Poor communications are the leading cause of congregational exodus. Over time, in any relationship, a lack of communication will spell its doom. It does not work in marriage. I wonder why we think we can get away with it in the church. Good communications requires good church ministry systems. That requires church software that is designed with this fundamental objective in mind. Good church website design does not exist without strong capabilities for two way communications. Let me give you a few examples of what we do with church software and church websites at ConnectionPower. Whatever tools you use for communications, the principles below are essential for church health.

Listening

Many churches do a very poor job of listening to visitors and their loyal tithe-paying congregants. Long gone are the days of an idea or gripe box by the church doors. Church websites can be a powerful tool for listening. With the rise of larger and larger churches, God has given us the technology to “Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds.” Prov. 27.23

ConnectionPower transforms church websites from a static electronic brochure into a powerful listening device. Are congregants feeling isolated and looking for friends? Good church website software incorporates a dynamic search engine so newcomers can find a circle of friends that are a good match either by demographics or proximity. Do attendees, located at the slippery periphery of your church, want to feel more of a part of your church? Don’t make them jump through myriads of hoops to get involved. Put an interactive listening device on your church website where they can look for open ministry positions that are a good match for their SHAPE or availability. When they click that they are interested in a position, why not open up great instantaneous two-way communications with the director or contact person for that ministry? Technology makes this not only possible but mandatory.

Do some or many of your volunteers feel frustrated by either a lack of training or support? ConnectionPower’s church management software facilitates proactive communications in this area that is critical for team building and congregational morale. With the click of a mouse you can initiate surveys of your volunteers. Don’t recruit them and forget about them! Once they are serving, keep communicating. Don’t just tell them what you need! Ask them how they are doing. We see a huge shift in the maturation of a congregation that provides world class volunteer care.

Is someone in your church struggling? Are they going through a crisis? Are you equipped to listen so you can intervene in time to make a difference? ConnectionPower empowers large numbers of your volunteers who have active access “anywhere at anytime” to our web based church software to launch a recommended intervention for a family in need. The right people are instantly notified so the need can be evaluated. Why not position your ministry so that lots of eyes and ears can alert you to the condition of fellow sheep in the flock?

Is anyone listening to the visitors who come to your church every week? Each of them has a story to tell if someone is listening. Many visit during a time in their lives where they are uniquely receptive to the gospel. Who will hear their story? Visitors represent 100% of your church’s growth potential! Our church ministry systems enable you to gather all of the bits of their story and the record of fingerprints where they have been touched by church staff in an online profile. This repository of listening and touching is critical to providing first rate visitor care.

Talking

It is not enough to just listen. Good communication requires two-way dialogue. Once we have listened to people, we need powerful ways communicate back to them. We also need every tool available to cast vision and motivate people to move together in mission. Step up the quality and means of your communications with your volunteers. In our church ministry systems, when someone is dragged onto our interactive assignment calendar, for a group, they are automatically emailed, text messaged, and label and letter queues are filled. Auto-reminders are sent three days before the serving event. Talk about two-way communications! The assignment email has a list of fellow volunteers, who are trained for the position, and if they are unable to serve they can either reject the assignment or punt it on to a fellow volunteer. This not only creates great communication from admin staff to volunteers but it empowers volunteers with the communication necessary to function as a team.

Our church finance software enables vital communications about this area of the church. Mass email the latest progress on the building fund, general fund or missions’ projects. Enable them to see a detailed history of their personal giving and to make online contributions in the same place you are casting the vision.

Make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in the life and events of the church. We enable church websites to easily promote (communicate) events that are visually appealing with pictures, online registration, downloadable brochures, and a robust integrated shopping cart that makes getting involved as easy as a click of a mouse. We also empower attendees to your events to give feedback on how they felt about the event. This kind of two way communications in itself communicates an important message from the church. It says, “We are not just interested in what you can do for us but we want to know what we can do for you.” This is the heart of good communications.

These are a few examples of the kinds of communications that ConnectionPower’s church management software facilitates. If you are interested in receiving a live demo on your computer screen while talking to one of our staff, click here to request a demo.