With 6,800 members and an office staff of 75, Asbury United Methodist Church of Tulsa, Okalahoma relies on ACS to help run the administrative side of the church. Teresa Springer, Asbury’s IT director, has worked side-by-side with the ACS Support team in order to set up and manage their large Windows 2000 network with 80 terminals. With its own dedicated server, ACS has become the central knowledge base of the church, according to Springer.
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"Our prior software system didn’t meet our activity needs, so we chose ACS to replace it."
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- Teresa Springer, Asbury UMC
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“With 6,800 members and over 12,000 people in our database, ACS is by far the most beneficial source of information for us. Keeping track of attendance is invaluable,” Springer adds.
Networking Challenges. With such a large networked system, Springer has relied upon ACS Support to assist her in making technology decisions. On several occasions, she has run into challenging IT issues that needed quick solutions. ACS Support was there to walk her through the problems and find resolution without delay.
By working hand-in-hand with the ACS support team to set up a computer network to meet her churches needs, Springer has learned the true value of working with a company that she knows and trusts.
In addition, due to Asbury’s size, they have had several occasions where a customized solution was needed to meet the demands of the church. In one instance, ACS wrote a special statistics software program to work directly with Asbury’s activities module in order to provide them with information they needed to help manage volunteers. Asbury is also in the process of implementing the Volunteer Manager module to help run their large volunteers program within the church.
With ACS, Asbury can do everything from creating labels to sending emails. “ACS saves us lots of time. The Activities module helps us manage small groups and attendance, and offers us an easy way to track committee and volunteer information. We’re also using Volunteer Manager in conjunction with Activities to start a new volunteer resource program,” Springer notes.
Asbury has always been pleased with the fact that ACS has always been able to listen and make changes.
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"What do you need?’ and ‘How can we help you?’ is their motto."
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- Teresa Springer, Asbury UMC
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Service Solutions. This attitude of helpfulness is evident at every level of ACS. Teresa goes on to note that even Hal Campbell, ACS Technologies’ President and CEO, took the time to call her just to make sure all was well after a recent update installation. A regular attendee at the ACS National Convention, Teresa has gotten to know Hal and other company leaders over the years and appreciate the dedication they show to their clients.
“That the CEO cares enough to help, means a lot to us,” says Springer. “ACS Support is awesome. They will follow through until the problem is solved. It’s the integrity of the ACS support team that differentiates them from other companies.”
Asbury’s “Perceptions” ministry reaches thousands of northeastern Oklahomans each day and has been a significant source of our growth for the church. Due to this growth and its well-known ministry to children, youth, and families, Asbury developed a Long-Term Planning Task Force in 1997 to determine how to proceed.
Expansion Success. After much prayer, the church made plans to relocate to accommodate their growing membership. Asbury purchased 35 acres and their master site plan consists of a 250,000 square foot building, which is double their current size. They had their groundbreaking on January 13, 2002 and anticipate that construction will be complete by the beginning of 2004.
ACS has been able to support Asbury in its efforts to expand beyond its current size. By providing financial software tools to crunch the numbers, and user-defined fields that provide ways for the church to make note of specific data relevant to its growth program, Asbury is now well on its way to achieving its goals for growth.
“ACS is helping us prepare for the anticipated 40% growth in members when we move into our new church building next year.” Asbury will continue to rely on ACS as its church management partner as their organization grows.
Asbury looks forward to continuing to use the Membership, Attendance, and Contributions modules during its heightened period of growth. Keeping track of increased giving amounts and designating funds specifically for the new building project is very important to the church. Also, using the Schedule Manager module to keep the existing offices and activity rooms available for everyone will continue to benefit Asbury as they juggle moving operations on top of regular church activities.
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"Overall, ACS helps my organization save money and conserve resources while giving me more access to my information."
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- Teresa Springer, Asbury UMC
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About Asbury United Methodist Church
Asbury United Methodist Church was founded in 1962. Beginning at Key Elementary school, the church became known quickly for pastoral care through the hospital visitation and door-to-door visits from Rev. Bill Mason. Asbury moved to its current location at 5838 S. Sheridan a few years after first opening at Key. Since that time, Asbury has conducted several building projects on the current site, ranging from sanctuary construction to the Mason Center, which serves as a youth and recreation building. Over 2,400 families call Asbury their church home today with an average of 2,500 people in worship on a weekly basis. Through local and global outreach, Asbury continues to expand.
ACS Technologies Products & Services Used
People Suite: Visitation
Financial Suite: Accounts Payable
Growth Suite: Ministry Scheduler, Church Report
Service Suite: Training, ACS Network/Multi-User
Web Site
http://www.asburytulsa.org
