams includes the capability to track tithing and other contributions, as well as attribute these contributions to specific ministries or events. You can view reports that show giving trends and send year-end giving statements to your members.
Ways to Give
Faith Teams has incorporated five different ways to promote giving at your church. These include mobile (using the free mobile app), Text-to-Give (text a keyword to specified number), an embedded form on your website, a kiosk station on an iPad (in your church lobby), or custom sign-up forms.
#9 – Create Custom Forms
There are several types of custom public forms you’ll be able to create in Faith Teams. Click on the “Public Forms” option in the “Tools & Admin” tab and then click “Create New Form”. From there, you’ll choose your template of a Signup Form, Event form with payment options, or a Donation form. All forms are editable, can be embedded into your church website, and can be shared across all social media platforms.
#10 – View Trends and Data via Dashboard
When it comes to making membership and budget projections for your church, your data is going to be an effective tool. That’s why Faith Teams has made it easy to access your church-wide data with one quick view of your dashboard. Under “Tools & Admin”, click on Dashboard to see graphs illustrating trends on attendance, visitors, contributions, volunteer status, and member demographics.
#11 – User Access and Security Rights
Similar to most ChMS tools, with Faith Teams you can grant team members access to use various features of the software based on their role.
What Others Are Saying
Faith Teams has a five out of five-star rating at Capterra, an online marketplace of software vendors and software reviews. The high-quality support staff is a common theme throughout the written reviews from users. All were more than satisfied with the many features offered by Faith Teams. As one reviewer put it:
Faith Teams is powerful yet easy to use, feature rich and the support is world class…Faith Teams does all and we are saving hundreds of dollars annually. The most exciting thing is the rate at which the product is being developed. Enhancements are a common thing for Faith Teams users.”
Customer Support
At the bottom right of every page within Faith Teams, you’ll see a Chat Icon that starts a direct conversation with someone on the platform’s support team. This is a great place to start for those easy, quick questions about using the software. For more lengthy explanations on how to use each feature within the system, there are tutorial videos conveniently located in the Support Library under Resources. Once there, click on the video you wish to view or click on the menu box located on the left side of page. This will take you directly to the written instructions in addition to the video tutorial.
Pricing Details
After a 14-day free trial, Faith Teams is offered at a flat rate of $40 per month, with no add-on fees or hidden costs — even if your church grows! For those committed to a long-term relationship with Faith Teams, choosing an annual plan will bring monthly payments down to $33.33.
Conclusion
For a small to mid-sized church, Faith Teams is an excellent option. It includes the features most churches need at an affordable price. As you consider which ChMS to choose, take a look at this article on how to retain church members with your ChMS. With a free trial, low monthly fee, excellent customer service reviews, and breadth of functionality, Faith Teams should be on your list of ChMS tools to seriously consider.
If you are interested in other ChMS reviews, check out these articles:
Church Community Builder Church Management Software [Review]
Elexio Church Management Software [Review]
FellowshipOne Church Management Software [Review]
Planning Center Church Management Software [Review]
Realm by ACS Technologies Church Management Software [Review]
