Serving one another with love is but one of the greatest commandments we are called to fulfill as followers of Christ. Churches are forever looking to equip their ministries with volunteers who are ready and willing to serve in any myriad of ways possible, however, the challenge can be overwhelming at best. Matching volunteers to a ministry that best suits their individual needs requires organized information that can be accessed to address the ongoing needs of the church. Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas is no longer void of a solution to meet this challenge.
Implementing ACS. An ACS Technologies client since 2004, Church Business Administrator, Martha Sauce remembers the decision to use ACS as their software management provider. “We reached a point where most of our staff complained about our previous vendor. The software wasn’t user- friendly, the service wasn’t what we had hoped, in fact often times we weren’t able to get a hold of people when we needed help. Before I came to Lakeside, I had used ACS at another church and I knew it was time for us to make the change. We didn’t even have a salesperson out, I just went ahead and ordered ACS and that was it!”
Operation Connection 3:16. Recognizing the capabilities of the powerful tool they now had in place, Lakeside decided to put Volunteer Manager to the test with a project known as Operation Connection 3:16 (OC 3:16.) The church seriously needed to be able to determine how they could best serve the needs of their volunteers and find out just what type of aptitude their volunteers had.
The first step was to create a survey and administer it to the entire congregation. Sauce explained, “We decided that the best way to go about this was to cancel all of our evening activities church wide for one whole week and spend this time meeting with the members of our church instead. This was a good thing because our church had grown so much and there were many members who may not have known the history of our church and so on. So, we gave them that information, divided them by alphabetical order and then requested that they complete our survey.”
Data Revealed. When the weeklong survey process was complete, the data was input into the database. The survey revealed a database of about 700 volunteers with notable qualities that could be utilized by the church and its ministries. The survey had various positions and split them into departments that included administrative talents which consisted of tasks such as folding bulletins or other light administrative work. Other positions ranged from construction workers, accounting team members, graphic artists, bible study facilitators, camp counselors, teachers, encouragement team members, game leaders, information table workers, substitute teachers, VBS volunteers or food service helpers, for example.
When all of these categories were established and filled out, data was manipulated to produce customized reports within ACS by individual or by position. This helped to determine just what qualities were resonating within their congregation. The next step involved a telephone interview conducted by a church minister. This process helped to verify credentials and define steps or processes required to fill a position and ultimately make sure that certain areas would indeed be a good match for a potential volunteer to serve in.
Active Volunteer Base. The survey has helped to make various projects within the church run smoothly. “Now we have a volunteer base to pull from and it makes our job so much easier. Often times we have the help we need right here and we don’t have to go off and hire another firm to get the job done”, Sauce noted.
An example of this was when the church needed to develop a new building/facilities team. Sauce continued, “I simply did a search for those volunteers who were skilled with landscaping and construction issues and we were able to produce a list instantaneously. From that list, we were able to solidify a team that we knew was ready and willing to get the job done.” Sauce added, “We have so much talent at this church, many of these people work in these areas for a living and now we have the ability to utilize their gifts and they are confident about serving in the areas they are familiar with. With Volunteer Manager all of this information is organized in a usable format.”
OC 3:16 also helped to identify and recruit new volunteers in Lakeside’s student ministry organizations. The survey asked recipients if they had ever worked with kids ranging in age from preschool all the way to high school. This helped to select new teachers who had relevant experience with this type of service. By effectively matching talents and needs of the 2,000 member church, it has been able to grow child-centered ministries by having a stronger team of leaders willing to serve and accommodate the growing number of children on the church campus.
About Lakeside Baptist Church: Lakeside Baptist Church builds its ministries around Acts 2:41-47. Four key areas balance their focus as a church that serves Christ: In Worship, Missions, Discipleship and Ministry. Lakeside serves Christ as a people working together to build up God's kingdom and one another.
ACS Technologies Products and Services Used:
People Suite: People, Attendance, Connections, Special Mailings, Reservations
Financial Suite: Contributions, General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Purchase Order, Check Reader
Church Growth Tools: Church Report, Church Growth Tools, Volunteer Manager, Checkpoint, Bar Code Scanner
Services: Network/Multiuser
Web Services: Access ACS
Website
www.lakesidebc.org
