- January
- 3
- 2008
Church management software, Part 2
I’ve basically narrowed down our web-based CMS search to two programs: Church Community Builder and PurposeWare. I’ve worked with the online demo of CCB for a few days now and liked what I’ve seen. It is very feature-rich and detailed. My fear is that it might be too detailed and might scare away potential users. I haven’t seen PurposeWare up close yet; they will schedule a live demo for me with a sales person, but I can’t just go do it myself. No time to do it this week; I think I’ll set aside some time next week to get the demo.
Both companies have reduced pricing in place for church plants; PurposeWare says they’ll give it to us for free for a year, but haven’t told me yet how much it’ll cost after that. I have a price on CCB that I think we could handle if it’s the best choice. I’m shooting for next week sometime to get a decision made and get signed up.
- December
- 30
- 2007
We’re famous! (Well, just a little…)
A couple of weeks ago a reporter from Newsweek contacted an elder at Noelridge (the parent church of our church plant, and where I’m still attending until the plant starts up THIS WEEK), and wanted to know if she could come interview some of our folks to do an online piece on Iowans in preparation for the caucuses (also this week).
The end result is a three-minute video that most prominently features our pastor, Richard Marsceau. You can also hear me plunking away at the piano and singing through the last minute or so. Pretty cool stuff.
- December
- 29
- 2007
Finding Church Management Software
I’m convinced that picking a good Church Management Software (CMS from here on out) will be an important thing for Imago Christi. So for the past couple of days I’ve spent some time Googling various CMS options. There is no shortage of options; the Google search has multiple pages of primary sites that offer some sort of software, and those software packages seem to run the whole gamut. There are the amazingly cheap and out-of-date packages that are still being offered; there are more expensive packages available. One particular frustration is that a bunch of sites won’t even give you pricing information up front; they want your contact info so they can have someone call you. I hate talking to salesmen, and there’s no sense in them pitching a $1000 software package to me, no matter how good it is - we can’t afford it.
Being a geek and very internet-savvy, it boggles my mind how many really really poor websites there are for these programs. Seriously, the sites look like they were created in 1995 by a high-schooler who needed a weekend project. And like they haven’t been updated since then. I have to wonder how many copies of the software they’re selling if they can’t even afford a decent website.
There are a couple options I have found that have web-based solutions that are very attractive: PurposeWare and Church Community Builder. Both appear to be much more robust than the typical CMS, allowing church members to access the tool online to update information, sign up for mailing lists, etc. Of course, both of these places want me to leave my contact info so they can get back to me… but I think with these two it’ll be worth it. At least these two have websites that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have associated with my organization.
I’ll do some more evaluation in the next week and try to come up with a recommendation. Then we just need to justify it in the budget…
- December
- 27
- 2007
Becoming a Caring Church
Alex Strauch provides some practical guidance for becoming a church that truly cares for people (from the Summer 2007 edition of Emmaus Bible College’s Journey magazine):
- Organize a Benevolence Fund. Caring for the poor and needy cannot be done in a willy-nilly fashion… it’s amazing when we put our money together what we can do!
- Establish a Father Program. Many children in our churches today come without a father… over the years my four daughters would bring children, mainly girls, from school to the table to eat with us. For many of these girls it was the first time they were at a table with the father present.
- Provide language training for new immigrants. A number of our women had professional training and detrees in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), and they said we should do this. We were wondering, “Where are these people going to come from? We haven’t seen any immigrants in the neighborhood.” Nevertheless, we put up a sign reading “English as a Second Language.” Within one day we filled the whole program.
- Provide hospitality to poor and needy members. People love it when they come to your table for a meal. And the Lord Jesus instructs His people to invite certain kinds of people for a meal: “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14:13).
- Provide the poor with cars, furniture, and household goods. How often we’re getting rid of a car, selling a car. Don’t sell it - give it to someone!
- Raise awareness of poverty both local and global. Even if your assembly is middle class or upper middle class, there are bound to be people who are suffering financially. But you must have your eyes open to see it.
- Acknowledge the reality of the AIDS epidemic. One of the greatest tragedies in world history is right here before us…
- Leaders must set a vision before the congregation. We need to set a vision before our people that pulls us out of our self-centeredness. Our people need to be stirred to a compassionate care for our congregation, and a compassionate awareness of a world situation that is almost unspeakable.
- December
- 27
- 2007
Songs for the Inaugural Service
Imago Christi’s inaugural service is just over a week away - January 5, 2008. As I noted previously, it’s a bit of a challenge to pick the music - something appropriate for the first service of a new church, setting the tone for services to come, and having something accessible for those who are coming who may not be familiar with the songs.
I’ve settled on these four:
Blessed Be The Name of the Lord (Clinton Utterbach)
Praise to the Lord, The Almighty
My All In All (Dennis Jernigan)
Jesus, I Come (with new tune from RUF Hymnal)
I think this keeps things relatively simple, yet incorporates some new and old lyrics of praise of the Father, praise of the Son as the Lamb of God, and a beautiful expression of the Gospel in the final hymn. I pray it will be a blessing to those who attend.
- December
- 26
- 2007
Details to remember for your first worship service
Yes, the title is overly-long Google linkbait. But one thing I have been astonished with is just how many details there are that need remembered to plan for the first (or for that matter, any) worship service at a church plant. So, without any further ado, here’s my running list. I’ll update it as I remember more things.
Music-related
- Worship leader & musicians
- Sound equipment
- Sound technician
- Recording gear to record sermon
- CD for playing before/after service
- Words for the songs (either song sheets, hymnals, or overhead projection)
- Lapel/wireless microphone for pastor
Giving-related
- Collection plates/buckets/box/whatever
- Ushers
- Counters
- Treasurer
- Budget
- Receipts (donors will want receipts!)
Service-related
- Bulletin
- Communion service
Children’s ministries
- Nursery workers
- Children’s church workers (if you have it)
- Sunday school teachers (ditto)
Etc
- Security
- Clean-up crew
- Set-up crew (if you’re packing in/out)
What items do you have to add?
- December
- 20
- 2007
Selecting music for an inaugural service
We’re going to have our first worship team practice for Imago tonight, which means I need to have music selected for our first service. Selecting church music is normally a bit of a challenge, but selecting music to kick off a whole new church? Intimidating. I’ll need to pick a mix of old hymns and some more modern stuff; I’m thinking of some Chris Tomlin and maybe Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. Any ideas? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ll post the list when I get it finalized.
- December
- 18
- 2007
Building a worship team
One of my big initial tasks for Imago Christi is to figure out the worship team situation. Music is going to be an important part of our church “feel”. I had to select a word carefully there. Music won’t be the most important part of the church, not by a long shot. Nor will it be the most important part of the worship service. But music sets the tone, the “feel”, for the service and the congregation. Our music at Imago needs to draw from both ancient and modern, to be current musically while capturing the richness of two millenia of church tradition, wisdom, and teaching.
With that mental framework in place I start to look for musicians and vocalists. In the end I picture a small band; drums, a guitar or two, keyboard, bass, and a few vocals. But we’ll start smaller than that. It looks like our inaugural service will be keys, (conga) drums, and maybe an acoustic guitar. Three of us on vocals. We’ll see where it goes from there. I’m a lousy recruiter. I hate asking people to do things. I want people who are self-motivated and want to participate on the team. When God brings them, we’ll add them in. Am I being naive about this?
First practice is Thursday night. I can’t wait.
- December
- 17
- 2007
Contentment
I was reading Psalm 131 this morning and was struck by the picture of contentment painted in its three short verses:
O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore.
With two small girls at our house, this picture is a familiar one. When Laura snuggles up on my wife’s lap, she is the picture of contentment. She’s not worried about things “too great and marvelous” - she just wants to rest and to feel the love of her mother. She is secure in the arms of one who she knows loves her, will care for her, and will keep her safe. So she sits quietly, peaceful in the knowledge that she’s in good hands, and content.
As God’s people our hope and contentment is in the Lord. He can handle the great and marvelous things. I want to focus on resting in Him and trusting His goodness today.
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