Keep information accurate and accessible when you consider features of church management software.
If your church is like most, keeping track of everyone’s information is more than one person can handle. As a former church administrator, I kept up with every detail, from emails and addresses to small groups and giving history. Thankfully, my church management software (ChMS) helped me keep everything accurate and accessible for our staff.
Keeping a church running smoothly can require a massive amount of data, from addresses and birthdays to giving records and volunteer schedules. Some churches turn to software tools created for businesses or marketing campaigns. But I knew I wanted something specifically designed for churches to help me support our mission to make disciples in our community and around the world. With that in mind, here are five things I looked for in ChMS.
5 Essential Features of Church Management Software
1. Events and Attendance
One of the best ways to help a first-time guest plug into a church is by inviting them to different events. Got a Bible study coming up? Want to invite Christmas visitors to attend your Easter service?
Your ChMS should make it easy for you to invite the right people to your event, see who has RSVP’d, and record who attended. It’s even better when you can create segments of people (like college-aged attendees), print name tags, and reserve your room—all from the screen where you create the event.
Your ChMS should make events a breeze for everyone from guests to organizers, so you can keep your ministry the main thing.
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When your ChMS has a powerful communication suite—one that offers several different contact methods and defaults to the method each person prefers—there’s no need for more than one platform. Click To Tweet2. Engagement and Follow-ups
Good church management software focuses on keeping everyone’s data available and up
to date. A great system handles more nuanced tasks, too, such as helping you welcome new people or reminding you to reach out to people who haven’t been at church in a while.
Your ChMS should help you easily see each person’s info and relationships, such as their family members and small group leaders. Even better, when your ChMS comes with a mobile app, it’s easy to add notes to a person’s record or connect them with someone else in the church right away.
This kind of people management makes ministry a priority. Each person’s record contains the info that truly helps you care for them and encourage them in their faith.
3. Communication Tools
Staying in touch with your whole church, from twenty-somethings to retirees, means you need to communicate in different ways, including emails, texts, and social media posts. But it takes extra work to update contact lists on multiple platforms, so it’s easy to miss some people.
When your ChMS has a powerful communication suite—one that offers several different contact methods and defaults to the method each person prefers—there’s no need for more than one platform. It’s even more powerful when your church members only need a single app and a single login to stay connected.
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4. Online Giving Portal
Keeping tabs on your church’s finances is a big job—and one you often can’t share with
volunteers. But a strong church management system can do the heavy lifting for you.
Look for things like:
- Managing online and offline giving from the same page
- Tracking donations, event payments, and pledges
- Generating reports that you can reconcile with your bank statement or accounting software
- Creating customizable receipts and year-end giving statements
Having all your church’s giving info in the same place as your people management lets church members access all their information in one place with a single login. It makes giving convenient for your donors—and for the staff, too.
Churches need strong administration to function properly. A solid, integrated ChMS bolsters your ministry of administration and helps you care for God’s people in every season of their lives. Click To Tweet5. One Integrated System
When it comes to keeping up with your church’s people and events, integration is key. When your ChMS integrates with the rest of your church’s tech, you don’t have to worry about updating multiple lists in different apps every time someone moves or has a child. It’s all-in-one software platform with one login—making it easy to jump from recording a donation to sending an email to checking the calendar.
Plus, a ChMS that integrates with all your tools empowers lay leaders for ministry. Your leaders can communicate with their ministry teams or invite a new family to their small group without digging up each person’s contact info.
Churches need strong administration to function properly (1 Cor 12:27–28). A solid, integrated ChMS bolsters your ministry of administration and helps you care for God’s people in every season of their lives.
Find out how to make your church operations even smoother when you check out Church Tech Tip #28: 6 Popular Church Management Systems That Already Include Online Registration
This article has been adapted from an article originally featured in Ministry Team Magazine.
