The fuel that drives most ministers of the Gospel can be summarized by two distinct biblical commands: “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) and “Equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12).
However, somewhere along the way, the perception formed that ‘professional ministers’ do disciple making and equipping while the rest of the church body watches from the sidelines.
"...the better you understand your process, the better you'll be able to measure what's working and what isn't..."
But to activate members and keep them engaged, churches have to be intentional. They have to actively seek a solution to support their vision to equip their growing congregation with the tools needed to ‘own’ ministry and equip others, too.
And when churches properly leverage technology to equip the saints for ministry, they often find that technology can empower their church members to ‘be the ministry’ and transform lives. They discover they can shift their focus from handling most of the responsibilities to equipping others to engage in the ministry and instead pour themselves into leading people who are leading others to experience the multiplying effect of intentional discipleship.
Ultimately, the goal every church has for visitors is to move them from first-time guests to fully engaged members. However, "...a cohesive system gives you a better idea of a person’s overall engagement with your church." it can often be difficult for church leaders to connect the dots. Silos and disconnected information keep us from being able to track a church member’s involvement.
But technology can connect the dots between attending church on a Sunday and active ministry engagement.
Connecting the dots between attendance and active ministry engagement is something that has driven us since day one at Church Community Builder. We believe that this call to equip the saints should drive how churches are led and managed. As an organization dedicated to guiding and supporting the local church, everything we do is centered on how we can help church leaders fulfill the calling of Ephesians 4.
Here are four ways you can leverage technology to connect the dots between a church member’s attendance and their active role in ministry:
1. Build processes and measure progress around people rather than tasks.
It’s easy to just focus on finding a body to assign to each blank space on a task list. But remember, a cohesive system gives you a better idea of a person’s overall engagement with your church. A cohesive church management software, designed from the ground up to work as a single system, values people over tasks and can record all the different areas of someone’s engagement in one central place. That helps you keep your focus on what really matters most – the people God has brought to your church.
2. Eliminate the data silos that prevent you from connecting people to ministry.
If your church management software separates all those things into their own isolated areas because they’re related to disparate ‘tasks,’ you lose the whole picture of that individual. A comprehensive system will enable both data and volunteers from different ministries to communicate, allowing you to leverage the information you gathered from children’s check-in last Sunday for your new guest follow-up process, and then your connection process, your membership process, your discipleship program, and more.
3. Empower your entire church to own the ministry that is being done.
Your church management software can come alongside you in empowering the people in your church to step up and minister, or it can hold you to an administrative model where all the work is placed on just a few shoulders. When your software is built on managing tasks and your church’s focus is on people, it creates roadblocks you have to work around; when it’s designed around the same principles as your church, it naturally becomes a part of your ministry processes and enhances them.
4. Use technology and social media to engage with others, not to just create noise.
Many churches are using – probably unintentionally – Facebook and Twitter as a free, electronic billboard rather than a tool to engage people and lead them towards something meaningful. Traditional marketing is based around the idea that organizations have the right to interrupt your life because they know what's best for you. Social media has shifted the power back to the individual, which means you have the power to tune in or shut someone off completely. (That includes the church!)
"...measuring the health of your church is tough, but implementing better, more effective church processes is a step in the right direction..."
So now, you’ve connected the dots and increased engagement. But then how, exactly, do you measure your church’s engagement?
The bottom line is that measuring the health of your church is tough, but implementing better, more effective church processes is a step in the right direction. The better you understand your process, the better you'll be able to measure what's working and what isn't. There are ways of measuring engagement in almost every area of church life.
It simply starts with really wanting to know the true health of your church.
So when a church chooses Church Community Builder as their church management software, we begin a deep dive into their community, habits, and patterns. Because as one's engagement with a church goes deeper, so does their interaction with other people within that community.
And when you use the technology that has been created in our time to impact the Kingdom like no generation has been able to before, you can equip the saints and make disciples like never before.
Be prepared to walk alongside your people, helping them to grow from guest to engaged. Download your free copy of
today.
