Wes Haystead remembers when floppy disks were actually floppy. The president of Logos Management Software began serving churches with church management software needs in 1980.
"Every church we were dealing with was getting their first computer," he recalled.
Today, most churches — even very small congregations — are working with computers, even if they are only keeping financial records on spreadsheets.
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CMS allows congregations to store personal and financial information as well as ministry-related data to keep their church healthy and growing.
One of the main benefits of CMS, according to Free Grafton of Church Community Builder, is that pastors can spend time ministering rather than managing information.
"I think that is the goal of a church management system," Grafton said.
Adequate CMS allows for multiple users, so the same data can be added to or manipulated by more than one staff member or by trained volunteers.
In addition, CMS helps track church growth — something that should be on the minds of healthy churches, according to Haystead.
"We find it really exciting to deal with those kinds of churches because they are very open and forward-looking, in contrast to a lot of established churches that are looking at software to just help them do what they have been doing more efficiently," he said.
Data management
Managing people becomes more difficult with growth. But CMS experts say churches should consider both their present and future needs as well as the particular mission of their congregation when determining what data to collect and why.
"We periodically find churches that want to do a survey to find out every conceivable thing they can find out about people. They want to know who are the left-handed, blue-eyed trombone players," Haystead said. "I sit down with these people to find out how they're going to use that information."
A church may want to identify mature believers or long-time members who can disciple new members.
"You can kind of match ministry opportunities with the skills and interests of the people in the congregation," said Paul Schuster, president of Helpmate Technology Solutions.
Another primary use for CMS is financial. Haystead recommends churches use a system specifically designed for church operations.
"Churches handle money in a way that is almost totally unique from any other entity," he said. Personal check writing software doesn't cut it, he said. Neither does software designed for non-profits or fund soliciting organizations.
CMS allows churches to easily print giving statements for members and to communicate with the congregation in other ways as well. Groups can be identified for e-mail messages or letters, to remind committees about meeting dates or encourage visitors to return.
