Having smoother transitions between features and fewer steps to complete tasks made a big difference for Manch and his team.

“The tool is not the focus of the ministry,” says Manch Kersee, Director of Finance. “Because it just works, it shows that Realm’s really helping. Our team can focus on what they’re doing, serving and doing their work and ministry.”

“Realm cut down a lot of time so I could redirect some of my resources,” Manch says. “We weren’t bogged down anymore with doing data entry.”

In addition to having a better user experience for staff as they work individually, Realm has also improved their overall communication and interaction across the team.

“Realm has solved our organizational and cross-departmental communication issues,” Manch says. “The integration of congregant needs, giving records, and small groups has been key. We’re able to consolidate our processing, our management in Realm. Realm has made a big difference in our strategy and how we’re going to expand our ministry.”

With a tool they don’t have to spend time stressing about, the team at Impact Church of Jacksonville has more time and resources they can use to reach their community for Jesus.

That’s when they turned to Realm.

“Realm is a one-stop shop,” says Sandi Miller, Database Administrator. “Everything is in one place and things are connected. It makes it easier to keep the data out of silos. It has the registrations, it has the profiles, the groups, the attendance, everything.”

For a church with over 2,000 people in attendance each week, having all of their data in one place made it easier to connect with people. Seeing the ability to stay organized and keep track of all of the people coming in and out of the church helped get the entire team onboard with using Realm to do ministry.

“Pathways in general has been a real help just for the running of the business of the church,” Sandi says. “They are my number one thing that has actually helped us in doing ministry, because everybody on staff uses Pathways for something.”

Since launching Realm, the ministry team at Walnut Hill has created over 80 Pathways and have more than 1,000 individuals following a Pathway. Being able to keep track of members’ discipleship journeys in the same place they track giving, groups, events, and more has made a huge difference in the way they do ministry.

Through Realm’s Pathways, new members at Center Grove Baptist Church are now intentionally shepherded through a process to become integrated into the congregation. Fewer people fall through the cracks as they get plugged into small groups and connected with others through fellowship and discipleship. Realm makes tasks easier, efficient, and accessible for staff and volunteers, which leads to membership growth and retention. 

Leaders are using the Groups management feature in Realm to breathe new life into their small group ministry as they move forward with plans for expansion and reorganization, bringing more opportunities for community to their members.

Just before Jill joined the team, Plainfield Christian Church switched to a new system: Realm. Now, with the integrated accounting and giving modules coupled with check scanning capabilities, Plainfield Christian Church could drastically change what their giving processing looked like.

The switch to Realm was not only a time and labor saver for Jill and Plainfield Christian Church, but also gave them a stronger sense of security and integrity within their giving process.Jill believes the investment in Realm and its compatible check scanner has more than paid for itself with both the tangible and intangible benefits Plainfield Christian Church has received.

St. Stephen Baptist began working with ACS Technologies as an Access ACS user in the ‘80s and made the transition to Realm a few years ago when they discovered the necessity of a user-friendly communications tool.

“We’re able to send out mass communications,” says David Birch, print media services director. “Our groups have been able to communicate with each other. Realm has just been a great communication tool.”

Already established in Realm when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, St. Stephen Baptist quickly saw the benefits of the communications tools they had.

“We have been instructed in the Bible several times, not to try to do life on our own because that is the one sheer way that Satan gets a foothold on us,” David says. “So, realizing that, it has been our goal to communicate, especially during this pandemic, and reach out to everybody. It’s been crucial to make sure that we’ve remained in contact with people.”

While emails and phone calls have been essential to staying connected with their large congregation, St. Stephen Baptist has also taken advantage of the Realm Shepherd and Realm Connect mobile apps.

“For the staff, Realm Shepherd has been a godsend,” David says. “For the membership as a whole, Realm Connect has been a godsend because it allows people to know what’s coming up because we’ve been guardedly cautious about how we re-enter our physical spaces.”

Realm’s communications features haven’t been limited to staff and congregants, though. St. Stephen’s lay leadership, including their deacons, have been able to use Realm to do ministry.

“Realm is a communication tool for the deacons for a family ministry planning, and for our auxiliary administrators, it becomes a communication tool for them to experience what’s going on in the church,” David says.

St. Stephen Baptist continues to change lives, strengthen families, and transform the community in the Louisville area and keeps every believer connected to the Body of Christ through Realm.

Realm enabled Columbia Baptist Church to organize their staff in ways they hadn’t been able to before. They’re now able to create groups within the app that help them sort through each church organization and create a place for the members to communicate and share information about upcoming events, prayer requests, church curriculum. The staff at Columbia Baptist Church no longer worries about email distribution lists, or keeping up with correct contact information for their members, because the members are now able to update personal information on their own. Realm opened an entirely new avenue for connection and communication for everyone at Columbia Baptist Church. 

Since being introduced to Realm, Newman Catholic Community realized the quality of their data has improved along with the ease of access to information. Members of the church can log into Realm and edit their own information, which is not only quicker, but helps the administration team significantly. Realm also makes fundraising and managing events almost effortless for Newman Catholic Community. They use groups to join groups to make it easier to reach and communicate their goals; they’re able to see how many tickets they have available within the app, too. They have everything they need all in one place. Realm has granted Newman Catholic Community a ministry tool to engage with each other and remain visible to each other, even in such a large church.

The switch to Realm offered First United Methodist of Orlando a way to be more accessible to anyone who needs them. Each member is now able to fellowship with each other outside of the church and share their experiences from community care gatherings. Features like Pathways assist them in keeping up with their visits to different areas in the community in addition to welcoming new church members. Realm created a new opportunity for the church to more easily reach out into the community and effect development, while simultaneously giving the members a newfound closeness to each other.