Aren’t you glad we don’t have to churn our own butter or make our own candles? And we even have electric lights! The best way to tell people the news used to be a town crier and a handbill tacked up in the village square. Pastors used to have to ride on horseback from congregation to congregation covering thousands of miles in a year––never really having the time to fully support the settlers they were serving. Aren’t you glad for Twitter and that overflowing email inbox, now?
It’s easy to look back on the past generations of ministry leaders and be grateful for all of the efficient, amazing technology church communicators have today. We have the power of email, landing pages, web design, and social media. We even carry mini computers with us everywhere we go to stay constantly connected and share great moments with the whole world. But with all of these great developments comes an even greater to-do list. We have more tasks to complete, more staff to coordinate with, and more church members who want to communicate more often.
Time management and communication software tools can be your extra set of hands. They can simplify and organize your responsibilities and streamline internal processes. No matter the size of your church or the number of people in your community, everyone needs these six types of tools at our fingertips.
6 Church Software Tools You Can’t Live Without
1. Notes and Lists
Wunderlist or Evernote:
Go mobile with your daily tasks. These apps can work across devices so that you can access your lists from anywhere. You can collaborate with others on your teams and set reminders so that nothing falls through the cracks. Use folders and tagging to group your responsibilities as you please.
2. Email Newsletters
Mailchimp or Constant Contact:
Much like the printed church bulletin you may use on Sundays, a newsletter on either of these platforms keeps your congregates engaged and aware of changes and announcements from your ministry leaders. With the option to subscribe and an online place to get this information, you can help your non-tech-savvy church members stay in touch. It’s as easy for them as reading an email.
Both of these options are time-savers and pretty easy for you, too. MailChimp and Constant Contact allow you to show the newsletter sign up form on your church’s site and automatically enroll subscribers in the list to avoid manual entry. You can also personalize the newsletter to connect with community members in a way more in line with their own individual interests. Customize the mailing with their names, suggest content just for them, or send completely different newsletters to different groups within your church.
3. Forms
Slim down your paperwork by going digital with registration forms. These 3 tools are great for building contact forms, invitations, and online surveys. Imagine a world of automated data. Export what you need, and even ask questions based on if/then statements that personalize the form to each individual visitor. By keeping the sign-up processes simple, you’ll also give church members a more positive experience with your website––an essential way to help your congregation engaged online.
4. Easy Photo Editing
No matter what you’re communicating, your design and presentation needs to be engaging and beautiful. As someone in charge of so many tasks with so many types of church software and platforms at your disposal, you’ll need to choose the ones that match your design skill level and church communications goals. Canva is a great place to drag-and-drop elements to create cohesive design, and add some text elements. Picmonkey is an online photo editor that can help you resize photos and design elements to better display the scenes and people who make up your church. And Skitch is a helpful tool for showing internal communications, and visually connecting to Evernote tasks.
5. Stock Photos (that aren't awful!)
Lightstock, Creation Swap, Unsplash, and Pexels:
For the communication projects where you need basic pictures or graphics, using stock photos is your answer. Stock photos have a reputation for cheesy or outdated poses, but there are several stock photos sites that we love (some like Lightstock and Creation Swap provide Christian photos). Having a master list of photo databases means you’ll always have a graphic springboard for finding great photos. Creationstock, Pexels, Unsplash, and this list are even free!
6. Internal Request Forms
Each individual church and church communicator will have different needs when it comes to internal requests. To organize your job within the church, we recommend having a set method for accepting internal requests for communications and promotions. You’ll need to gather similar information most of the time, and don’t reinvent the wheel for each special announcement of sermon series. Depending on the range of your software and skills, the number of people on your staff, and your capacity to take on more work––your own needs should dictate the type of template you make here. We’ll get even more in-depth on how to create, prioritize, and manage these forms next week with a follow-up post.
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Bonus: If your church leadership or staff is large enough, email just might not cut it. To communicate faster, we recommend Slack, iMessage for Macs, or Google Hangouts. |
