As a follower of Christ, you’ve gotten the calling to be a “fisher of men.”
You’ve gone through discipleship and other forms of training. You’ve registered the organization and put together a Board of Trustees. You have even raised seed money and mustered enough courage and faith to begin the process of starting your Church. Laudable as these steps are, you still wonder how your Church will self-sustain as you begin this arduous journey.
You have several unanswered questions pertaining to practical administration — and they are valid. The majority of these questions arise because you have a small budget. You, however, press on because you believe this is a purpose you’ve been called to fulfill.
In the early Church, and up to two decades ago, there were so many unknowns when it came to starting a Church. The tools required for ministry management and planning were limited. Thousands of Churches failed as a result of this.
Fast forward to the last decade and there has been an increase in all-inclusive Church Management Software (ChMS) that aid with Church growth. The options are many, but it is useful to have a trusted and affordable partner from the onset. ChurchPad is one of such partners that has taken into consideration a broad spectrum of needs and budgets.
The solutions outlined below are not exhaustive, but they are a handful of useful tools explicitly designed by ChurchPad to help in Church growth.
People
There is no ministry without people. Some Churches start as home Churches with just a handful of people. With “People”, you can start small, capture and manage your member profiles as the numbers increase. It also allows you to maintain relationships with guests and convert visitors into members.
This product has a tool called “Know Your Church Members” (KYCM) that enables you to identify members by demographics like gender, membership status, age group, marital status, salutation etc. Another solution within the People tool is “Check-In.” Members check-in when they arrive for programs. This process eliminates the need for manual counting and human errors.
Fellowship
Fellowshipping with one another is an integral act of the Church. That is the primary purpose of gathering in the first place. “Fellowship” is a tool that fosters more energetic members’ engagements through the publishing of prayer requests and testimonies. With this tool, members can pray for one another or rejoice and celebrate others’ testimonies.
Example: when a member “like” a prayer request, the requester receives an alert that tells them that they are being prayed for. The tool also has a Prayer Wall used to compile a list of prayer requests and shared with the prayer team. It has a notification button that brings others to pray in agreement. There is also a Testimony Wall that allows members to share the good news emanating from answered prayers.
Generosity
This the tool that allows members and non-members to give to the ministry. It provides members and guests with multiple options for giving. These include Text-2-Give, Mobile app giving, Online and Recurring giving. “Generosity” allows your Church to create unlimited contribution categories (codes) that help track different types of giving. A challenge often faced by members is consistency and faithful giving.
This tool makes it easier by setting up recurring giving, be it weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or 1st & 15th of the month. Generosity also has “Ease of Giving” online through Smart URLs that have mobile-friendly functions. Generosity also makes provision for international contributions. It uses USSD Technology (similar to Text-To-Give). According to ChurchPad, it is an emerging giving solution and it is available in countries where USSD technology is adopted.
Another important component is “Simple Advanced Reporting.” No contribution software is complete without an analytical and reporting capability. The one that comes with Generosity has no data limit, gives compressed and detailed reporting and also allows for the interrogation of your historical data for the life cycle of your account.
Children
No matter how small a Church is, once there are adults, there will be children somewhere in the picture. Therefore, from the onset, provision has to be made for their care, security and safety. ChurchPad has a robust product called “Children” that makes it easy to check-in and check out children securely, index and group family data, sort, and help maintain excellent care for the children.
It has a child identification system that uploads photos, dates of birth and critical information such as allergies to ensure safety. It also has a “Classification Categories Management” solution that records attendance, demographics, family members, and birthday celebrations. It has a “Check-In Options” upon arrival, too, that enables parents or guardians to receive text (SMS) alerts when their child is checked-in or checked-out. There is so much more that this solution handles.
Unified Communication
An effective communication system is a key to Church growth. ChurchPad is the only ChMS that provides a fully integrated unified communication platform that enables you to send pictures, banners, audio or video embedded links as MMS. Besides, the platform gives multiple messaging options that can be sent in real-time or scheduled for future delivery. It also offers SMS/MMS, Voice Broadcast, Push Notification, Scheduling, Logs, Personalized Greetings and a lot more.
Evangelism
Every Church is expected to have evangelism as one of its core objectives. It is an extension of the Great Commission. With restrictions on public gatherings, brought about by the COVID-19, technology is standing in the gap for in-person ministrations. It is making a virtual interface possible with people who are yearning to know God more. The tool has the capacity for “2-Way Information Sharing”, with options to respond with pre-designed or manual messaging. You can create messages by using keywords via SMS and MMS to pull information from your church content base.
The Word
The Word or Sermon is the core aspect of any ministry and has to be accessible to all who desire to watch or listen. Again, COVID-19 has hampered the traditional method of message delivery as we used to know it. Nevertheless, other options like “Online Streaming,” which comes with the “Word” tool makes it possible to engage members as needed. It enables you to plug into 3rd party streaming platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Church Online Platform, Facebook live broadcasts. The platform gives the flexibility that allows you to set Push Notifications, Multiple Live Streams, Auto Convert Live Streams to Sermons, Sermon Sharing , and more.
Support
The Support tool is different from the Generosity tool. Support provides Church members with various options for funding projects that pertain to the Church both internally and externally. Support includes fundraising campaigns, crowdsourcing opportunities and many more. With this solution, members can make pledges and the system can be set up for automatic reminders for the fulfillment of promises.
Build a Website
Having a functional and user-friendly online presence is now inevitable because of the fall out of the global pandemic. Websites are no longer expensive to build. Let it be dynamic and represent the core values of the Church as this is the first impression people will have of you.
As indicated earlier, getting the Church off the ground is not the hardest part. Sustaining it for the foreseeable future is what gives leaders the most significant cause for concern, especially as they aspire to grow. A template for supporting it is vital and this is often predicated on budgetary constraints. To ease the pressure that comes with a Church “start-up,” investigate the ChMS out there. Get a plan that works for you in terms of achievable objectives and fees. ChurchPad, however, reduces your overhead significantly and offers the product flexibility that young and not so young Churches require for growth. A significant strength is the opportunity to start at a comfortable level and as you grow, other tools can be added.
ChurchPad is a robust cloud-based ChMS built for now and the future.
For a detailed description of the tools and how they contribute immensely to Church growth, visit www.churchpad.com
By IUE
08/05/20
