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An interim pastor at Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Pelion, S.C., had been looking for a way to run his office more efficiently. He discovered that each lay leader in the church had a different method of recording membership information — from a spiral notebook to an Excel spreadsheet — and none of them corresponded with one another.

The church knew that something would have to change in order for it to grow and flourish beyond its 150 members. When all the names were added up from the various membership records, the pastor discovered a total of 490 names on the church rolls — all people that hadn't been kept in touch with over the years.

Mount Hermon went on to implement a Web-based church management software system that allowed the church to unify its membership information and allow multiple church volunteers to update the information and keep track of people from their home computers.

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“With our database, I'm now able to post contributions and run reports from home over the Internet,” said Mildred Poole, Mount Hermon's church treasurer. “It's great to be able to have access to keep track of records and do everything I need to right from home.”

Small churches are the bread and butter of the American spiritual landscape. With the average small church in America having less than 100 people attending each Sunday, and many more falling in the 200 to 500 member range, small churches are a big ministry.

A recent report by the Barna Research Organization stated that “small churches play an important and valuable role in the religious landscape of America. They reach millions of young adults who have no interest in a larger church setting. They have tremendous potential for building strong community, as well as spiritual foundations. And small churches often grow into larger churches once they develop significant internal leadership and creatively overcome their resource limitations.”

Using software efficiently

Using software, churches can analyze attendance patterns, identify members that may be slipping away, and target needed communications and involvement programs. The analysis can also track growth in Sunday School or small group ministries.

Holy Cross Catholic Church in Wagoner, Okla., wanted to have the benefits of running a small church office like a large cathedral, but with the ability to grow and add solutions when they need to in the future.

“We found ourselves realizing more and more benefits from the use of software in our church office,” noted Parish Life Coordinator, Libby Phillips. “As our needs grew, we purchased additional solutions in order to meet our specific parish's needs for church office management. It also is important to know that our software can grow as our church grows — whether we have 300 members or 3,000.”