One of the nifty little features in Church Membership Online is the ability to print a contributions statement formatted specifically for windowed envelopes. This reduces the workload of sending out contributions statements as you don't have to print out the To and From addresses on envelopes. Here are two examples of window envelope dimensions that will work with our contribution statement windowed envelope formatting.

Single Window

Double Window

Have you ever…

… worked hard to produce a Church Directory only to have it outdated once it was published?
… been asked to call or email a group of people only to find that contact addresses given didn’t work?
… wondered how much you gave to the church or where you were on your pledge before the end of the year?
… showed up for a church event or meeting that was cancelled or moved and you didn’t know about it?
… forgot to leave a forwarding address and you knew people in your church would be trying to get ahold of you?
… been overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the constant changes in peoples email addresses and phone numbers?

It’s Time to Empower Your People with their own Individual Secure Access to your Church Office Online program allowing them to:

• Update Their Own Household and Individual Contact Information
• View Monthly Anniversaries & Birthdays within their Church
• View and Print their Online Church Directory
• Make Connections to others in your church from the Online Directory with Simplified Email Links
• View an active Church Calendar of Meetings, Activities, and Services

By empowering your people with this application you can:

1. Save money and time by only printing off Church Directories for those who do not have internet and email service.
2. Increase the opportunity for Connection of your people via email, phone, visitation or mail with updated contact information.
3. Increase giving and promote good stewardship by adding the ability for members to see exactly where they are in their giving and pledges at any time instead at of the end of the year.
4. Decrease the administrative load and time from your staff by enlisting members to update their own contact information.
5. Enable ministry

First, your church must have a subscription to Church Office Online.

Second, simply enter their email address in their Individual Record and then distribute the Me.ChurchMembershipOnline URL in a letter, email or bulletin to your congregation.

That's it; we do the rest.

URL Address https://me.churchmembershiponline.com

Answers to common questions regarding use and security of Me.ChurchMembershipOnline

Q: How secure is Me.ChurchMembershipOnline?
A: The access is password protected, encrypted and all data vaulted.

Q: What can an Individual view and change in their record?
A: Individuals will be able to only view: Monthly Birthdays and Anniversaries of Church Members, Church Directory, their Contributions/Pledges, and Church Calendar
A: Individuals will only be able to change their own general contact information ( i.e. Address, Phone, Email, Birthdate, Anniversary Date) and change their password login.

Q:Will a person be able to see or change records of other individuals?
A:g>A: NO, only their own household members and just their address, birthday, anniversary information.

Q: Can a person change their contributions?
A: NO, they can view and print only.

Q: Can a person print some of the reports?
A: YES, the Church Directory and Individual Contributions Statement is printable to PDF, just locate the PDF print Icon/text.

Q: Is there a way a person can be taken off the Online Church Directory?
A: YES, just contact your church administrator and request not to have your name listed in the online Directory. All that needs to be done is for them to check the box “Exclude from Directory” from the Individual Record on the “Options” tab.

Q: If I have a problem signing in to Me.ChurchMembershipOnline who should I contact?
A: First contact your church administrator/secretary as most issues are due to not having the right email address entered into the main program or two or more people having the same email address.

Q: Can I have the same email address listed for more than one person in the main program?
A: NO, to do so will not allow the program to generate a successful login to Me.ChurchMembershipOnline.

Q: How much extra does it cost for our church to use Me.ChurchMembershipOnline?
A: It is a free application that comes with your paid subscription to Church Office Online.

We are always hard at work improving our church management software, Church Membership Online. Thanks to your feedback and suggestions we have updated Church Membership Online with some exciting new features and enhancements. This release is live now and is highlighted by our new Child Check-In feature.

Church Child Check-In Feature

Using Church Membership Online, you can now quickly and easily create Child Check-In rosters and print out check-in forms before a Ministry event, Sunday School, etc. You can also specify how many blank rows (or create an entirely blank check-in form) you want on each roster.

Child Check-In Features

• Create Ministries to track classes or groups and add children as "Attenders"
• Create a Ministry Child Check-In roster and auto-populate the children's names
• Create a blank Child Check-In roster
• Define as many blank Child Check-In rows per roster as you like
• Save the Child Check-In roster to Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.

Enhancements and Updates

In addition to the new Child Check-In feature, we also released a several requested enhancements and updates.

• We added Gender and Ministry filters to the Mailing Labels.
• We added a Windowed Envelope option to the Individual Contributions in REPORTS (so no need to run off labels - just purchase #9 Standard Windowed Envelopes; window must be 1 inch from left and 3/4 inch from bottom).
• Also in REPORTS we allowed for specific categories in Contributions Overview. So you can request a report on one category if needed.
• We added a rolling total to the Add Individual Contributions feature. This gives you a quick sum of all contributions entered at that time.

We hope you like the new features and enhancements! As always, feel free to contact us for any reason.

Aaron
Church Office Online

We hear a lot about "sustainability" in the news today. In fact it was on the front page of The Costco Connection, August 2011 edition. No, I don’t advocate that this magazine was written for the church. While most the news articles on sustainability, i.e. Costco’s, refer to the production of an agricultural or business product or plan, I wonder if churches are negligent by NOT considering the sustainability of ministries we undertake.

There has been many times in my ministry when I asked the question: “Can I/we keep doing this?” This question usually followed a few weeks after the new ministry began.

I found that starting a specific ministry in the church is really the easy part. Sustained ministry, that’s the hard part. As I read through the Costco article and a few other magazine articles I was struck by several key points regarding sustainability.

Sustainability is not the product, but the production or process. If sustainability does not figure into our ministry plans then we might as well close the door now and save the effort and heartache. Church plants start, outreach ministries begin, prayer groups form only to see them quickly end. The toll it takes has not only crippled churches, absorbed finances and shut doors but it has also burned out many gifted and trained ministers, both lay and clergy.

To ensure that a plan or production can be sustainable it must have the following factored in:

Ongoing Demand of Truth, Forgiveness, Salvation, Love, Faith, Hope

All people NEED these, … right?

1. Do people know they need these? Some do, some don’t others don’t care. Not much help here.
2.  Are YOU convinced they need these? Is YOUR CHURCH convinced their community/world needs these? How many products do you use today that you did not need until convinced otherwise? How many ads have you watched that were directed at reminding you of what you need? Great effort and cost are taken to inform people of their need. The expenditure of great effort and finances measure our conviction to the need.

Renewable Resources

More than funds, facilities and food, the most needed resource required for sustainability in ministry is the making of disciples of Christ. If we fail at that, forget the sustainability of your ministry. In an agricultural world ‘Renewable Resources’ are huge. For something to be labeled as a Renewable Resource it must be both natural (in product and process) and of benefit. A true disciple is a spiritual process that is to be the natural/normal ministry of the church. A true disciple is one who benefits the cause of Christ in the church and the world.

Transferrable

I have done it and I’m sure you have too. We go forth in what is possible for us in ministry with little consideration as to what is possible for others. The process or production is based on our skill sets, gifting and experience rather than others. So when we give out or leave, the ministry goes as well. I wished I learned this earlier in ministry. Some of the needed ministries I created were productive, but I built them around my strengths, so they died when I left. Later on I decided that I would create ministries that were built around the gifting of the church and many of them continue today.

Networking

There is a reason why social networking is huge today. It is meeting a social need that has seriously been lacking in the family and the world. Networking is a key to sustainability. The connection or networking of your church people with each other will do more for the life and growth of your church than most anything else you can do.

Data Driven

You will never know if you are growing if you do not know if a given ministry is being effective. There is great benefit to viewing detailed data rather than what, “I heard John say…” or, “I feel we did…” There is way too much ambiguity in ministry. A data driven ministry gives more attention to what happened or didn’t happen as to what was felt. Great and simple tools are available to help you collect the data needed to better evaluate the growth of your church. My passion for a simple church management online program grew out of my frustration with complicated programs that required a geek to do. FYI… In my churches I was the geek who managed the tools but couldn’t get anyone to help me. So when I left, the programs were dumped along with the data.

One final note: the writing of this article was motivated by the number of communications from pastors I received regarding their church closing. It saddens my heart when I hear of a church closing. I know that fighting the good fight is hard. I have had a church close its doors. If I can be of any encouragement please email me at mike@churchofficeonline.com

God can and does sustain us: “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.” Psalm 3:5

We are called to persevere: “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:36

Mike Smith
http://www.churchofficeonline.com

It's as old as the first church in Acts but as young as today's culture. It carries with it the challenges of relationships multiplied by their diversity and divided by leadership you and others in your church bring to it. Great church management depends on what you ask of it and measure it by. Simply put, Church Management is stewarding resources to accomplish a goal or objective of the church.

This online blog is aimed at providing biblically based and real-time relevant church management articles. It is not meant to provide a detailed solution for every situation, but it will not be ambiguous either.

Let's start off by answering the question...

What is great church management?

For church management to be great:

1. It must be in harmony with the heart of God
2. It must be in harmony with the mind of God
3. It must be in harmony with what matters to God

Having graduated from one of the finest biblically centered universities in the world I learned that "God's ways are not man's ways."

Of course you don't need to go to college to figure that one out, but a college that is willing to teach it (in my opinion) is one worth going to.

So what does "God's ways..." have to do with church management?

EVERYTHING!!

"God's ways..." doesn't resemble the cookie cutter management practices that are prevalent in churches today.

"God's ways..." seeks to look for what HE is blessing rather than what we want Him to bless.

"God's ways..." takes into account the whole of the church rather than the parts that speak the loudest.

The list could go on and on, but let's start with the first of these three and I am certain you will catch on.

1. "God's ways..." doesn't resemble the cookie cutter management practices that are prevalent in churches today.

If my church had the same mix and mind of people living in the same type of community with the same history of another church I still would question the sanity of using the same church management practices. The truth is identical twin churches do not exist. There is great diversity between churches today, the sooner we realize that the sooner we progress towards "God's ways..." of doing church management.

To get a better view of how different your church is, learn who your people are. Start with your leadership, then your congregation. Good management starts with relationships. People are more apt to follow if they know you value who they are. When was the last time you had a retreat with your church leadership?

Knowing and recording important facts about your people (i.e. family, jobs, skills, spiritual gifts, strengths and weaknesses) provides the knowledge base of good church management. Once you gather that information the uniqueness of your church will become much clearer to you. The discovery of that uniqueness will give birth to relationships, ministries and support you would otherwise overlook with your cookie cutter approach.

There are many simple ways you can gather the information. You can use family questionnaires, talent surveys, spiritual gift test and normal conversation to gather the information. There are great tools available to help you keep track of the information you collected, like www.churchofficeonline.com which allows you to also print off reports of custom fields you create.
I want to warn you though that a sure way to frustrate your church is to take a survey and not use the info to advance relationships or ministry.

2. "God's ways..." seeks to look for what HE is blessing rather than what we want Him to bless.

Our tendency and constant pull is to vest our management in what we want to see God bless rather than looking at what God is Blessing. There are times when it can be both but not to seek and be open to what HE is Blessing is to miss what HE would have us do, “Except Christ build the church we labor in vain…”.

We can start by asking the following questions:

1.  Who has God brought to us?
2. Who has God taken from us?
3. What has God given to us?
4. What has God taken from us?

The fingerprints of God are all over our lives and church. Our greatest task it to know what He is blessing and to move people and resources to that opportunity of blessing.

3. "God's ways..." takes into account the whole of the church rather than the parts that speak the loudest.

We all know that the scripture speaks to the truth that all parts of the church body are important. If we expect people to take seriously the mission of the church we need to do our part in church management that no person gets “left behind”.

“Left behind” happens when we lose track of a person. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say that: “we were gone for three weeks and nobody called to ask why.”

“Left behind” happens when a person is good at a specific thing but their name never surfaces when a ministry team or event is formed that requires someone with that skill or experience. (And we wonder why only 10% of the people in church does the work of the church.)

“Left behind” happens when we plan a ministry or event and then fill it with available bodies rather than start with people and build ministry.

Mike Smith
http://www.churchofficeonline.com

Before we get the cart before the horse, let’s first answer the question: “What is Church Management?”

Church Management is directing/managing people and programs to accomplish the desired goals and objectives of the church. Because the ministry of church management has a divine origin, and a divine facilitator we look to our Lord to provide and guide us in this.

 We would be greatly mistaken if we thought that our efforts alone will help us to reach our goals. “Unless Christ builds the church we labor in vain…” Psalm 127:1

Unlike the business sector, Church Management works largely with a volunteer base which is becoming more mobile each day. Yet most volunteers expect the church to keep up with what is offered in the business sector in the way of management tools. While there are some tasks in Church Management that software/IT-service cannot begin to meet, there are some tasks that can be greatly benefited by the right program.

Now we can ask the question, “What should I look for in a church management software (ChMS) program?” A good ChMS program will provide you with the features you need without imposing upon you the features you don’t need. The programs that are the most intuitive generally are created by those who KNOW firsthand what is required in church management. For the most part they are easy to spot.

Ten Features every ChMS should include:

1. Easy for both staff and volunteers to use
2. Online Secure Accessibility making it possible to work outside the church.
3. Daily Auto Back-ups of all your ChMS data on secure vaulted servers
4. Household and Member Management –Contact Information with Custom Field Options
5. Communication Tools i.e. email, mass email, e-newsletter creation, mailing labels, etc...
6. Attendance Record Keeping for all Services, Meeting and Events
7. Small Group/Ministry Management
8. Demographic Reports
9. Contribution Entry and Management
10. Data Export for Custom In-house Reports

Other Features/Services that are nice to have:

1. Great 24/7 Support with Knowledge Base and Feedback Features
2. Data Import Service
3. Mobile Connectivity - iPad/Tablets, Smart Phones etc…
4. Multiple Browser and Operating System Compatibility
5. Pledge Tacking and Management
6. Integration Capable

Choosing a ChMS service/program shouldn’t take such a great bite out of your budget that what remains is less then what is needed. Watch out for those services that require high start-up fees.

Mike Smith
Church Office Online

Churches have found that when it comes to raising funds for a specific ministry project there is a greater success rate when you do a Pledge/Faith campaign. In fact it is proven that a well run and prayed for campaign increases general church Tithing/Giving as well. Thirty years of ministry with several completed and almost completed Pledge/Faith campaigns testify to this truth. They have also taught me a few things which I will pass on to you. So before you swing into action let me point out seven guidelines that can help.

SEVEN GUIDELINES

1. STATE YOUR PURPOSE

Have a clear concise statement as to what you are needing the funds to do, purchase, build, …etc. When possible make sure you connect to the needs of people.

2. SET YOUR GOAL

Your needed funds goal amount should be spot-on. Don’t make the mistake of asking for too little or too much. The backlash is not worth it. Integrity is key to a successful campaign.

3. HAVE A CAMPAIGN COMPLETION DATE

Generally a campaign is no less than a month and no more than a year. A specific date helps both the church member and the church to evaluate progress toward the goal. This might be a good place to say that you should be VERY selective as to how many campaigns and how close they are planned to the previous. Give your church time to breath between campaigns.

4. KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS

Obtain a pledge recording and reporting software program. It is essential that you keep accurate records and maintain good financial accountability. Remember that this is unique to churches and most common software like Quickbooks do not provide pledge management.
Church Office Online provides a very inexpensive solution to this with the Pledge Management Feature. http://www.churchofficeonline.com
There is a growing number of online services that also provide pledge management, so shop around. Beware of those that ask for set-up fees.

5. MAKE IT EASY TO GIVE

On-Site
Provide Pledge/Faith campaign instructions and card/envelopes in the bulletins or pews. See attached doc for a sample card.

In Person
Receive funds during the week through the church office.
Acquire a merchant debit card processing swipe device for anyone who would prefer an electronic option. Check out COSTCO for an inexpensive solution to this in their business section. Merchant Credit Card Processing (1.48% plus 20¢ for Retail Classified Transactions*)

Online
Bill Pay – Through your Bank- many offer free bill pay service up to a certain limit.
Website Donation Button – I would recommend Google Check-Out as they are providing NO fee set-up and transactions for Non-Profits (You must apply for this grant each year.)

Pledge/Faith Promise Cards/Envelopes
Make sure you have easy access to campaign brochures, Pledge/Faith Cards and giving envelopes.

Non-Pledge/Faith Promise Giving
Remember not to discourage those who do not want to enter in a Pledge or Faith Promise from giving. Make sure you include them in all communications.

6. HAVE A COMMUNICATION PLAN

Pre-Campaign Communication
Teach Biblical Stewardship and Giving
When church leadership taught and exampled Biblical Stewardship and Giving to their people it provided the foundation for all future giving campaigns as well.

Share the Vision
Let the church in on the vision of what might be before it is. Seeding the vision of what God is leading the leadership of the church to consider in the future is paramount to the church feeling included.

Calendar the Campaign
Post a Calendar of all campaign meetings, deadlines, publication mail out dates, announcement dates, campaign update reports,..etc. Make sure all members of the campaign team have access to it.

Campaign Communication
Share the Need – put a face to the need, if there is no face than connection to the need becomes difficult.
Share the Opportunity to Support - allow people to invest in the goal.
Personal testimonies - should be included in services as well as other publications from those who have experienced the blessings and lessons learned from giving.
Share the Progress – it is perhaps the easiest part of a campaign but often the most neglected.

Post Campaign Communication
Report the Results
Celebrate the Blessing – have a celebration event/service

7. LEARN FROM WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T

Every church is different. We learn how different when we take the time to learn from what worked and what didn’t. I have always been surprised by the results as I am sure you will be too. Learn from them. The sooner your campaign team meets together after the campaign to review it the more you will learn to the benefit of future campaigns.

Please Note:

A Pledge is a promise to make payment toward a set goal amount. It is considered by some to specify an agreement between church member and church. It can be for the sum of a year’s tithe, total of a short term mission’s trip, or a couple’s summer conference just to mention a few.

A Faith Promise is a promise to make payment toward a set goal amount. The use of the word “Faith” denotes an amount set by “faith in what God would have one give”. Like the “Pledge” it can be used toward the same things.

In the context of the church I would contest that both Pledge and Faith Promise require seeking divine guidance.

Attached is a sample church Pledge/Faith Promise Card for you to use and distribute.

Mike Smith
Church Office Online

SamplePledgeCard.pdf (327.29 kb)

We have added another highly requested feature to our church management software, Church Membership Online. You now have the ability to create, track and manage Pledge Campaigns.

Pledge Campaign Management

Quickly and easily create pledge campaigns linked to contribution categories. Pledge campaign totals are automatically updated when contributions are made for the category and dates specified.

• Create and manage pledge campaigns
• Visual graphs indicate total amount pledged and total amount collected
• Pledge totals are automatically updated when contributions are made

Individual Pledge Management

Individual pledge management allows you to track individual pledge amounts, total amounts given and total pledged amounts for pledge campaigns.

• Create and manage individual pledge amounts
• Visual graphs indicate total amount pledged and total amount collected per individual
• Individual pledge totals are automatically updated when contributions are made

Pledge Campaign Video Tutorial

Click here to view our Pledge Campaign video tutorial

Pledge campaign reports will be released soon

We hope you enjoy this new feature!

Church Office Online

This is an overview of how to use pledge campaign management features in Church Membership Online.

MailChimp’s online service has seven basic email features which allow you to: Design, Publish, Share, Track, Manage, Integrate, and have Mobile connectivity. These features together with your Church Office Online account provide a robust church mass email communication program. We believe its features will vastly improve your communications to your members and attendees.

To get started you will need to do the following...

1. Sign in to your Church Membership Online Account
2. Sign Up for a MailChimp Account
3. Prepare MailChimp to Import Your Email List: You need to create at least one “List” in MailChimp in which emails from your church will be synchronized with.
4. Integrate MailChimp with Your Church Office Online Account: to do this you need to place the API Key from MailChimp into your Church Office Online MailChimp Integration Field.

Login to your Church Membership Online Account

First sign in to your Church Membership Online account and go to ADMIN and select Integrations. Click the link to “sign up for, or manage, your MailChimp account…” you will be taken to MailChimp’s Sign Up / Login Page.

Sign Up for a MailChimp Account

Once in MailChimp follow the easy instructions for a free account and note that no billing information is taken.

Prepare MailChimp to Import Your Email List

Once you have a MailChimp account you will need to create at least one Email List to store your email addresses.

Integrate MailChimp with Your Church Office Online Account

On the Integration page Church Membership Online ADMIN, choose the text link “Click here to get your API Key”. Copy the API key by highlighting it with your mouse and then (Ctrl C) and then return to your CMO program and then paste it (Ctrl P) in the API key field. Finally, click “SAVE”. You will receive confirmation on the page if it was successful.

Now you are ready to synchronize the email addresses in your Church Membership Online (CMO) account into your MailChimp account.

Synchronizing Emails Addresses in CMO to MailChimp

To do this go to CHURCH in your CMO account and select “Mass Emailing”. You will notice that there are three areas. The top area contains the feature name and links, the middle the Lists that have been created in MailChimp and the bottom area contains two data groups in your CMO in which emails can be drawn from: “Ministries” and “Membership Type”.

Any ministry (i.e. Men’s Ministry) can be selected in the pull down, which place all emails addresses belonging to those in that ministry into your MailChimp Email List. If you want to only send an E-Newsletter or Communication to an Interest group this would be the option you would choose.

When you choose Member Type it will place all emails addresses belonging to those “Member Types” whose box is NOT checked to an Email List in MailChimp. If you want to send your entire church an E-Newsletter then you will want to choose this with all boxes unchecked except Archived records. Be sure to select the desired MailChimp List (large/complete list).

Design and Publish Your MailChimp Newsletter

After your MailChimp account is set up and integrated with your CMO Account you can start designing an email newsletter or campaign using the many provided templates or design one yourself. The templates are a good start and still provide you with flexibility you need.

One note of caution: this program does not take kindly to you sending emails to people who are not members/attendees/subscribers of your church. If you get to many “Unsubscribe” or worse yet the dreaded “Abuse Complaint” you could be dropped. “Spam” is classified as unsolicited, unwanted emails sent to an email address or addresses. This program is to be used to communicate to those in your church who are members, attendees, visitors or requested to be added to your mailing.

We trust you will enjoy using MailChimp as your emailing communication tool and look forward to your comments.

Mike Smith, COO
ChurchOfficeOnline.com