How do we track the information we need for ministry when...
- The church isn't what it used to be.
- The family isn't what it used to be.
What thoughts popped into your head when I said the church isn't what it used to be? Was it positive or negative? How about with the family?
From the standpoint of our Church Management Systems (ChMS) it doesn't matter whether the changes are positive or negative. The only question from the database's perspective is whether we are capturing the information we need to do the ministry we are called to do.
- The church might be in many locations.
- Ministry leaders now want direct access to information technology tools.
- The nuclear family is now just a loose "household" (pun not intended, but intentionally left in)
- People and churches both may have rejected the membership concept.
Ask yourself how your Church Management is making assumptions that are out of sync with your culture.
- Does it present an ideal of what a famiy is rather than a reality?
- Does it assume we meet once on Sunday morning for Bible Study then for Worship in just one location?
- Does it make us call people members when we don't have membership?
- Does it assume users will need 2 days of training?
- Does it work best if the pastor just asks their secretary for information
- Does it give you an infinte number of options for mailing, two options for emailing, and none for text messaging?
Let's face it. There is probably a big disconnect between how you think about your ministry and how the folks who designed your software were thinking when they created it.
Your software may have an old perspective and your church may have more flavors of families than Baskin Robins. Your ministries may refuse to get aligned around a single way to do things. You may need a new ChMS, but I promise you the journey to that day and the switch to a new system will be easier if you simplify things in the ChMS you have now.
Let me make a few examples:
- Store just one address per person/family.
- Store just one email per person.
- Don't let anyone create any types of phone numbers other than home, cell, work, fax, pager.
- Implement new functionality on the basis of a proven approach in use by a real church, not on the basis of a sales demo or a vague mandate from leadership. Get comfortable pushing back for clarity!
- Don't worry about the odd person in the family who isn't really realted to them, but attends with them.
- Leave 18-year-olds in the household until someone says they need to be moved.
- Don't purge people unless you have crazy performance issues.
- Don't try to track the results of a church-wide survey your pastor threw together on a whim.
- Don't try to manually inventory every aspect of a person's life then spit out three jobs (sorry ministry positions) they might like. It won't work nearly as well as just calling the person and emailing them a few jobs you actually need people to do this week.
- Inactivate and ignore ALL records that show no signs of activity in a long time. If they show activity not so long ago, print off their names and tell the pastors you will have to inactivate them if you don't hear back from someone they are still involved. Do this monthly for 3 years and I bet something might eventually happen.
- Focus on the acuracy and consistency of the records of people who are ACTUALLY attending.
- Come up with just one simple way to define participation in ministry.
- Let one ministry create a single group for EVERYONE they serve and don't sweat the fact that in real life they are breaking into small groups or teams.
- Sit people down and ask them to look at the data with you. Ask them to tell you what has meaning for them and how they use it now. Focus on what has meaning to them.
Sometimes we spend our time working on the exceptions or causing people to follow complex procedures that just don't have that much added value. It isn't that our goal is bad. It's just that it is nearly impossible to accomplish the goal given the assumptions of the tool and the reality of our changing ministry environment.
Sometimes we can push for a comprehensive and uniform process, other times we just need to push for adoption of basic standards. Don't let the exceptions frustrate the bigger picture of getting things done. Don't let the exception that rules your thinking scare the user away from the tool.
I'm not saying anything goes, I'm saying that we ask for the least amount of compliance possible and focus our efforts on oversight, auditing, and documentation. Let the issues and exceptions surface. Champion consistency and simplicity in your database.
This is worth repeating...
Give up some of the nuances you think might be important when you believe they may diminish the acceptance you need to succeed. You may need a new ChMS, but I promise you the switch will be easier if you simplify things in the ChMS you have now.