I'm officially naming this tech Friday here on the blog. I have two innovations to pass on to any church leader looking to streamline operations and events next year.

First, from Helpmate Technologies, is a new 2006 version of their Church Helpmateâ„¢ church management software system with a new Church Health & Statistics module. According to President Paul Schuster, the software is designed to play a role in keeping church leaders aware of the state of their church's health.

"While there are certainly many elements to a healthy church that are outside the scope of a software program, the Church Health & Statistics module we're introducing in Church Helpmate 2006 provides the tools to track dozens of key church health indicators and trends," Schuster said in a news release.

While one of the main purposes for a tool like Church Helpmate is to reduce the administrative burdens faced by today's churches, Schuster stated that Helpmate wanted to take church management software a step further. "We wanted Church Helpmate to be more than just a computerized storage house of names and numbers. We have designed Church Helpmate 2006 as a tool that can actually help churches with their core biblical purposes," Schuster said.

The new version also features other upgrades that simplify administrative tasks, such as the new ability to automatically distribute contribution and pledge statements via email (as PDF attachments). Also, a new MS Outlook® Export Utility provides a very simple mechanism for loading church data onto portable PDA (hand-held) units. In all, the 2006 release of Church Helpmate™ introduces over 60 new features and enhancements.

In other church tech news, ServiceU has created TicketU to handle every detail of complicated event ticketing processes for churches or other organizations. TicketU is a Web-based online ticketing software that is integrated with an organization's Web site. Staff can have access to the TicketU system from any Internet connection, so tickets can be sold face-to-face or over the phone, as well as online. Most of the management of the ticketing process can be done from volunteer's homes or the church office, making additional time savings a reality.

Toni Hamilton, minister of community involvement at First Baptist Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., says the new software has lightened the volunteer workload for the Christmas pageant—an event that generates 48,000-plus ticket sales each year.

"We used to have nine people working on the ticketing process, now there are three," Hamilton said in a news release. "The load has shifted out of the office and into the homes of those attending the pageant."

TicketU may be used to sell reserved seats or general admission tickets. The program is set up so that organizations have complete control of all funds accepted. Payments can be processed online or on-site, using either a merchant account or PayPal. TicketU safeguards transactions with real-time credit card authorization, address verification and encryption of all transaction details.

The software also provides reports by event to show a summary of the ticket sales and help reconcile on-site cash sales.

Happy innovating!