The Problem Of Two Databases – More Thoughts
Occasionally I hear from folks that are concerned about having two databases. I’ve been thinking about that again.
I know the expense and inconvenience of using 2 different tools, but have always felt that if a tool accomplishes the job better, use that tool, especially if it is something important that you do all the time. If it’s your livelihood, make sure you have the best tools in your toolbox. Churchteams was designed for shepherding and discipling people and I always felt the effectiveness of that definitely made it worth the inconvenience of updating databases. To me, people connecting, leaders communicating and staff tracking growth always outweighed the basic tasks of importing, exporting, and updating data or having to log in somewhere different to see what group someone is in. Sure, it would be better if it was all one tool. That would be better, but it’s not reality right now.
Through my years of working on church staffs I’ve observed that administration drives ministry. I’m not against this at all. The vision and support structures provide the motivation and fuel for ministry. The problem is that administration can easily get sidetracked on administration just by the nature of the beast. That is why I wanted an administrative tool for ministry that thought like ministry rather than like a database. We live in a new century. Technology is different than it was. When I first heard that people saw us as a second database it shocked me. I’m used to it now, but what I see is so different than what I know about databases.
Someday, the technology will be Google simple and completely integrated. It isn’t yet and won’t be for a long time. We in the church are not the only ones struggling with this, secular businesses are too. In fact there are businesses whose sole purpose is to help other business integrate systems that do different functions. Technology is cool, but it can also be a mess. That’s the world we live in. We’re going to make it better.
Hang on tight for the next few months. Mark and I have some new stuff up our sleeves I think you’ll like.
August 5th, 20083:09 pm at
Boyd,
I can appreciate your thinking. People are surprised when they hear me tell them to go with what works even if it means separating their data. I believe we have been over-sold by some major ChMS vendors on the promise of what they can do.
What I hope will happen is that companies like yours with tools like ChurchTeams will dilligently pursue a full featured Church Management System with which they can truly integrate.
The problem isn’t that we have just two databases it is that we have 5 or 6 (check in, contributions, small groups, worship teams, events, etc).
At some point those of us in the back office become servants of the tools instead of servants of the ministry.
Blessings,
Kevin
August 15th, 200811:26 am at
Kevin,
Yeah, you are right about have 5-6 databases. In addition to the ones you mentioned there’s survey tools, newsletter tools and then the wide open world of social networking tools.
That’s why I need to from time to time pull away and get a bigger look at what were doing and where we’re going. It’s also why I like having these conversations.
Your desire is where we are headed. We hope to roll out an initial CMS this fall with functionality that will be sufficient for smaller church needs. From there we’ll continue expanding features based on real needs of ministry.
Thanks,
Boyd
June 8th, 20096:22 pm at
Update – we rolled our membership features in February, 2009. We can now serve as your full church database! The new membership features are very cool and easy to use. You can even text now and send out emails for people to update their own information! Talk about a great way to keep information up-to-date. There’s a lot more, so check out the webinar if you are interested.