As one of ACS Technologies first clients, the First Broad Street United Methodist Church of Kingsport, Tennessee continues to recognize the importance of staying on the cutting edge of technology and its benefits within their ministries operation. Sue Ann Greene, the church's financial accountant, has been in that role for approximately 22 years and has been involved in each step of this continually evolving process.

Visionary Leadership. A pioneer for its time, in 1983, a group of the trustees at the church began researching software companies. Greene had heard that computers could make information management a lot easier, and was excited about the possibilities. "We went from a manual posting machine to a fully-computerized system (the Datapoint 1500) and it was wonderful," recalls Greene. "Something that took us half a day to do now only took 35 minutes—that was the biggest difference technology made for us."

It wasn't until Greene went back to school in the early '90s to finish her accounting degree that she realized her church was on the cutting edge. "I remember sharing what I was doing at church with my accounting professor. He told me that he hadn't seen such detailed financial reports come out of a church before. The treasurer of his own church, he began looking into ACS Technologies for himself. Overall, he was extremely impressed."

Meeting Client Needs. At one point early on in her experience with ACS Technologies, Greene remembers that President and Chief Executive Officer, Hal Campbell actually wrote a receivables program for her. "It has been wonderful to work with a company that has been so responsive over the years. If I made questions and issues known, they have always tried to make things happen for us."

Streamlined Reports. Another benefit the church encountered with its decision to purchase ACS was the ability to produce specific, comprehensive reports. During a building campaign several years back, the church applied for a line of credit at its bank. "Our local bank was very impressed with the professional quality of our financial reports. They weren't used to working with a church that could provide such extensive detailed reports," notes Greene. "We use almost every ACS software module in some capacity," adds Greene. "We're constantly amazed at the support and products that ACS provides to us. I just don't think you can beat ACS."

Although in the early days, Greene did everything from membership recording, to financial accounting, to contributions, to receivables for the church day care, the church's growing staff a now has access to ACS via a network of 20 workstations as well. "Now other people use ACS too. We have staff and volunteers that keep attendance and print reports, for example. Without a computerized church management system, this wouldn't have been possible."

Special Mailings. Cynthia Thompson also uses ACS in her role as the director of educational ministries for First Broad Street. Thompson frequently uses the mail merge feature of the People Suite to send information to the single young adults involved in her educational ministries. This module allows her to sort data, define mailing groups according to specific criteria and keep different sets of mailing records on file. In an instant, Thompson is able to transform this data into a format that is ready to be mailed.

Attendance. Thompson also uses the Attendance module to monitor and track Sunday school class attendance. As a result, she can determine who has participated in what class or study, and create a personalized history of specialty interests that a certain member might have. This feature also helps Thompson plan her curriculum so that she can tell who has taken certain classes before and whether or not they might have an interest in an upcoming class that may be a follow on or have a similar focus or topic.

About First Broad Stone United Methodist Church
Nestled between the Appalachian and Great Smoky Mountains lies the town of Kingsport, Tennessee where the First Broad Street United Methodist Church has resided for the past 34 years. They are a community of Christians, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, transforming nonbelievers into believers, believers into members, and members into disciples. First Broad Street is not only a place to worship and learn, but a springboard for living your faith in and beyond the church.

ACS Technologies Products and Services Used
People Suite: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Special Mailings, Reservations
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets
Growth Suite: Ministry Scheduler, CASS It!, MAX It!, Church Growth Tools, Report Writer, Report Designer
Services: Phone Tree, Network/Multiuser


Website
http://www.fbsumc.org