Over the years, technology has been introduced to churches to manage membership, financial data, volunteers and pretty much every other aspect of church life. Now, with security becoming an increasing concern in our society today, software solutions are being created for churches with children in mind. When Dean Stone, pastor of children for CrossPointe Church in Norman, Oklahoma began preparing for the opening of his church's $2.6 million children's center, he wanted to make sure that adequate security measures would be put in place to keep everyone safe.

Improved Security Needed
Stone had been looking to improve the church's security measures surrounding the new 24,000 square foot children's center that was recently completed and thought that implementing a check in/check out procedure would be one of the best ways for his church to help secure approximately 300 children that visit the church on Sunday mornings.

“Just one problem can destroy a church‹it only takes one snafu. These days, churches can be sued and found negligent for not supervising as they should have,” Stone notes. “It all starts with valuing children. This is what Jesus stood for and is the basis of our ministry.”

The church's old method of security was creating labels that were laminated and placed on the child. “These labels were so hard to read and looked so unprofessional,” Stone commented. “We'd find cards laying everywhere‹our old system just wasn't working for us.”

The church needed a way to make labels look more professional and show more detailed information on them, and make it possible to have a parent tag with information on all their children. Stone spent many hours looking for top-notch security programs for churches and found that with church software, it's best to use a product that integrates with a church's membership management software in order to achieve maximum usability and efficiency. Since CrossPointe had been ACS users for several years, they looked again to ACS for their security software. ACS Checkpoint had been recently released to market and was a perfect match for what Stone was looking for.

“We think that churches are immune to security issues, but they are not. Problems can arise from negligence in screening and completing background checks, and even from accidental problems that seem harmless, but turn out to be bigger issues.”

Dean Stone

“I'd been really looking to find a top notch check in/check out system. There are other programs out there that do what this program does, but they don't integrate with ACS. ACS Checkpoint does it all and integrates with ACS, which makes life much easier by allowing us to have access to our membership records at every check in/check out workstation,” Stone remarks.

Unified Security System
CrossPointe now has one unified system for all its security measures. Not only are their security measures much improved, they have a way to keep much more accurate attendance records. Because kids do not come to their
program without being checked in, they have a record of how many children attended and where they are. “More than

volunteers counting heads. Our attendance records are becoming much more accurate,” Stone notes. “My statistics are much more reliable thanks to ACS Checkpoint. It's really working well for us.”

The church has installed three manned and two unmanned computer checkpoint stations in its children's center. Each station has a label printer and prints out badges with security codes for identification matching. Each person will also have key fobs that will be scanned in addition to the security labels.

CrossPointe has set up a procedure whereby children four years old and older check in at one of the computer kiosks located in the children's center's main entrance. A name tag for each child is then printed out, as well as a parent security label. Upon retrieving one's child, parents must show the parent security label to check out their child.

Families with children three years-old and younger, check in at the welcome center and are issued a name tag; parents are issued a parent security label and given a pager. The pager number is printed out along with a security code on the labels for quick scanning and identification.

“The system is basically easy to use,” Stone admits. “I'm just in the process of putting together some information to give to newcomers about our check in/out procedure. Even without ever having given these types of instructions before, the parents have really caught on.”

“These security measures will provide ultimate peace and security for our parents-anytime and anywhere,” states Stone. He continued, “Our church is located approximately two to three miles from the University of Oklahoma and our surrounding community has a large concentration of technology savvy educated people who have naturally picked up on this as being a high tech sharp system that they can appreciate. Without a doubt, it has created a sense of well being knowing that we care about the security of our children.”

All aspects of this security system can be customized to each church's unique needs. Churches can print out the child's name, date, session info or parent/pager number with ease. It's also possible to post attendance for each child that is checked in. Special notes can be entered at time of check in to be included on their badge such as allergy information, or special diet requests. Stone explained, “We encourage our parents to feel free to communicate any needs that their child may have. That way our staff can attend to any special care instructions so that smaller issues can be addressed and we can be proactive addressing them before they even occur.” Lastly, real-time reports can be generated showing who has checked in/out by class or activity.

“This security system is stellar. We're going to have an airtight system. It's almost fool-proof,” says Stone. He added, “We find Checkpoint useful for any events that we are doing at the church. Whether that be childcare programs, small groups, VBS, or meetings requiring childcare for attendees. Checkpoint is just part of our routine. There is no second guessing anything; it's just the way that we do things.”

In addition to improved security, Stone also feels that one of the strongest selling points of ACS Checkpoint is that it will pay for itself in labor costs over a short period of time. If your church has a secretary enter the info normally, having Checkpoint to do the work will save churches in the long run.

By implementing a system to ensure all the children's security within the church, CrossPointe has taken a huge step in setting up security measures to make sure all kids are safe, all the time. Of course, prayer is still the number one way that CrossPointe “secures” its members, but today churches can never be too safe and must take the necessary human steps to cover all its bases.

Web Site: www.crosspointe.ws

To learn more visit www.acstechnologies.com
or call 1-800-736-7425.

ACS Technologies Group, Inc.
ACS Technologies designs desktop and Web-based software solutions that help over 22,000 faith-based organizations manage their information better. We have been dedicated to serving churches, schools, and other organizations for over 27 years. To discover how we can further help meet your needs, call us today at 1.800.736.7425.