Churches need tools that will help them with the management side of church. It’s important that we have a way to keep up with member information, track attendance, communicate with people, manage contributions, and lots of other things. Especially as a church grows larger, the tasks can become overwhelming which can hinder church leaders from doing what they love doing most, which is why it’s so important to have a good solid church management software in place that fits the needs of your church and keeps the leaders as free as possible.
Obviously, here at Faith Teams, this is the business we’re in, and we regularly hear from church leaders who are frustrated with their current setup. And as we take time to hear their stories, they tell us about the struggles they’re experiencing.
So from those hundreds of conversations, we’ve compiled a list of four things that we hear over and over again from church leaders all around the world.
1. It’s Difficult to Use
Church Leaders are church leaders, not technology experts. Most of your leaders probably don’t have a bachelor’s degree in computer science. What they need is a software solution that is easy-to-learn and easy-to-use. If they don’t have that, they’re understandably going to be resistant to use it.
One Pastor told us that he was so frustrated with his team because they weren’t using the software they had. They were paying a hefty price for it, and it frustrated him so much that they weren’t using it the way he had hoped they would. He was frustrated until he realized that he was getting the same answer from everybody – It was impossible to figure out. He finally decided that his team wasn’t the problem. The church software they had was the problem.
Every software has a learning-curve, but you need something that is easy-to-learn and easy-to-use, or it’s going to be a constant struggle with your entire group of leaders.
2. It doesn’t Do everything we Need
One of the things we commonly hear is that a church is using two or three different programs to get all the features they need. They’re using one program as their database, another program for texting, and another program for their online giving.
That’s not only an expensive route, but also a logistical nightmare because of constantly having to make sure everything is syncing together. And if the programs don’t integrate with each other, your team is stuck doing double or triple data entry work.
The best solution is to find a platform that does everything you need in one single system. This cuts your costs, not just for the software itself, but all the hours you’re paying staff to input data. It also frees up your people to do the work of ministry, rather than spending those hours syncing data.
3. The Price keeps going Up
Many churches tell us horror stories of how they signed up with a software company for a particular feature they needed, but their prices kept rising and rising. Recently, a church told us they were paying almost $400 per month just for their online giving solution, and that didn’t even include the standard transaction fees. They had signed up a few years ago and it was very inexpensive, but over time, their bills kept going up.
Another common struggle is that the cost goes up if you need to add more people to your database. So if your church is smaller, the cost is lower, but as it grows, the cost goes up. So, it may be a good solution as you’re starting, but then it ends up costing much more when you add more people.
Here at Faith Teams, we offer a flat-rate cost that never increases. Whether you have 50 people or 500 people, it’s the same low flat-rate cost. There are a couple other companies who offer flat-rate pricing, and we applaud that. We just believe that with all the other costs your church has, we want you to be able to depend on steady pricing for your church management system with no surprises.
4. We Need Support
You can have the best church management software and the best team of people, but there are still going to be questions that come up. “How can we do this?” ‘How can we track that?” “How can we get a report that shows us that?” Your team is going to have questions.
The thing that we hear probably more than anything else is the struggle with support.
Whether it’s the phone company, the insurance company, or the church software company, nobody wants to wait for answers when they need help. You want to be able to call a number and get an answer. You want to be able to click a chat button and get a human instead of a robot.
And this applies not only to the technical side of church management, but also the practical side. We get questions all the time about how to setup automated guest follow-up, or the best way to start online giving for their church. We believe this is one area where Faith Teams soars. Our team is made up of church leaders. We’re church leaders, just like you, so we’re able to help not only with the technical aspect, but also the practical.
Now, a blatant sales-pitch : )
We honestly believe Faith Teams is the answer to all of these struggles.
It’s easy-to-learn and easy-to-use: As soon as you sign up, we have a 45 minute video training course that walks you through the entire software showing you where everything is and how it all works. We also have a huge library of walk-thru tutorials for almost anything you need.
It’s everything in one single system: Our system includes everything you need to manage your church effectively. It’s a database for all your people info, but it includes so much more: Automated Guest Follow-Up, Volunteer Scheduling, Service Planning, Online Giving, Email and Text Messaging, Custom Sign-up Forms, Directories, and a ton more. All in one single system.
The price never changes: This one isn’t complicated at all. It’s $40/month for everything. Simple.
We’re here to help: Our team is ready to help from the first day. We’ll move you in for free if you have a spreadsheet or coming from a different software, and we’ll be there when you have questions. We’re a click or a call away.
No matter what software you use, we want to see you and your leaders in a place where you can effectively minister to your congregation rather than being bogged down with tech stuff. So as you’re shopping for your church management program, make sure to check all four of these boxes, and you’ll be miles ahead in the long-run.
