REMOTE ROUNDTABLE: Actionable intelligence

HELPING LEADERS BECOME

B E T T E R S T E WA R D S .

Church Management Software (ChMs) R O U N D TA B L E

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Table of Contents REMOTE ROUNDTABLE: ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE

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A conversation about how church management software (ChMS) data drive retention, expansion and engagementto engage — and inspire — in a decentralized world

Featuring Pattie White & Russ Fortier

WHAT IS YOUR ChMS DATA TELLING YOU?

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The single most important resource for a church is the information it has regarding its members, visitors and operations.

Key decisions can be made, vision can be cast, and direction can be decided — all from analyzing information in your ChMS.

By Russ Fortier

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CHURCH EXECUTIVE • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E ( C h M S ) R O U N D T A B L E

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Actionable intelligence: A conversation about how church management software (ChMS) data drives retention, expansion and engagement Our Panelists:

Pattie White, Senior Director, ACS Technologies

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Russ Fortier, Manager, Training and Implementation Services, ACS Technologies

C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E ( C h M S ) R O U N D T A B L E • CHURCH EXECUTIVE

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“One of the things ChMS can do for you is put less-than-active volunteers into a targeted pathway, where leaders who are experienced in helping those people reconnect are connected to those lapsed volunteers.

You’re actually able to make that a ministry in itself.”

— Pattie White What can your church management software (ChMS) data can tell you about retention, expansion and engagement?

Church management software, or ChMS, is an extremely effective ministry and engagement tool… except that most churches don’t use it to its full potential.

Here, two experts weigh in on the reasons — and, more important, how church leaders can start harnessing this powerful resource at their fingertips.

Why don’t the majority of churches maximize their ChMS data for better ministry and management?

Russ: As an example, let’s start with something every church does: assimilating guests. In a lot of cases, there are built-in procedures or tools in ChMS that aid the church in doing this. But, we’ve found that the church hasn’t always thought out the process it wants to use; instead, it’s expecting the technology to create the process. So, the church hasn’t matched the vision of what it wants to do with the toolset it has available to accomplish that vision.

Another factor — although this is changing somewhat, especially in large churches — is that ministers and lay leaders don’t really have a background in using technology to accomplish what they need to do. Ministers go to seminary to study scripture, and learn how to build relationships and disciple people. Typically, when they come on staff at a church, they’re faced with a ChMS package or program that’s intended to help them achieve ministry goals, but they don’t have practical experience putting those tools to use.

How can ChMS data be used to support member retention?

Russ: For me, it’s all about relationships and being able to identify the signs that someone is starting to disconnect — and then, being able to reach out and determine what’s going on. Churches pay attention to a wide variety of different analytics, but one of the most common is a drop in giving, or if giving suddenly stops. Generally, technology serves up that kind of data pretty quickly.

For churches that pay attention to attendance, they watch absence patterns. Again, most of that data is easily accessible.

But, the next level is knowing what to do when you see disconnection happening. What kind of tools are in place to enable a minister or small group leader to easily connect with that person and find out what’s going on?

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CHURCH EXECUTIVE • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E ( C h M S ) R O U N D T A B L E

Pattie: Related to that, a lot of times the first step a church needs to take is actually pulling together that information, or data. It’s really easy for data about people to get siloed, but you need to be able to see a combination of patterns.

As an example, one church that Russ works with — about 600 in attendance — started with the process he described: by identifying the vision and making sure the leadership understood the natural progression a person takes from guest to a regular attender, and what specific steps help to move them from new member to a more engaged one in terms of giving, growing, serving. Then, the church took action at each stage, accordingly.

Sometimes, the action is done through the technology — for example, an email or an invitation to join a group or to a particular event. That’s complemented, obviously, by more personal interactions; but the point is that that interaction may be noted in the ChMS application so that you know it’s taking place.

In what ways can ChMS data be enlisted to drive informed church expansion?

Pattie: We’ve done a lot of work in that area, so we have a number of examples we can share of churches taking their ChMS information and combining it with demographic and geographic data to really help leadership understand the communities in which they’re considering expansion. Are there enough people coming from a certain area and driving to our church? That’s one question.

We’ve also worked with churches where it works the other way around: a church might have had an opportunity to expand in a certain location — say, with an offer of land, or a parish that wanted to partner with them …

Russ: … Or another church said it was a really good area to expand into …

Pattie: Right. Regardless, while the information is increasingly accessible, it can be challenging to pull it together and know what to make of it. So, churchexecutive.com

“There are a lot of ChMS tools that serve up at-risk features. So, the next step is deciding who to connect an at-risk individual with.”

— Russ Fortier

we’ve done some work with visualization tools to help with that and make it easier for church leaders to take action.

We’ve also done some work where a church isn’t necessarily looking to establish a new campus; maybe they just want to offer Vacation Bible School in a different location.

Similarly, can ChMS data help church leaders identify at-risk church members? If so, what “red flags” would their ChMS data be able to signal?

Can ChMS data be analyzed to identify — and engage — lessthan-active volunteers?

Pattie: Yes. And often, this is an early signal, because you can give ‘quietly.’

Often, people don’t know what you give; so, you can drop out of that and be gone without hitting anyone’s radar … if the church isn’t paying attention to giving patterns, that is.

Russ: Yes. And it’s very similar to the experience we talked about for member retention. When a volunteer becomes less engaged, it tends to be for similar reasons to why members disengage. So, again, identifying the key points at which they begin to disconnect from the ministry is key.

In the case of volunteers, of course, it’s when they begin to drop out of serving patterns.

Pattie: One of the things ChMS can do for you is put those people into a targeted pathway, where leaders who are experienced in helping those people reconnect are connected to those lapsed volunteers. You’re actually able to make that a ministry in itself.

Backing up a little bit, even understanding what ‘active’ means can vary a lot by church. ‘Active’ in some churches means you’re here one or two Sundays a month; in others, it means you’re here three or four Sundays. So, we equip the church to help set that threshold.

And, ‘active’ might be a higher expectation for a lay leader, whereas a small group member has a little more ‘forgiveness.’ When you call a leader, you’re also calling that person to a higher level of commitment.

The key is being able to distinguish the engagement pattern appropriate to the role and the ministry area — volunteering, giving, whatever it might be.

Russ: Another way to look at this is in the context of the ministry itself — there might be something bigger happening than one member’s disengagement. In that case, your ChMS data can help you look at small groups and ministries holistically and say, ‘We used to have a team of 20; now we’ve got a team of 5.’ What’s happening here?’ Now you can begin to have conversations about what’s happening and what you can do to correct it.

Can church leaders draw upon their ChMS data to identify lapsed visitors (and foster reconnection with those individuals)?

Pattie: Certainly! The first step is to gather that data. You need to draw upon information that takes visitors from faces in the crowd to names.

And of course, the more information, the better-supported the follow-up efforts will be.

We see that follow-up play out in different ways, depending on the church’s DNA. Some churches make personal visits. In larger churches, of course, follow-up is more likely to take place through technology –a phone call, email or text message. churchexecutive.com

Russ: Giving patterns.

Russ: Attendance patterns are another area to watch. There are a variety of ways that churches capture attendance. For example, even when churches don’t take attendance, they might do child check-in. Generally, when the kids don’t show up, you know their parents aren’t showing up.

So, those are some quick indicators.

Pattie: Also, we have a communication platform that makes it easy to see when someone who used to make comments or be engaged — contributing to the conversation, reading the emails, requesting prayer, and so on — falls away.

Russ: I agree. You know something is ‘off’ when those people go silent in the online community.

What next steps might church leaders take, ministry-wise, to try and re-engage these at-risk members before they leave the church?

Russ: There are a lot of ChMS tools that serve up at-risk features. So, the next step is deciding who to connect an at-risk individual with.

Often times, that starts at the small groups level. For example, if a person used to be in the serving role, and they’re disappearing from that role, the leader of that ministry ought to be the initial person to reach out.

Where technology can help is with the ability to look beyond that individual at the whole family. It can provide a window for what might be going on in their lives. Sometimes, the dropout pattern isn’t happening because they’re disenchanted, but because something significant is happening in their life — a personal illness, or a need to take care of parents, for instance. Those are things the church can help with, but that people often feel compelled to keep to themselves.

Another thing we’re seeing with ChMS technology is churches decentralizing the follow-up part of ministry so that it’s not all staff-driven, which can be overwhelming. It makes sense to equip the members of the church to reach out — and, in serving up relevant ChMS information, giving them permission to do so.

— Reporting by RaeAnn Slaybaugh

C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E ( C h M S ) R O U N D T A B L E • CHURCH EXECUTIVE

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What is your ChMS data telling you?

By Russ Fortier

The single most important resource for a church is the information it has regarding its members, visitors and operations.

Key decisions can be made, vision can be cast, and direction can be decided — all from analyzing information in your ChMS.

At a minimum, a single-system ChMS should tell you eight important things in order to help your church be more effective in ministry. #1: Demographics & community. You should be able to see where your membership is clustered, where your guests are coming from, and the general age groups of people who are attending. This is important because churches tend to attract people who can identify with the church by community, age and socio­economic status. #2: Growth signals. You should be able to see if attendance is increasing in your worship services and in specific ministries. You should be able to see if certain age groups are increasing, or if specific events are attracting a growing number of people. #3: Attendance patterns. Attendance patterns can indicate that areas are growing significantly, holding steady, or declining.

For areas in growth mode, you can identify adjustments to accommodate new growth.

Declining attendance can indicate a potential drop­out risk, ineffective or untrained group leaders, or environmental discomfort.

Monitoring attendance patterns allows the church staff to quickly identify when to adjust or intervene. #4: Drop trends & risks. If your church marks or records attendance, you should be able to identify when drop­out or disengagement patterns start. A good ChMS will also let you compare attendance patterns to other key indicators, such as giving or serving. All of these indicate an individual’s likelihood to stay in relationship with the church.

When these patterns begin to change, it could signal the beginning of an individual’s departure from the church.

If the church does not record attendance, then it becomes imperative to watch giving trends and disengagement from service or groups. #5: Discipling success & barriers. Your ChMS should have data available for you to track the spiritual growth journey of your members.

You should be able to see when they became a member, how they became a member, and where they are in the journey to becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ.

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CHURCH EXECUTIVE • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E ( C h M S ) R O U N D T A B L E

It should allow you to put people in pathways and be able to see how quickly they progress through each pathway.

It should also allow you to monitor the time it takes for an individual to complete each step of the journey. #6: Engagement. How many people are coming to events more than one time? What kind of events do they attend? Are people getting involved in groups and building relationships?

These are just a few of the indicators that let you know if people are fully engaged in the ministry of the church. Fully engaged individuals tend to “stick” with the church through good times and difficult times. #7: Giving patterns & trends. Churches survive on donors. Churches plan to expand or add staff based on giving patterns. At a minimum, your ChMS should be able to provide you with information on people who have increased giving, decreased giving, or given a pledge.

New standards include being able to analyze giving by cash, check, online and text giving.

You should also be able to analyze giving patterns by age groups or geographical regions served by the church. #8: Financial health & stewardship. Your ChMS should also include a sound financial system that records income, expenses and restricted giving. You should be able to analyze income increase / decrease, expense increase / decrease, and whether certain restricted income and expenditures are being handled correctly.

Financial health and the proper handling of church funds is of paramount importance to donors, so the reports and data should be solid indicators that this area of the church is being handled with utmost integrity.

The all-in-one ministry solution Does your ChMS do all of this? If not, you need a true whole-church solution that harnesses the power of all your data in a single system.

Russ Fortier is the Manager of Training & Implementation at ACS Technologies, headquartered in Florence, SC, with offices in Phoenix, Seattle and Greenville, SC.

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