Kevin Purcell

ACS Technologies ranks high in the church management systems market, also called ChMS. With decades of service to the local church, they're trusted by many. Now, ACS Technologies brings us Realm, a web-based church management system for helping churches manage administration, accounting, and community in one place.

Sermonary from Ministry Pass recently finished its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and now everyone can get it. Justin Trapp, the creator of Sermonary, offers this online sermon preparation tool to help simplify the process of preparing and preaching sermons using an online tool instead of Microsoft Word or some other installed writing tool. Few preachers need all the tools available in complex word processors like Microsoft Word or even the simpler Apple Pages or Google Docs. What if we had a tool created with writing sermons and Bible studies in mind? That's what you get with Sermonary.

Church presentations can add a lot to a worship service. The song lyrics on a screen help people look up instead of burying their heads in a book as they sing praises to the Lord. A well-designed announcement graphic can help attendees learn about important events or information they need. Preachers can communicate more effectively if they use more than one form of media to share the message of the Word of God. However, this will all grind to a halt without someone to control the presentation during the church service.

In the old days, churches used to buy time on a local TV or radio stations to extend their reach electronically but today, that's happening more often through the Internet with live streaming services. TV, radio, and Internet services cost money and for many churches, the cost prevents them from broadcasting their service. Facebook Live now makes this more accessible to a large potential audience of viewers. In many cases, users can do so for free or for a fraction of the cost of the expensive Internet church streaming services springing up all over the place.

Churches use many apps for presenting media, tracking membership, helping with budgets, and even updating their websites. However, some churches also offer a church app primarily for people who attend the church. They contract with a church app provider to make an app that's branded for their church focused on the needs of people in the pews instead of staff and ministers.

Six years ago I've switched from PC to Mac and then back again last year. The first jump came after a friend gave me a second generation MacBook Air. More recently, due to my disappointment with Apple's latest update to their MacBook Pro line, I switched back to PC to get a fast seventh generation Intel Core processor and a touchscreen laptop. Apple offers neither as of early 2017.

Pastors, ministers and church staff don't make a ton of money unless you're a famous TV preacher, so they have to be careful when spending money on their church computer. We want something that's affordable and powerful enough to keep running even if the pastor or staff member needs to multitask. That's why we decided to offer a round-up of the best low-cost church computers for the pastor, ministry staff, and other users at church.

Recently, Oak Tree Software released Accordance 12, a small upgrade to their powerful Bible study program for both Mac and now Windows. It brings with it some new features that might make users want to upgrade. We'll take a look at the user interface and new features and see what makes Accordance 12 different than the other power-user Bible programs available.