FLORENCE, SC,—To support the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) primary responsibility of assisting Southern Baptist churches in reaching the United States, Canada, and U.S. territories with the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is now working with ACS Technologies—the nations leading provider of information management solutions to the faith-based community—to develop reporting and pastoral management solutions for churches, associations and conventions. ACS Technologies will assume responsibility for NAMB’s Associational Relationship Management System (ARMS), a prototype next generation online application, and Church Planter Management System (CPMS) software. CPMS has helped launch over 10,000 churches to date.
In announcing this alliance, Richard H. Harris, Church Planting Group Vice President at NAMB (www.namb.net) said, “From its initiation in 1997, the goal of providing and continually updating CPMS has been to make accessible a reliable, credible, and functional tool that pastors and church planters all across North America could use for assistance in the growing of their New Testament churches.” He went on to explain, “Seven revisions have gone into the software since its creation, with the most recent revision completed in May 2003. We have accomplished much, but want to ensure we can accomplish even more into tomorrow with the ever growing needs of church planters. ACS Technologies can help us do this!”
ACS Technologies (www.acstechnologies.com) has served churches for over 25 years, and has worked with NAMB for more than 15 years in various capacities. Today, ACS Technologies serves over 20,000 churches nationwide, working with many Southern Baptist state conventions and associations as well as churches. By supplementing the ministry know-how and missionary resources of NAMB with the technology know-how and strong support and training services of ACS Technologies, NAMB will be able to build upon the successes of the church planter system and take their church planters to a new level long into the future.
Hal Campbell, President and CEO of ACS Technologies comments, “For many years we have admired the work of NAMB and since early 1998 we have placed significant value on the work they are doing to plant churches through the use of their CPMS and ARMS software. They provide an exceptional service to new churches, a service that we will strive to build upon to yield even greater rewards for these growing congregations.”
Mike Carlisle, Chief Technology Officer at NAMB, is deeply involved in this new alliance, and says, “With ACS Technologies, we can take advantage of the power of the new technology and the internet to help further connect planters—with each other, with sponsors, associations, state conventions, and NAMB. By providing real time information, we’ll be able to more effectively train, equip, and deploy Christians in communicating the good news of Christ’s salvation, while ministering to the needs of the loving community called ‘His body.’
ACS Technologies began the day-to-day servicing of pastors and church planters using the CPMS and ARMS applications effective April 1, 2004. ACS Technologies will also be responsible for the software training of existing and new users.
For more information and/or technical and service related questions on this strategic alliance and the products involved, please contact: Tom Cheyney at tcheyney@namb.net or Tom Panos at tom.panos@acstechnologies.com
About The North American Mission Board (NAMB)
The primary responsibility of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) is to assist Southern Baptist churches in reaching the United States, Canada, and U.S. territories with the gospel of Jesus Christ. NAMB (www.namb.net) continues a 150-year tradition of evangelism and church starting within the Southern Baptist Convention. Today, NAMB has grown to more than 5,000 missionaries, 2,500 endorsed chaplains, 400,000 mission volunteers. It also produces 5 weekly radio programs on 2,500 stations reaching 3 million adults per week, and television programming on the FamilyNet network. Funded primarily by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Cooperative Program support, and with an operations budget of approximately $125,562,500, NAMB has a goal of more than 2,000 church starts each year. NAMB is headquartered near Atlanta, Ga., and in Ft. Worth, Texas.
About Church Planter Management System (CPMS)
On December 5, 1997 the Church Planting Group for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention launched the first commitment to use technology in the advancement of the gospel across North America through the creation and delivery of the Church Planter Management System (CPMS). This technology resource has given church planters and sponsoring churches much needed assistance in the spreading of the gospel into all indigenous people groups and various types of launches. Widespread acceptance and usage of this church planting resource has enabled it to help over 10,000 church planters and sponsoring churches in the six and a half years of its existence. The largest numbers of missionaries are starting new Southern Baptist churches, about 1,700 churches each year. Mission pastors serve English-speaking and language churches in rural and urban settings. Southern Baptists in North America worship in 210 languages among 112 language groups in more than 7,000 ethnic congregations.
About ACS Technologies Group, Inc. ACS Technologies (www.acstechnologies.com) is the leading provider of information management solutions for churches, schools, and other faith-based organizations, and has made its biggest contribution to the industry with its powerful church management software, ACS™. Founded in 1978, the company offers a host of other technology solutions including, Headmaster™ administration software for private schools and the Extend Platform™ online content management for building Web sites. In addition, PDS™ (Parish Data System) the leading parish management software is an ACS Technologies' solution. ACS Technologies has been in business for 26 years and is a privately held company headquartered in Florence, South Carolina, with sales and training offices throughout the U.S., ACS Technologies has over 300 employees. Over 20,000 different organizations rely on ACS Technologies for their daily operations—the largest client base in its market.
