Church management always has its challenges. Managing staff, operating on a limited budget and seeking and retaining members are just a few of the obstacles that most churches have encountered at one time or another. At the Family Church in West Monroe, Louisiana, finding a software management solution to meet the needs of its church, preschool, Claiborne Christian School, school of arts and fitness center presented obstacles early on. Because of the diverse needs of the five organizations involved, the church was using an automated system that required them to input redundant information into five different databases because the system could not accommodate the needs of all of their ministries.
NACBA Provides Direction. The search for a solution required a product that was efficient yet versatile. One time the church thought they had found a product that would meet their needs only to learn that it couldn’t incorporate the needs of the Claiborne Christian School which is sponsored by the church. Over time, the church turned to the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA), an organization that provides resources for those serving in the field of church administration. It was there that the Family Church learned about ACS Technologies and at that point they were pleased to find out that ACS could also offer the HeadMaster product line to help run the schools and daycare.
Kristi Young is the Director of Finance at the church and was involved in the selection process back in 2002. “It was so nice to be able to access all of our data from one centralized location. Before ACS, everyone had their own lists and kept track of things a different way. There was no unified system.” Now, thanks to ACS and Young’s diligence, the financial reporting for all of the organizations is consistent across the board.
Solidifying the Process. Maintaining that consistency was difficult before ACS came into the picture. With the old system, there was an increased chance of error simply because the information had to be input five separate times. Now, information is input once requiring no duplication of effort. This factor alone not only saves time but increases the accuracy of the data which can be crucial when crunching numbers and manipulating data.
General Ledger is the module that Young uses most and finds that the reports are very flexible. Young explained, “Because we are able to create projection figures, it has helped us to determine tuition rates and other processes for the school.”
Processing Purchase Orders. According to David Rigdon, technology coordinator for the Claiborne Christian School, “Using ACS to manage our purchase orders has simplified this task significantly. I run anywhere from 50-70 checks per week and because I don’t have to be burdened with re-keying the information like I used to, I’m saving a tremendous amount of time completing a process that took up far too much of my time.” ACS purchase orders link with the Accounts Payable and General Ledger modules so vendor names, addresses, and account numbers do not have to be reentered.
Managing Volunteers and More. At the Family Church, ACS is utilized in a variety of ways such as monitoring attendance, contributions and personal information about the families and members that the church serves. Now the church has the capability to have quick and easy access to addresses, skills, involvement, family details, communications history, giving records, and more. In addition to these modules, the church also uses the Volunteer Manager module to assist them with organizing and tracking volunteer opportunities.
Family Church teaches a spiritual gifts class that encompasses three parts, a personality profile, spiritual gifts assessment and passions. Brenda Worley is heading up this project and uses ACS to assign individuals to an unlimited number of groups such as personality style, spiritual gifts, passions, talents or the age group a person prefers to work with. So, if someone has the gift of administration, they are able to determine what members would fit the profile to help in this area. Volunteer Manager ensures that you have the right person for the right job, and encourages volunteers to grow spiritually through their activities.
About Family Church:
The mission of Family Church is to turn every person into a living disciple of Christ. Claiborne Church of God was begun in the Claiborne community of West Monroe in 1969. Believing that the family unit is at the heart of God and; therefore, should be at the heart of the church, the family is the most important small group members will ever be a part of.
The church believes in the verbal inspiration of the Bible and is committed to becoming a Biblically functioning community.
ACS Technologies Products and Services Used:
People Suite: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Purchase Orders
Services: Network/Multiuser Module
Web site
www.familychurch.org
