What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about serving on a church staff? Is it the ministry and ability to serve and share with people? Or is it the day-to-day tasks, lack of organization, and overall chaos that can make up life on a church staff? If it’s the chaos, it may be time to invest in a tool that can not only help your staff stay organized and on-task, but can also help your congregation stay connected, informed, and safe. Church management software could be the answer.
Results from a Finances Online study revealed that “70% to 80% of newly formed faith-based communities fail after the first year, and that even established churches lose some of their members after five to seven years. A major reason for this is the lack of tools or resources to manage the many diverse administration and growth aspects of churches. ChMS fills in this shortage.”
If that doesn’t convince you, here are a few more reasons that your church needs church management software.
Stay Organized
A lack of organization can inhibit your church’s ability to reach people with the mission of your church and the truth of the Gospel. If you’re caught up in administrative tasks and to-do lists, you are likely missing mission opportunities.
One of the best tools within a ChMS to improve organization is the synced calendar. A synced calendar makes it easy to manage facilities and equipment reservations, approve church events, separate group scheduling, and more. Keeping everyone on the same page is vital. Using a ChMS that integrates seamlessly with your website, such as an Ekklesia 360 church website paired with Elexio ChMS, means that the calendar in your ChMS is the same calendar on your church website. It can even be synced with personal calendars, too.
Another organization tool that your church can benefit from is interactions. With interactions, you can assign tasks to ministry staff or volunteers where they can easily organize and manage tasks to stay accountable. The best part? You receive notifications when they have been assigned or completed via email. There’s no more guessing or hoping that tasks are done.
Stay Connected
In the church and in life in general, we need each other. We even see in Romans 12:4-5 that each member of the church has different gifts and different purposes, and each member is needed.
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Because connections are vital to a thriving church, a ChMS makes staying in touch even beyond a Sunday morning easy. Elexio provides a database that makes looking up member and visitor contact information easy. Using the app, you can download members directly into your contacts, meaning that important phone calls are only a button away.
Additionally, using church management software, you can set up workflows that help to automate some of the vital connections. You could automatically email first-time visitors thanking them for coming or assign children who made decisions at your VBS to your church’s children’s pastor for follow-up.
Stay Informed
Your church can use a church management software to ensure that people stay informed. In marketing, people often refer to the Rule of Seven, which basically states that someone needs to see or hear your message at least seven times before they take action. While this may or may not be true for your church, it’s important that you are communicating in as many effective ways as possible. Church management software makes this easy.
With ChMS, you can roll all your communication tools up into one place using mass communication. This means no more separate solutions for email, text messages, and voicemails. You can also make sure this messaging is what you share on social media and your church website so people have multiple opportunities to stay informed.
Also, with Elexio, mobile management makes it possible to manage everything right from your phone. This includes sending mass texts, downloading contact information, contacting volunteers, viewing event details, and more.
Stay Safe
Safety is of the utmost importance at your church. It’s an unfortunate reality that this has to be the case, but now, more than ever, attendees need to know they are safe at your church. With check-in through your church management software, adults and children alike can be protected.
For example, parents who have a child with special needs would know exactly where that child is and volunteers would have instructions as to what special care the child needs, including allergy information, all through the ChMS. Not only is this beneficial for parents and children, but this can also help your admin team out immensely.
Stay On Mission
Lastly, your church can use church management software to help staff and volunteers alike to stay on mission. It’s so easy to get off task and be distracted by endless lists and mundane tasks. ChMS is designed to minimize administrative responsibilities, increase engagement, and ensure that your time is spent on what matters: furthering the mission of your church and the mission of Jesus Christ.
When you’re confident that your ChMS is working like it should and integrating with your church website, you don’t have to repeat multiple tasks. Seamless integration means completing something once and trusting that your technology will take care of the rest.
Next Steps
Church management software is no longer just an option for churches. It’s a necessary tool empowering your staff and volunteers to focus more on ministry and less on mundane tasks. Not only that, but a ChMS that integrates with your church website makes your life easier and your to-do lists shorter. If your church is looking for a ChMS that integrates with Ekklesia 360 and helps your church stay organized, connected, informed, safe, and on mission, be sure to check out Elexio. Fill out the form on their website to start your free trial today.
