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When visitors come to Bethany Presbyterian Church in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, for the first time, they are not likely to be forgotten. In fact, none of the 900-plus members get overlooked, thanks to a powerful church management system they've implemented.

Roy Burford, the church's business administrator, says their church management software (CMS) program has a direct impact on membership management. "We use the membership segment to track those who may be inactive or deceased. Then the contribution module interface blends with membership and tracks visitors, too. We easily migrate the visitor information into a 'potential member' file. We also tap into availability of ministry skills and practical experience so that members and visitors can be attached to volunteering and Sunday school classes."

Church administrative functions typically operate in "silos" with no ability to interact or share data. For example, names and addresses in the church membership database must be duplicated for the tithing and donation records. Tithing must be recorded for each individual and then entered into the general ledger. Then if someone moves or gets married, each database must be updated.

With integrated CMS, however, a single database links all related information internally. When you update a membership record with a new address, the software knows where to send the annual giving statement. Membership data can also be linked to Christian education, tracking the participation of every family member in classes and small groups. Participation information can be used to aid facility and event scheduling. And the schedule information can be "dropped" into the Sunday bulletin, the newsletter, and the church's web site.

Different forms of CMS have been available to churches for over 20 years. First, specific information modules were created. Then the CMS packages were refined into systems that transferred information from one module to another. In recent years, software developers have "drilled down" to enable better storage and more "data mining" in membership and finance. It is much easier to get a "vertical view" of a single family or individual, their participation in the church's life, their giving history, and the ministries in which they are involved. Or the "horizontal" view may be important, in which total giving and financial activity can be reviewed, or the comprehensive view of membership activity across age and family size.

An example of this combination is scheduling activities and facility use. Some congregations still use a giant paper calendar or laminated scheduler, or a master calendar on Microsoft Outlook. But scheduling programs within a CMS product are generally capable of much more, automatically checking for conflicts and making sure the right resources are assigned as needed.

"We were over-scheduling rooms and facilities," says Pamela Alexander, business administrator at First United Methodist Church in Port Orange, New Jersey. "Now, with the scheduling program, things run much more smoothly. Not only do we make sure that all sorts of congregational meetings and ministries don't interfere with each other, but we also open our doors to the community—Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, AA, Al-Anon, Narc-a-Non, and other groups. We want to be an open door to the community, and the scheduling software helps us to function more effectively and efficiently."

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