When church goers attend a typical Sunday service in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, and sit surrounded by the beautiful stained glass windows that line the walls, chances are that they may not realize everything that goes on behind the scenes of this church that has been operating for the last 185 years.
Access ACS. ACS Technologies continues to provide the church with a multitude of tools that it uses in its day-to-day operations and has done so ever since 1994. Most recently, the church has added Access ACS to their product suites. Access ACS has allowed all of their lay leaders and church leaders to be able to access information and allows them to gain anytime access to their ministries needs. Tracking member information, generating reports, accessing calendars or updating attendance information, Access ACS provides a solution that allows specified users unlimited access 24/7.
Having Access ACS is just one added advantage that evolved as a result of the decision to select ACS Technologies to help manage the administrative aspects of their church. As the Network Administrator and Records and Outreach Assistant, Lacy Tite is one of 25 staff members who use ACS Technologies church management software in any number of situations. With ACS, Tite can easily pull information for staff and church leaders, utilize the complex searching capabilities for numerous projects and also be able to export data to Excel and perform complex mail merges that can later be reformatted in endless ways.
Special Projects. Having ACS can help to simplify large scale projects. In 2004, First Baptist of Nashville implemented a “40 Days of Purpose” focus program that spotlighted various ministry elements such as Worship, Evangelism, or Fellowship and Discipleship. During the “40 Days,” members filled out detailed surveys in order to determine ways that they could get involved with each area of the church’s ongoing ministries. This process was referred to as “Opportunities for Ministry Involvement.”
Although entering all of the data into the ACS People Suite “activities” field required a lot of data entry, the church is now reaping the benefits that reach far beyond the amount of time that it took to get the program off and running. Now, when the church is hosting an event that requires specific skills and or experiences (such as creating a video); Tite can simply execute an ACS search for all the people who indicated that they could help in this area. “It’s great, now we have a way to keep track of people’s gifts and talents,” admits Tite. Currently, they are looking to recruit members for a new hand bell choir. With ACS, First Baptist can have a list of interested or experienced hand bell players with the click of a button.
User Defined Fields. At First Baptist, user-defined fields are used to help keep track of a variety of information. For example, they have date fields for the first or second time that a person visits the church, for weddings and anniversaries, baptisms and so on. They also compile lists for a member’s occupation, a visitor’s age range, why a record was deactivated, even the school a member attended and their year of graduation. According to Tite, “It’s nice to be able to keep track of so much information and to be able to have the capability to perform searches on all of the information.”
Managing Details. Another feature that has proven useful is the reservations module. First Baptist of Nashville uses this for any number of events ranging from youth summer camp to women’s retreats. The software keeps track of all of the details to conduct special events such as how much an event costs, what people have paid, how much they owe; or to keep track of t-shirt sizes and emergency contact information. This tool is instrumental and has proven to reduce the amount of time spent on the smaller details thereby allowing the staff to focus on ministry programs or content.
Financial Matters. First Baptist is in the process of conducting their Door to the Future capital campaign and ACS has been paramount in maintaining the pledge records. Quarterly statements can be sent to members to let them know how they are keeping up with their pledges and reports can be run to better forecast giving expectations.
New to the role as Business Assistant for the church is Myra Mathis. Although Mathis has been with the church since 2002, she is new to this position having used the Financial modules in this capacity for just about three months. Mathis is learning the ropes and frequently uses the Accounts Payable and General Ledger modules. When asked what she thinks of using ACS, she remarked, “I’m finding that ACS is user friendly and easy to navigate.” Mathis especially likes using the Contributions module which she has worked with for over two years and notes that it is so helpful to have all of the information readily available, nothing has to be re-entered. Mathis currently links the contribution data to the ACS General Ledger and finds this feature effective to help to maximize her efficiency while performing her job duties.
About First Baptist of Nashville
First Baptist Nashville continues to seek new ways to minister to its community. The downtown location provides unique opportunities to minister to the city of Nashville and surrounding metropolitan area in extraordinary ways. The church also maintains a commitment to missions in the United States and around the world, both through giving and going.
ACS Products and Services Used
People Suite: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Reservations,
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Purchase Orders
Growth Suite: Ministry Scheduler, Report Designer
Extend: Access ACS
Services: Network/Multiuser
Website
http://www.firstbaptistnashville.org
