Located just one block short of the Atlantic Ocean sits the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, Florida. Known as the community church by the sea, First Presbyterian Church not only ministers to its 913 members; it reaches far beyond its members encompassing many of the seasonal visitors (or snowbirds) who take up residence in the community for a few months each year.
Ministering to a fluctuating congregation could pose various challenges for the administrative staff but doesn’t largely due to a smart decision that was made by the church Office Manager, Nancy Fine. Fine has been in this role for the past five years but also brings a useful four years of experience as a computer consultant to the church.
Doing your Homework. Fine spent approximately nine months researching the vertical market software options for the church and finally learned about ACS Technologies on the Internet. “We were using a DOS based system and there was absolutely no integration between our financial data base and the other systems we had in place.” Once contacted, a sales support team member came out and gave a demonstration of the product. It was at that point that the church decided to go ahead and make a conversion from their DOS based system to ACS.
Conversion Made Simple. Fine explained, “ACS did the DOS conversion and it was absolutely seamless with no problems whatsoever. We didn’t loose any data. We had printed out thousands of pages of data and didn’t loose a thing.” That alone was remarkable especially since the church not only maintains information about its 913 members; it also stores data on nearly 5,000 parishioners due to the snowbird influence. While some of these parishioners may only attend the church for a three to four month period, their information is retained and kept on file for the next year when they return. Fine explains, “We can look at a report and determine when someone left town, when they return, change their address if necessary, all in an instant.”
An avid user of ACS, Fine utilizes the product in a variety of ways. She especially likes being able to access information instantaneously. For example, when she is required to provide a list of all of the attendees from the last Sunday worship service, Fine is able to do just that and break the information down by zip code, location or gender, whatever the need might be. Because of the flexibility of ACS, information can easily be customized to meet the needs of the church or a specific project. Fine commented, “I love the product. I have never once felt that I have made a mistake that we got it. You know how sometimes you can spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on something and realize that it isn’t going to work out? But with ACS, not only is it doing what I want but it is giving me more than I ever thought I needed.”
Using Attendance. Fine uses the attendance modules to monitor Sunday worship service, small groups and Sunday school classes. This information is input on Monday and on Tuesday reports are run to determine who attended where. With this module, the church is able to identify attendance trends that help to determine if a regular attendee has not been at church recently. The church can then send a card or make a phone call to the parishioner who may be in need of spiritual support.
Monitoring attendance also helps to provide vital information in the form of a report. These reports are created by Fine and forwarded to the Presbytery as part of their mandatory reporting process. Before she used ACS, this yearly task took about two days. With ACS, she is now able to compile the data in under two hours.
Small group leaders, bible studies and special projects also benefit from the reports that are generated out of ACS. Staying in touch with members and determining which parishioners are best suited for specific projects helps to strengthen the lifeline in the church. First Presbyterian Church sponsors a number of mission minded outreach programs, such as painting a house within the community or going to a field to pick crops. ACS helps the church identify those members who are well suited to accomplish these goals.
Reports Give Clarity. Reports also aid the 39 deacons in the church. Each deacon has their own “flock” of people that they minister to. Fine is responsible to get these reports to each of the 39 deacons so they are able to have a clearer picture of what the needs of their flock might be. Creating the reports used to take Fine several hours to gather the needed information but with ACS, the 39 reports are produced in less than ten minutes. Fine remarked, “It takes me longer to print them all out than it does to compile the information.” She also likes the ability to make a global change when a deacon changes their role. Fine notes that this has been a big time saver. Fine continued, “It seems that as each version or upgrade comes out, the system just keeps getting better. I would say that I save about 12 hours of time per month just as a result of the changes indicative of the new version.”
Saving Time, Enhancing Productivity. Time saving features are also inherent within the built-in mail merge programs. Fine notes that this feature is particularly helpful when it comes to processing her stewardship letters. She simply creates her letter, gets approval, executes the mail merge and verifies that the data is correct. She can correct the data if necessary and create a follow up letter. Then she can perform another search and sort with the mail merge program. In 2001, Fine spent almost two weeks exclusively working on stewardship letters. With ACS, she is able to complete this project in an afternoon, which includes stuffing the envelopes as well. In addition, the data is accurate and she knows that there is a decreased risk in sending out letters to parishioners who may have already sent in their pledges because she is able to send out the last set of letters at the last minute ensuring most people have had a chance to receive their letters. To simplify the process even further, Fine notes that ACS provides full integration between the contributions module and the database.
Contributions. Fine uses the Check Reader element in conjunction with the ACS contributions module which also saves her a great deal of time. “Before ACS, we had a specialized financial database. It was a lot more difficult to manage. Now that the contributions side can integrate with the financial side, it makes my job so much easier.” Fine continued, “Being able to link the contribution data to the ACS general ledger saves me a great deal of time especially with check reconciliation.” ACS also allows her to set up specialized funds so that people can make contributions with their regular pledge and make a contribution to a specific fund. Now, it is easy to track and differentiate both and allows users to maintain accurate information. Fine remarked, “In the past ten years, we have had three book keepers at the church. They all have said that ACS Technologies has the best financial software that they have seen in years. It helps them to find errors and they are able to be more accurate with their data.”
About First Presbyterian Church
The First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, Florida is a large and vibrant congregation dedicated to serving Jesus Christ in the local and extended world community. Served by a Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor and Parish Associate, we are both mission and education oriented. Our mission programs reach out at local, national and international levels. Participation in these programs is not only in the form of monetary support, but also includes onsite participation by numerous members of the congregation. Christian Education is considered a vital component of our church life. Nurturing faith for all members is considered a lifelong process in maintaining a close relationship with our loving God.
ACS Technologies Products and Services Used
People Suite: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Access ACS
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable
Growth Products: Church Growth Tools
Services: Network/Multiuser
Web Site:
www.firstdelray.com
