Church management systems are all over the web these days. Everyone wants to help you manage your information. And you should let them! A church office handles a ton of sensitive information these days.
Even in small churches all that personal data needs to be shared. It used to be that a church would print a directory every year with home phone numbers and addresses and a stack of them would sit in every church’s foyer. Now that seems like a violation of trust. Anyone can walk into church and pick up mobile numbers, email addresses? I think not!
I called my buddy, Jerry. I asked him, “Do you have a database for your church?”
Jerry says, “Sure. I keep track of everything in an Excel file.”
That’s not a database! Spread sheets and lists on Word documents are certainly valuable, but doing anything with the information is rather challenging. You can find individual email addresses and phone numbers, but you cannot reliably share them across your church leadership. Databases not only help you share information with people who need to know, it does it in a secure way. With any online database you can give tiered permissions for people to access what they need without ringing your cell to get it. It also locks users out of data they don’t need.
That is just the beginning. A good database will help you send group emails, track giving and print giving statements, create groups for communication, share a calendar, track attendance, host a check-in system for your kid’s classrooms, schedule volunteers and so much more!
It may not be apparent now, but no matter how big or small your church is, you need this.
There are several out there right now. We have tried out many of them, but can only recommend one for churches of any size:
http://Planning.center
There are so many reasons to love Planing Center! The first reason is that your worship leader might have already got you started! The site started out focused on the tasks your musicians need, but have moved on to cover every area of ministry. It is broken up into small, sharp tools that all work on the same back end database. Every module starts with a fully functional 30 day free trial and pricing after that is tiered to match your needs. Many of the options may remain free if you are a small church, but will begin to cost money as you grow. Add modules as you find the need!
The People Module
No matter how big your church is, the People Module is always free! Business wise, this is a great move for both you and them! You can take that Excel spread sheet, format it and upload your entire treasure of information into their database. The People Module allows you to make family groups, track birthdays, anniversaries, membership status and the like. You can create lists and easily export these lists to MailChimp.com for quick and visually appealing emails.
The rest of the modules work from this one, so this is a good place to start! Get your current Rolodex into the People Module. Then, start using it to log your first and second time guests! Start sharing this information with the poeple in your church that should know who has visited!
Giving Module
I know you probably are already using QuickBooks to run your treasury system. That is awesome for tracking the bank deposits, your budget and checking account. It lacks the sophistication of the Giving Module. To begin with, every time someone gives and it is recorded by the Giving Module, it sends a thank you email as confirmation of the gift. Folks that give can easily look at what they have given at any time during the year because they can have access to their own information. And at the end of the year, you can easily print out giving statements for your donors tax return without having to have access to your QuickBooks or the bank information.
The best part about the Giving Module is that it pairs up with Stripe.com to give you an awesome online/text-to-give feature at the lowest possible price! If you have ever checked into online giving, the sticker shock might have turned you away. However, it is important to help poeple under 50 years old give as faithfully as they mean to be. Planning Center does just that! There is no monthly fee at all! Each donation will incur a fee of $0.30 and 2.3%. A one time gift of $100 given electronically will cost $2.60. It is an awesome tool for stewardship!
Check out our Text-to-Give instructional video!
Services Module
This module is the beginning of Planning Center! It is designed to help you plan your weekend services. This covers everything from scheduling musicians to disseminating chord charts and set lists. We also use it for scheduling our children’s workers as well.
Everything Else
Yeah, we now use all the top level modules. Groups helps us keep our small groups, affinity groups and project participants straight. We use Registration on the occasion we have something to register for, like our Kids Sports Camp (our version of VBS). Resources helps us schedule events on our campus, along with assigning assets like tables and coffee pots. We can actually host more than one event a day if we know what is available.
At our rate now, we are saving almost 50% a year over our last database solution. That is money best spent elsewhere on ministry!
Secure
If you have ever looked into free internet resources like Facebook and YouTube, you know that “free” isn’t without cost. Your information is being sold. YOU are being sold by the service provider to pay for the “free” resources. Planning Center is not like that. Your data is yours alone. It will not be shared with anyone else.
The Best Part
Did I mention that this is all month-to-month?! You can actually upgrade or downsize any module at any time. You can quit anytime because there is no annual contract. Your stuff is easily exported when the next big thing comes along.
I also did not mention that is beautiful! The graphs, family pages and layout of everything is very pleasing to look at and a pleasure to work with!
You absolutely have no excuse. Get this running before next Sunday! It will take you under an hour to get started!