When a church is faced with the challenges specific to a growing congregation, technology can often be the tool to navigate through and around the numerous obstacles that are sure to present themselves. Covenant Love Family Church (CLFC) in Fayetteville North Carolina has experienced just that.

Having selected ACS Technologies as their software management solution in 1992, CLFC has had the security of knowing that they made a stellar decision. “What I like best about ACS Technologies is that they are on the cutting edge of technology and they keep up with the needs of our church,” remarked Melissa Coleman, director of purchasing for this 2,500 member congregation. She continued, “For example, adding Checkpoint into ACS has been a wonderful tool for us. It seems as though ACS Technologies is always seeking new ways to accommodate their churches and clients.”

Access ACS. In October of 2005, the church decided to add Access ACS to their suite of products. Although they haven’t been using it too long, the product is paving the road to a new and more efficient way of ministering to their congregation. Coleman explained, “Having Access ACS has helped our leadership staff especially when they need to access personal information about others.” Before, they had to call in and request a phone number and wait for someone on staff to get back to them. Now, they are able to retrieve this information on their own in a matter of seconds. Coleman added, “This saves time for our staff and makes us more efficient all around.”

Pastors who call on church members who require visitations have also benefited from the program. “Before the pastor makes a visit, he can go online and access a photo and any pertinent information about the parishioner that they are visiting. This feature really helps to familiarize the pastor, especially when our congregation is growing at the rate that we have experienced lately,” said Coleman.

Utilizing Data to Support Projects. One aspect of the ACS People Suite that has been very effective for the church is the graphs feature that allows quantifiable data to be transformed to a graph format. Coleman explained, “When we were in the process of expanding our church, we needed to provide the bank with charts and graphs that reflected our financial status. This process was very simple to execute especially with ACS.” Now CLFC has made their dream a reality and expects to unveil their brand new 2,500 seat auditorium later this year in August.

CLFC’s men’s ministry is just one example of a group that has benefited by using the People Suite’s phone tree feature. When they are due to host an event, the staff can perform a search for a targeted group. That way, they can produce phone numbers and call those who might be interested in attending the event or mailers can be sent out all from a designated list.

Another area that software management has helped CLFC is with some of the large scale projects that are required on a regular basis. Destiny Partners is an example of a massive project that can be completed with ease thanks to ACS. This project requires a letter be written and sent out to about 1,200 parishioners each month. With ACS, the staff is able to execute detailed searches to determine who has given and has not and provide lists of those who need a repeat letter and those who do not. Coleman remarked, “If we did this type of a project in Word and Excel, we’d need about a week and a half to get it completed. With ACS, we are able to get the job done in only two days.”

Destiny College. CLFC is also home to Destiny College that began as a family bible school in 1991. By the fall of 1996, Destiny College had evolved as a bible college and has actively been teaching the Word of God since. “When I first started my position as Registrar at Destiny, we were in need of an automated system that could meet our needs,” said Sheila Tatum. “We decided to take a look at what we already had with the ACS People Suite and thought that HeadMaster (HM) was the most logical choice for us. This is especially significant because most of the students enrolled at Destiny were members at CLFC so their information was already accessible from the ACS People Suite and that made my job much easier.” And that still stands true today with approximately 90 percent of the students declaring membership at CLFC.

Designing Transcripts. Preparing transcripts for students is one of the day-to-day operations that HM has simplified for Tatum. Prior to having HM, Tatum didn’t have the capability to produce official looking transcripts and the process of creating them took at least an hour. When Tatum contacted the support people at ACS Technologies she remembers, “They were so helpful. I’ve developed a great relationship with them over the years. When I was trying to find a way to produce the transcripts in HM, I learned that some of my needs were different than an elementary school or a daycare. The support staff worked right by my side to help me customize the processes specific to my concerns.” Tatum needed pertinent information to appear in certain fields and the support team showed her how to build those fields and create a finished product.

With HM, she is now able to produce a transcript in about five minutes complete with an official and professional look. Before HM, Tatum didn’t have the ability to print out students schedules for them. Now, when a student registers, Tatum is able to print all of the information out for the students in a matter of minutes. “The students like the look of their transcripts and that the entire process is so fast,” admits Tatum.

About Covenant Love Family Church: Covenant Love Family Church was founded in 1991 by Pastor Al Brice upon receiving a call from God to move to Fayetteville, North Carolina, to establish a church based on God's love, His Word, and His compassion.

ACS Technologies Products and Services Used:
HeadMaster: HeadMaster Pro,
People Suite: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Special Mailings, Reservations,
Growth Suite: Report Writer, Checkpoint, CASS It!
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Purchase Order, Check Reader, Bar Code Scanner
Services Suite: Network/Multi-user, LiveStor, Phonetree
Web Suite: Access ACS

Website
http://www.clfconline.com/