Read more about where Granger is heading next.

Q: What problem or challenge did you face that led you to use bvcms?

A: Nobody at the church could look up information remotely. This was overburdening a few of the staff because they were constantly getting calls from people asking them to look up information. In addition, the check-in system was terrible.

Q: Did you already have a church management system in place? If so, what compelled you to seek a different solution? If not, what compelled you to see a church management system?

A: The church was using a system, but it wasn’t adequate – it was really just a big phone book. Being a data guy, I always want to analyze things and know about our trending, such as how many 35-year-old dads came to our church last summer. But the data in our old system was not very good. There weren’t many people that understood how to use it, so there weren’t a lot of checks and balances as to how data got entered or how valid it was. There were occasions when we had three different records for the same person because that person’s name was entered differently. Although that’s still possible with bvcms, it’s less likely because of the way it’s set up.

Q: How did you learn about bvcms?

A: I started looking around at different systems, and was introduced to bvcms founder/developer David Carroll though a vendor I met while working on an unrelated project. I was concerned about David being a “small shop,” but he put our fears to rest and showed us how we could use Bellevue Church Management System to do all the things we were trying to do. There were so many features that it was a lock for me.

Q: How did bvcms meet your needs?

A: The biggest win I had was with children’s check-in. We have between 200-300 kids each week, and we would have kids stacked back as far as the eye could see trying to check in. I noticed a lot of parents get upset and leave the line, so the bvcms children’s check-in feature with the touch screens, and the way it provides management for the staff and ministry leaders to be able to login from anywhere and see the names of the kids they are working with, was very appealing.

Q: What do you like best about bvcms?

A: I love the fact that even though I’m miles away, I can login and provide support. The ability for everyone to work from wherever they are is huge. Children’s check-in runs smoothly every Sunday now, and we are capturing the parents’ data as well. Now when they come to register for the first time, we register the whole family.

Q: What difference has bvcms made from a financial, operational and ministry perspective?

A: David has given us excellent support, and financially it’s been a big win. When we have an issue, David takes ownership and stays on top of it until it is resolved. The only reason I would ever be hesitant to notify David of a problem is because I know he’s going to stop whatever he’s doing to work on it. We have a system better than anything I knew was out there.

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This is a sponsored post from Bellevue Church Management System, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com.

TONY: Who are you?

Kent and Beverly Mattox

KENT: I met my future wife, Beverly, in the early 1980’s. She was a drug dealer and I was a drug addict. While on a date, Bev told me of a vision she had many months earlier while driving down the interstate on a drug run. She said the skies opened up and she saw a man with her that looked like me standing on a platform preaching to thousands of people. She told God “I think you’ve got the wrong person,” and she heard God chuckle and say “I’ll see about that.” As she recounted this vision to me, Beverly told me I was supposed to be a preacher. At that mention, I was the one laughing!

Shortly after that, my life took a downward spiral resulting in a drug overdose that nearly cost me my life. We moved to Orlando, Florida to work with my dad in order to help us get our lives back together. It was during this time in Orlando, Florida that my wife and I were delivered from a lifestyle of drug addiction in 1986. The Lord radically changed our lives and we started ministering the Gospel. I served as an Associate Pastor in Orlando, FL, for ten years before launching Kent Mattox Ministries. After almost two years of traveling the world preaching the Gospel, the Lord called us to start Word Alive International Outreach.

TONY: When did your church launch?

KENT: We launched Word Alive in December 2000. After almost two years of world-wide missions work, my wife and I felt the Lord calling us to start a local church. My parents provided us the land to build upon. Two days before the construction was completed and we were given the keys to the building, my father passed away. His funeral was the first service ever held at Word Alive drawing hundreds to our church and essentially launching us into ministry.

TONY: Where are you located?

KENT: Oxford, Alabama

TONY: Tell us something unique about your church.

KENT: We feed over 2,000 families a month through our Isaiah 58 Food Ministry, we don’t take up offerings in services, and we shut down the church in the month of July and encourage our congregation to Sabbath and enjoy time with their families.

TONY: Any ministry highlights from recent months?

KENT: We gathered over 12,000 members of the community for an Easter Service at the local high school this past spring and we celebrated the church’s 10 year anniversary earlier this month.

TONY: What’s your latest leadership learning?

KENT: Over the years, I’ve learned that if you’re not careful as a leader, you can lose perspective and neglect your relationship with the Lord by focusing so much on the body and not paying attention to the head, Jesus Christ.

To learn more about Kent and the ministries of Word Alive church, you can visit their website or connect with them on Facebook.

Are you beginning to see similar collaborative efforts in your communities? What impact is it having? Join the conversation by adding your comment.

Chris Farley teaching at The River

A couple of weeks ago, I revived the “church spotlight” series on my site introducing you to Cornerstone Church. Today, I’d like to highlight The River Church in Semmes, Alabama where Chris Farley (no, not this one) is the senior pastor.

TONY: Tell us a little bit about your personal story.

CHRIS: I was born again at an early age, rededicated my life to Christ when I was 17 and entered the ministry my freshman year of College in 1988. After graduation, I traveled extensively both nationally and internationally speaking in churches and leadership conferences, and was serving on staff at a church in Ohio when in 1999 a small, traditional congregation in the deep South called and inquired if we were interested in being their pastor. I was 30 years old and there were around 20 people attending — and that was on a good Sunday!

TONY: When did your church launch?

CHRIS: Although this church had been in the community for decades,The River actually launched only 8 years ago. That’s when we discovered our true DNA as a community of faith and as a result we changed our ministry philosophy, our core values and the name of the church.

TONY: Where are you located?

CHRIS: Our campus is located in Semmes, a suburb of Mobile, Alabama.

TONY: Tell us something unique about your church.

CHRIS: When you’re talking about the south, particularly the deep south where we’re at, most would say almost everything about us is unique; from the type of music we play, to the subjects I speak on, to the creative elements we incorporate into our four weekend worship experiences. But, if I had to name one, it would probably be our culture of diversity, acceptance and unconditional love.

TONY: Any ministry highlights from recent months?

CHRIS: Actually, 2010 was unbelievable. Personally, I have never experienced anything like this before. I’m just blown away when hundreds of new people are showing up and sometimes as many as 30-40 of them are coming to Christ each and every week.

TONY: What’s your latest leadership learning?

CHRIS: Without question, understanding the importance of growing with the ministry. We have a little saying around here, “You can’t go, if you don’t grow.” The concept of “Grow the leader, grow the church” has taken on a whole new meaning for us. I’m constantly reminded that a growing church has the uncanny ability to leave you and your staff behind in the dust wondering what just happened! I could talk about attendance growth, fiscal growth, impact and influence growth, but all of this would would be short-lived without an unswerving commitment to unstoppable personal growth both for me and for those who serve at The River.

“You know as well as I do that your church will never be the right church for everyone. In fact, trying to be will pretty much guarantee that you’ll end up reaching no one. Actually, you will. But trust me, you don’t want them.”

Check out the rest of what Scott had to share on this topic. If you’re not following his writing, you really need to. He’s smart. He’s leading a great church in the Chicagoland area. Especially if you’re in the process of transitioning your ministry, you need to follow Scott’s story.

Let’s start with #10…

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18 of My Favorite Churches

Over the last year or so, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of great churches throughout the country. I’ve had the chance to provide training to staff teams and consulting on a variety of topics including staffing, structure, volunteer strategy, discipleship strategy, weekend service environments and more.

12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia

Along the way, I’ve connected with many great leaders. It’s given me the opportunity to hear some great stories of how God is working in churches across the country. Here’s a sample of the churches I’ve been at:

• 12Stone Church (Lawrenceville, Georgia)
• Avalon Church (McDonough, Georgia)
• Christ Fellowship Miami (Miami, Florida)
• Cornerstone Church (Auburn, Alabama)
• Harvest Church (Byron, Georgia)

[read more]

TONY: Tell us a little bit about your call to ministry.

RUSTY: I was in a discipleship group of men who challenged me and caused me to reassess my purpose in life. In 1992, I accepted a call to ministry and my wife and I moved to Wilmore, Kentucky where I attended Asbury Seminary and received a Master of Divinity degree in 1996. I also read the book “Rediscovering Church” by Bill Hybels and it changed my whole idea of doing church. We packed up the kids and headed to Chicago one Friday afternoon just to see what was happening at Willow Creek. I was deeply impacted by the experience of being at this amazing church. I was appointed by the United Methodist Church back to my hometown of Montgomery, Alabama as an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church. After 3 1/2 years, I was then appointed to start a new church in the Auburn, Alabama area.

TONY: When did your church launch?

RUSTY: Cornerstone started as a classic “parachute drop”. I had no people and no buildings. It was just my wife and our three boys. We gathered a small group of people in October 1999 who were committed to seeing a new church happen. We met every week to pray and gain a vision for whatever God wanted to do through us to reach non-believers with the love of Christ. We launched on January 9, 2000 in an Auburn skate center with 235 people in attendance. Ten years later, here we are with 1,000 in attendance and three services accomplishing what God set out for us to do.

TONY: Where are you located?

RUSTY: We are located in southeast Auburn in a growing section of town. We have a 20,000 square foot facility on 20 acres of property right off a main artery that connects Auburn and Opelika.

TONY: Tell us something unique about your church.

RUSTY: One of the most unique things about our church is where we started. When our original core group began to research possible locations to worship, the only place we could find that would suit our space needs was the local skate center. We felt like it was the place God had chosen for us, so we took it (even after experiencing the overwhelming smell of sweaty socks and stale nachos from the snack bar). We became known as the “skate center” church, which ended up being a good brand for us. We didn’t have access to the building during the week, so we had to set it up and take it down every Sunday. It took an army of deeply committed servants to accomplish this each week for five years. However, that spirit of service has stuck with us. In keeping that spirit alive, we decided to buy the disco ball from the skate center and had it put right in the middle of our worship space just before the grand opening of our building in 2005.

TONY: Any ministry highlights from recent months?

RUSTY: We just celebrated our tenth anniversary this January, which was a huge milestone for us. We have also almost completed a vision we have been working on in Uganda since 2006. We partner with a church in a town called Buloba. We have dug a well right near the church where all the people from the area come to get clean drinking water. The people who live within walking distance know that Buloba Community Church provided this for them. It has become an incredible tool for evangelism. We have started a child sponsorship program in the community. This fall we completed our goal of sponsoring over 300 children. We are in the process of completing a church building that will house worship, a school and offices for the pastor and the administrators of the school/child sponsorship program.

TONY: What’s your latest leadership learning?

RUSTY: I guess I am learning how to lead at this level. Every time we grow I feel like I’m having to gain new skills that help me deal with more staff, more leaders and more complexity. Also, as we look toward the future I’m on my knees a lot more. This is good because, honestly, I’m not the leader God needs me to be yet. I think I’m learning to rely on Him more and less on any ability I may think I have. I’m learning how truly inadequate and privileged I am to get to do this.

For each week of the “At The Movies” message series, Craig pre-records his teaching, weaving in clips from a popular movie. Some of the movies they’ve used in the past include We Are Marshall, The Pursuit of Happyness, and The Bucket List. Here’s the catch–they never reveal the movies that they’re going to use in the annual series. Check out the promo.

The result? Every July, the “At The Movies” series generates the highest first-time visitor rates. Who turns down an invitation to see a movie at church? Furthermore, LifeChurch experiences record salvation decisions. It’s become their biggest outreach push of the entire year, and kick-starts the momentum heading into fall. LifeChurch has expanded to 14 campuses in 5 states including their online campus, and it’s one of the fastest growing churches in the country.

This year, LifeChurch has produced the At the Movies @ Home Kit. The kit includes a DVD with movie suggestions for the whole family, activities and biblical truths that you can pull out of each movie. Families can invite the neighborhood gang over for a movie, or use it for a family movie night.

By the way, LifeChurch makes their resources available for free. Here are the various resources that they have available from this summer’s At the Movies series.

That’s what’s worked for LifeChurch during the hot summer months. Yes, it’s possible to gain momentum when most churches experience a dip in attendance. What has worked during the summer for your church?

TONY: What is succession planning?

WILLIAM: Succession planning is a simple term with a complex solution. It’s creating a plan for what happens once you need a new leader. And all organizations face that.

In the corporate world, which in my estimation is ahead of the church world on this issue, succession planning is a requirement for nearly all publicly traded companies. Facing a season where you don’t know who’s in charge is just too risky.

At our firm, probably the most frequent call we get right now is from churches that need help making a transition from a long-time Pastor to the next generation. And with the number of baby boomers that are heading toward retirement, I suspect those calls will only increase over the coming decade.

TONY: Why is it necessary for churches?

WILLIAM: The short answer is this: We are all interim pastors.

Unless we are the pastor when our church closes, or we happen to be the pastor when Jesus returns, we are all only in our churches for a temporary stay. And I believe the most critical task for a church leader is to do all he can to secure the long-term future of the church.

TONY: Doesn’t succession planning disregard God’s sovereignty and his calling on a specific pastor?

WILLIAM: I guess I would answer with a question: “Does God want us to plan and implement processes for His church or not?”

We plan when we build God’s house (our campuses). We plan how we will use God’s offerings (our budgets). Identifying the person God has anointed as your next Pastor requires all the prayer AND all the process you can muster.

TONY: What kinds of succession plans are out there?

WILLIAM: One plan everyone needs is an emergency plan. What would happen if your key leader were suddenly unable to be in their position anymore? It’s not only responsible planning, but it eases minds: from the board, to your donors, to any financial institution your church might use. And it’s relatively inexpensive to have someone help you form that plan.

The longer-term plan is a more complex matter. Some churches try to place a potential successor on staff well ahead of time, and others keep a short list of names for consideration. Every church is different. We’ve identified about eight key variables that help us craft a plan for clients. Every time one of those variables is different, the plan is different.

TONY: What can folks do to learn more about succession planning?

WILLIAM: I tell all of our clients to look at what Bob Russell and Dave Stone did at Southeast Church in Louisville. It’s one of the rare cases of smooth transition in a mega church.  Bob’s got a new book, Transition Plan, coming out later this month. It is an excellent resource for the church.

Sooner or later, the time will come to draw up your own plan. I believe an objective set of eyes is needed for the task. At our firm, we are studying under folks who have done this sort of thing for the corporate world for years, and we’re applying our experience in church work to form a process that’s tailor made for each of our clients.

Is your church in need of a succession plan? If so, email me and I’ll put you in touch with William to help you learn more about the process.