(This is updated from the original email)
About 18 months ago we decided to begin creating a full Church Management System option. So, we created the contributions feature, then we expanded what we were doing to an extensive members and family tracking and much more. We’ll continue adding features, but with this one, I believe we’re ready to offer you a full CMS solution. We’ve pretty well learned how to do check in for kids and volunteers and last week we added security. Here’s the scoop.

Electronic children’s check-in and security! This is huge. From the Administrator Assistant main menu only, click on the Childcare check-in customization steps to customize labels and set up / test your label printer. From the Small Group Admin or Membership Admin level go to password administration and customize a password for check-in login (default is admin password plus “check”). Then using Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher login using this new password. Hold down control and click Check-in for the groups you want to check in at that station. All you’ll have to do is check them present and click on the label button to print a label for kiddo and another one for dad/mom with a randomly designated 5 place alpha-numeric. When everyone is checked in, just click to save the attendance. If you want to send an email, put in the parent’s email for the kids and email parents an update on what happened in class. I’ll update the video page soon with a new video to walk you through training volunteers.

Manual check in roster and entering attendance. Click “Reports and Communication” – “Group Reports” – “Check in roster”. Allows you to pick dates / groups to print out a check in sheet for either a single group or a whole set of a certain group type. When you’re ready to enter attendance as a batch, login as the Administrative Assistant, click Enter Batch Attendance, then designate the same groups and dates. This will enable you to enter attendance for each group quickly over any date range.

Parent and family communication. Click “Reports and Communication” – “Either Group Reports or Member Reports” – “Family Labels”. Notice we have added two new options to designate “Parents of” or “Lastname Family”. This will be great for sending out postcards, flyers and letters.

How much extra does it cost? Nothing extra. We’re not going modular in our business plan. If you start using these other features, you might find you have more people in the database which may take you to the next pricing level. We figured that would be enough. Plus, this is aligned with our commitment to constantly improve the tool to better serve churches. I pray you find these features for children’s ministry helpful.

We’re here to serve you. For real.

July was always a great time for me to grab a week of vacation and spend a good amount of time preparing for the fall ministry. My goal as a small group pastor each year was to continue focusing on a balanced ministry, but also to pick one area of the ministry to work on improving during the next year. Recently, a client and friend who works in the area of organizational improvement for Microsoft shared with me the maxim:

“You can’t improve what you can’t manage. And you can’t manage what you can’t measure”

So, here’s the question: what do you want to improve in your ministry? Is it health of the groups? Growth? Prayer? Time in the word? Leadership development? Missional activities? Outreach?

How are you going to manage and measure to evaluate improvement?

As you think about these questions, please keep us in mind. We have uniquely designed Churchteams to collect the information you need to measure and improve your ministry.

We haven’t mastered this by any means, but we are definitely moving the ball ahead on it. We have a solid way in place now to collect, measure and manage the health of individual small groups. If you’re not sure how, meet me on a webinar.

Growthfinder can survey to help with other measures, but we’re also trying to learn how to measure other things like prayer and service through normal usage of the tool.

Why improve? To win the prize of our calling.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. (Phil 3:13-15)

Picture the closet with the fan running to keep the server from overheating. Remember the frustration of the server going down and lost time as well as the repair cost? Remember back further (those who can) – there was a day we didn’t have a server in the church office. We used a rolladex and index cards and miles of files. I’m glad the rolladex, index cards and the miles of files are gone; but I miss being server free. What if we could have both? I’ve had several conversations the last few weeks about such a church office heaven. Yesterday with Greg Atkinson of the Church 2.0 project and a noted blogger and speaker on church tech. You have to check out his stuff for leadership network as well as GregAtkinson.com. Especially check out his blogs on May 5, 2009 and the responses. It’s beginning to happen. Churchteams was made for such a time as this. For almost 10 years we’ve been preparing for the future. It is exciting to see that it is just around the corner. Someday, we’ll look back and write about church servers and categorize them in the same file as the rolladex. Just watch. When you’re ready check in with Churchteams. We are ready now and will even better then. BTW, we’ll give you a simpler tool and save you a bundle of money. That’s the beauty and value of the Internet!

Back in February, we released perhaps the biggest set of new features we’ve ever done. It was so involved, I created a separate web page just for it and emailed everyone a link to the page. But, that was then. There are some really great things in there for you to consider like texting, membership attributes and self-updating. Here’s a link to our biggest release so far. And best of all, no additional cost to you. When you sign up for a 30 day free trial, it’s all available to you on the spot.

I talk to a lot of pastors and church executives about software. That’s what we do. I got off the phone a couple of hours ago with a friend in Seattle who works at Microsoft and also leads small groups as a volunteer staff for his church. We’ve known each other about a year now and I have learned a lot from our interactions about using information to get at what you really want and need. Their church is one of our first ones to use Churchteams as a membership and contributions database as well as small groups. However, they needed something to do children’s check-in and we’re not ready with that feature. Then, their worship guy has a software for planning that he loves. So, we were talking about the question of this blog.

In the conversation I asked him why Microsoft offers Word, Excel, Access, Publisher and Outlook. They are not one application. They look a little bit alike and have some common logic, but they are all different – designed with different problems in mind. With all the software applications out there now, it’s good to know why they were created. What’s the big idea behind them. Our big idea is making disciples and building teams (i.e. Church Teams). Always has been.

So, where do you think it will head? What will pan out in the end? I’m no future-teller, but here’s my stab at that question. Look at the nature of ministry itself. Years ago I learned from Bill Hybels’ teaching that church has three areas of focus: Worship/large group, Community/small group and Administrative/Business. I think in the end there will be a unique place for worship, community/discipleship, website host/management, and accounting software. You will have the option to mix and mingle the companies that provide each of these. It is good that they are separate because that means you will have better products. Competition should push us to provide simpler, more powerful tools at very affordable prices (even wal-mart low). So, my answer is 4. At this point I reserve the right to change my mind.

I’ve done a bunch of blogs focused on support using my cool new video software. We added a couple of You Tube videos to the website also, but what are the questions for which someone coming to Churchteams is looking for answers? Here’s a few I started with in building it:

- How can I be less of a bottleneck to this ministry?
- How do I really know what’s going on in those groups?
- What about my passion to make disciples? Are we really doing that?

How about you?

I talk to small group pastors pretty much every day of the week and show lots and lots of people how Churchteams works. My favorite part of the whole presentation is when I get to the point of showing people how the tool itself collects the information over time. Sure, there is a set up process for the small group pastor and then for the leaders to get the tool up and going. But, the most incredible thing about the tool is what I call “smart” software. Every week it sends each leader up to 3 emails with a simple link to the meeting communication report. The report is customizable and collects not just attendance but also the small group’s story and sends it out to the group and to the coach and staff. That communication each week does more than you know to build the quality of relationships within the group and with leadership. That’s what makes Churchteams the #1 small group software in the world – it’s the email reminders!

I just sent this out to the folks who signed up for the sample church passwords at the Willow Creek Small Groups Conference.

It has been over 2 months since the Willow Small Group Conference! You should have received the passwords to mess around with Churchteams, a few follow up emails and I’ve talked or left messages with most of you. A whole bunch of you have moved ahead to the 30 day free trial and are enjoying the benefits of the best tool out there for caring for your people.

I just saw a quote from Fast Company:
“In a virtual world, communication — largely through email — is the basis on which relationships are built.” – David Teten & Scott Allen, The Virtual Handshake

I would have to say that all relationships are built through communication, but nowadays email certainly plays a central role in communication. That’s why small group leaders, coaches and staff love Churchteams. The weekly email reports are one click from their inbox for your leaders and they go out to the whole group as well as coaching structure and staff. Talk about great communication. If you have a Churchteams account and aren’t using this feature yet, here’s the details.

Finally, take a minute and listen to this soundbite from Carl George, author and consultant, talking about Churchteams.

Thanks for you interest in our product. We are all about community and there is not better time of the year to experience community. Enjoy!

It’s about relationships not numbers. Whatever support structure you provide for your small group ministry ought to be about building relationship not just tracking numbers. I’m a discipler and people-builder at heart. So, that has always driven my view of ministry. That bias is built into Churchteams. First of all, it’s easy to use. 92% of our clients rated our setup and customization process as not bad (43%), Easy (40%), and very easy (9%) – and that’s the really hard part! Secondly, it takes communication to a level NEVER realized before. Communication like our innovative and proven feedback system is the key to building great relationships within a group and upline for coaching.

It’s about time and eternity. Just like me, you likely got into ministry to invest in people, not do administration. I am more convinced than ever that web-based tools properly conceived, developed and implemented can and should take care of a large majority of the administrative tasks. What I’m discovering is that we’re actually taking care of tasks only dreamed about before. These are enabling busy volunteers and staff to more wisely invest their time in others. Those leaders gifted in administration discover a tool to help them succeed in their calling.

How do you go from vision & strategy to structure & feedback? This past week I’ve been doing some big picture work for Churchteams. The two parts of this question really get at what we are about for the church. There are so many great places to get the vision and even the strategy together, but we need something administrative to translate that to structure and then feedback. That’s why we created Churchteams the way we did – to tackle the front line tasks that determine the success or failure of the vision & strategy. We also made it customizable so that it can fit your unique vision & strategy.