Over the last few months, I’ve been highlighting Bellevue Church Management System (bvcms), a new church management solution. One of the unique features is that it’s an open source solution.

Open source software is computer software code that is made available to the public under a software license agreement that permits users to use, change and improve the software and redistribute it under the terms of the license agreement. While open source software is free (there is no purchase price), it does have obligations to users. bvcms is licensed under the GNU General Public License which requires any derived works to be made available under the same license. This guarantees that the project will be forever free to users and developers.

Here are some advantages of bvcms being open source:

1. This is the only completely open source church management solution.
2. Invites developers to the table to improve upon bvcms.
3. Puts the power into the hands of the church to uniquely alter the software for their church if so desired.
4. Makes a statement that this was developed by the church, for the church and was never intended to become an enterprising exercise.
5. Open source removes the barrier of entry and ‚ democratizes the church management process for churches of all sizes.

No longer do you need to be a big church to afford a robust system. Larger churches don’t have to pay what is essentially a staff member’s salary to a to have a fully functioning church management solution.

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

As we continue getting to know the story behind Bellevue Church Management System (bvcms), I thought this time we could highlight some key features. Here are some examples of what makes them stand out as a strong player in church management solutions.

Built in Advanced Reporting Tool
What good is collecting data if you can’t use it to inform and validate ministry decisions? bvcms spent a considerable amount of time creating a powerful query tool that was so easy to use even a non-technical person can do it.  The advanced query tool included with bvcms makes it easy to get the information you need when you want it. It’s that simple.

Access via Web from any Internet Connection or Web-enabled Mobile Device
Ministry doesn’t exist within four walls and neither should your church management system. Utilize any internet connection to access the database including Web-enabled mobile devices. (Break free from your church office…finally!) This also means you will always be using the latest software version and never have to worry about potential network down time or loss of critical data.

Touchscreen Check-In and Event Registration
Eliminate the need for paper-based check-in and event registration. Improve the visitor and member experience while at the same time capturing critical data about the people attending on-campus activities. Feel free to use a kiosk or any touch screen computer monitor. (Currently, bvcms is developing the check-in process to function on the iPad.)

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Over the past several weeks, I’ve been highlighting Bellevue Church Management System (bvcms), an open source church management system. Here’s a real-life case study of a church that transitioned into using BVCMS. Bellevue Church Management System interviewed Rob Lamarre, Administrative Pastor/Business Operations Manager of Point Harbor Community Church, about his experience with the system. Point Harbor, located in Chesapeake, Virginia, was established in 1976. Approximately 850 people attend Sunday morning worship, and the church has 16 staff members.

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.

At the beginning of the year, I decided to convert my blog’s layout to the Standard Theme, which in multiple cases, has become the standard theme for many bloggers.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed since I made the switch:

• Increased Traffic – I’ve noticed a significant upswing in traffic. Both visitors and the number of page views have increased by nearly 50% from the same period last year. That’s consistent with similar stories I’ve heard from other bloggers who have made the switch.
• Improved SEO Performance – Standard Theme is optimized for search engine results. Though I’ve implemented some other shifts in my blogging strategy, Google search is still key to traffic on my site.
• Simple Dashboard – Standard Theme is completely streamlined, meaning everything plays well both inside and out. It has an easy to use interface on the dashboard/administration side. Because of the way it’s coded, it loads fast. (It’s much faster than my previous site.)
• Built-in Plug-ins – It comes with several standard plug-ins already installed and custom-fit to work well within its framework.
• Ready to be Customized – It’s also very easy to customize. Check out the “showcase” on the Standard Theme site to see the many way the theme has been implemented.

I’d like to commend John Saddington and the 8BIT team for creating and constantly improving Standard Theme. If you’re in the market for a functional and easy to use theme, I highly recommend it. (*And it’s currently on sale for a limited time!)

Here’s my affiliate link if you’d like to take advantage of the same theme as friends like Michael Hyatt and Jon Acuff are using.

As I’ve had the opportunity to visit and consult with churches across the country, one of the questions I’m frequently asked is why a ministry needs a church management system for their community. Can’t they keep using Excel or Access (or those books in the pews) to manage what’s happening in their church?

A church management solution, like BVCMS, is the central element to any community building exercise. It is a particularly helpful diagnostic tool for church leadership that is rarely maximized and most often relegated to the tasks of tracking attendance and contributions. However, the potential for what these systems hold is so much more extensive.

For example:

• It captures the person’s contact information.
• It offers a way to measure ministry progress outside “pastoral privilege.”
• It measures what’s effective and what’s not.
• It provides a way to communicate with everyone.
• It tracks habits and behaviors (which trumps perception).
• It provides accountability to ministry leadership with respect to results, impact and progress.
• It offers a window into unspoken ministry opportunities. (Significant variance in giving; leadership positions; Bible study attendance, etc.)

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In case you missed it on Friday, I shared “9 Twitter Strategies to Engage Your Audience“. That may have been helpful to the Twitter aficionados. Let me hit a few basics for those of you who haven’t given Twitter a try yet.

Here’s a great overview of the Twitter basics. This will help you get a sense of what it’s all about. After you’ve read the overview you should…

1. Sign up for an account. Go ahead. Test it out. It’s free so you aren’t obligated to continue using it.
2. Find and follow some friends…like me. That’s the real value of Twitter. It’s about connecting with other people.
3. Don’t tell us what your eating for lunch all the time. Give us the highlights of what your learning and experiencing. Share what your friends are saying. Use the “reply” and “retweet” features.
4. Try subscribing to a list…like this one. Use it as a way to keep up with what’s happening around us. It’s better than a newspaper because it’s instant news, you can easily scan the headlines, it’s being filtered through trusted resources and it’s free.

Any other words of advice for Twitter newbies? Join the conversation by leaving your comment.

It’s been about two years since I really got intentional about using Twitter as part of my ministry strategy. I did it because my primary audience (other church leaders) is very engaged on that platform. Your audience (people in your church) may not be. In fact, my guess is they aren’t. For you, Facebook is probably the place you need to be more intentional. However, for those of you who find the folks you connect with hanging out on Twitter, here are…

9 Twitter Strategies to Engage Your Audience

1. Tell your story rather than hiding behind your organization. Not that your business or church shouldn’t have its own Twitter profile, but most folks would rather follow a person than an entity. For example, @WestRidgeChurch has just over 800 followers while @BrianBloye has 3,500. People want to hear Brian’s story more than the organization he serves.
2. Follow everyone. The goal here isn’t to prove you can build a bigger Twitter following than someone else. The goal is to improve communications with your network. The way Twitter works is that when you follow someone, they are able to “direct message” you. You want that. I can’t tell you how many coaching and consulting connections I’ve made through direct messages. (Just had another one today.) And, to be honest, I’d rather communicate using Twitter over email. With only 140 characters, conversations are to the point and more efficient. I use Tweet Adder to automate this.
3. Use “lists” to follow your true friends. Right now I’m following over 48,000 people, but I’m only really tracking 100 folks. I can filter through all that potential noise by using a Twitter list. Here’s the list of folks I’m truly following right now. (more…)

Twice in the last week I’ve had the opportunity to talk with great staff teams about engaging high-capacity volunteers in their church. It’s a good example of how we need to change our behaviors in order to change behaviors. People with huge leadership capacity or specialized skills will not fit into our current volunteer structure and systems. We’ll have to change in order to create opportunities for that type of engagement.

One example of a church and a high-capacity leader that get it is reflected in the story behind Bellevue Church Management System (BVCMS). I introduced you to this free, open-source church management suite a couple of weeks ago. Let me share a little bit of their story.

David Carroll has a background in developing financial software. He’s been a faithful member of Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis for many years. As a member of the church, he saw a need to improve upon their church management system. This tapped into his God-given talents. By the way, I think this offers a few clues to engaging high-capacity volunteers: (more…)

Thanks to a little inspiration from Michael Hyatt, I decided to check out options for creating a personalized URL shortener to use on Twitter. Today all the stars fully aligned and I was able to go live with “tmlive.us” as an alternative to the “bit.ly” urls you may have noticed in the past.

As I was digging into the process, the one thing I wanted to avoid was all the ongoing monthly fees. I’m cheap, so I was only going to pull this off if I could find an almost-free solution.

It turns out that bit.ly has a “Pro” level that’s currently in beta. Among other features, the beta level allows for custom short domain names. Here’s a graphic that highlights the differences between the various bit.ly features available:

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John Saddington

John Saddington is one of my ministry partners at TonyMorganLive.com. Most recently, he helped me transition my site to the Standard Theme on WordPress. One of his other specialities is using WordPress to design and develop custom websites for churches and other organizations. That’s especially helpful when you don’t have a web expert on staff that knows how to use another content management solution. John is my go-to-person when it comes to new technology in the church. Here’s what he had to say on that topic:

One of the largest growing trends is using video technology to broadcast their services online, both in a sim-live (pre-recorded) environment as well as live one. The impact, though, has been difficult for many ministries and organizations to both quantify and qualify so their challenge is to target core metrics for what “success” looks like in terms of online engagement as well as the financial cost of management.

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