Software

Children's check-in software is an invaluable resource for the church. Whether you have ten kids or 1,000 kids coming Sunday, having a system in place that serves the needs of children and parents well, while allowing ministry leaders to do their jobs well, is the goal. We've taken some time to round up some of the most popular kids check-in software options available today.

Over the past year, we've tried to ramp up our worship software reviews here at ChurchTechToday. While other kinds of software like church management software seem to get lots of press in the church tech space, we thought it important to put some time and energy into helping worship leaders with their software selection.

A little after the New Year celebrations ended, I attended the Consumer Electronic Show (CES). This was my third time attending this annual trade show and exhibition, this time as an exhibitor with the Dutch company IamProgrez. Even though I was acting in a different role, I still came away with refreshing insights into the future several areas of consumer electronics. While there were no churches represented in any of the products or services I saw at the show, I did come away with some takeaways for those in the church tech space who deal with church and community technologies.

Welcome to another New Year, the time that comes every 12 months where we reassess our goals and aspirations. As you do, I hope that you will take a few minutes to evaluate one of the most important and yet overlooked jobs within a church: Administration.

Life.Church is a leader in the multisite church movement, and Kevin Penry has played a key role in developing their strategy as a founding member of the five-person Directional Leadership Team. Kevin oversees all of the operations related to the campus launches and the ongoing ministry at each location. Life.Church is currently the largest church in America, so they must be doing something right. In the article below, we'll take a closer look at how Life.Church got started and dig deep into four crucial keys to their effectiveness.

Churches are more and more looking for ways to increase productivity. Email can be problematic, and fancy project management software can be expensive. Enter Slack. Limited features are free to groups of any size, which is hard to believe, yet true. Officially launched in February 2014, this messaging platform integrates group chats with dozens of other software services to create a well-rounded communication system.

Whether you're a parent or you work in youth ministry, keeping kids safe while they use technology has become an increasingly large task to accomplish. From Xbox Live, to iPhones, to Animal Jam, to Facebook and Snapchat--the possibilities for a child under 18 to get themselves in trouble is relatively easy. That's why when I hear of software to help us parents and youth workers keep kids safe, I listen. KidGuard reached out to me to share their software options for monitoring kids on their devices and beyond. They also have a grant available for qualifying nonprofits through the end of 2016.

It's that time of year again where many of us will not only be giving gifts, but unwrapping a few of our own. And as with many of the last few years, some of these gifts will be of the connected variety. Connectivity is an amazing gift to give and receive during the holiday, however it's not one which comes without a few hiccups along the way.