Month: April 2025

One great option for value and service is OurChurch.com. After completing the 30-day challenge https://patriotprayertees.com/church-30-day-challenge-worksheet/ , if you need more features or a custom design, consider a professional service. Not all are the same, so shop around and ask questions!

Review of Church Management Systems
Running a church involves more than just Sunday services. Churches need to keep track of finances, membership records, events, and communication. A Church Management System (ChMS) helps organize these tasks and makes everything run more smoothly. Below is a review of some of the best ChMS options available today.
1. Breeze    Breeze is popular because it’s simple and easy to use. Churches can track attendance, donations, and events without much hassle. One of its best features is the ability to quickly send emails and text messages to members. However, it lacks some of the advanced tools that larger church systems offer.
2. Planning Center    Planning Center is a flexible system that helps churches manage volunteers, worship schedules, and small groups. It’s great for churches that want a system they can customize. However, it can get expensive, especially for smaller churches with limited budgets.
3. Church Community Builder (CCB)    CCB is a strong choice for churches that need better communication tools. It includes features like online giving, event planning, and volunteer scheduling. It also helps pastors and leaders stay connected with members. However, it takes time to set up and learn, which can be a challenge for some churches.
4. Tithe.ly    Tithe.ly is best known for its online giving platform, but it also offers church management tools. It’s a good choice for churches that want to focus on digital donations and financial tracking. It’s also affordable, but it doesn’t have as many features as some of the larger ChMS options.
5. FellowshipOne    FellowshipOne is a powerful option for large churches. It offers detailed reports, strong security, and tools for managing large groups of people. However, because it has so many features, it can be difficult for smaller churches to use effectively.
Conclusion    Each Church Management System has its strengths and weaknesses. Breeze is best for simplicity, Planning Center is great for customization, CCB is strong in communication, Tithe.ly is ideal for online giving, and FellowshipOne works best for large churches. The right choice depends on what a church needs most. With the right system, churches can stay organized and focus more on their mission.
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Here’s some free or by donation Sunday school materials:
https://truewaykids.com/​

I suggest churches train their next generation of pastors and leaders right now (written in 2020, but still applies today). In that case, the local pastor would mentor the students while they completed some of the below courses. Here are some high-quality resources to assist, of course, using your judgment on the material and offering institution.

Free resources: 

Blue Letter Bible: Take 22 courses in central Christian belief and practice areas. Each class is designed to be used for either self-study, home Bible study, or the classroom. Their goal is to make BLBi the most comprehensive course of study possible. https://study.bible/courseList , Some courses can even count for credit at Lancaster Bible College. Nice!

Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) is an in-depth, interdenominational Bible study that helps people know God and equips them to serve the Church throughout the world effectively. https://www.bsfinternational.org/

Cedarville University: Their goal is that all class lectures/recordings in the Bible minor are free. They have the Old Testament course complete. https://www.cedarville.edu/news/2019/bible-minor-class-videos-available-for-free-online

Very affordable resources:

Urban Ministries’ Digital Precepts materials. The digital subscription is $7/month per person and is found at preceptsdigital.com. The digital material includes a weekly self-paced Bible study, teaching videos, quizzes, and daily Bible readings. It also includes printable and downloadable content for teachers so that a whole Bible study group could be organized with a single subscription. If you’re not leading a class, then skip the teaching aids. 

Urban Ministries’ Precepts for Living materials. These are affordable workbook-based materials covering the same content as the Digital Precepts material. They can be found on this page https://store.urbanministries.com/collections/precepts-for-living

Selection of small Bible colleges:

Small Bible colleges may not be regionally accredited (you can’t transfer the credits earned to other colleges), but credits aren’t necessary if your career/ministry field (local church or denomination) accepts degrees from the schools. Each is different in its materials, strengths, and costs. 

​https://www.summitbiblecollege.com/ English and Spanish Bible classes. Pay by degree, not by course. Ex: Associates of Biblical Studies Tuition = $8,400 in 2020
https://globaluniversity.edu/ English and Spanish Bible classes. $90 – $135 per course. Ex: Associate of Arts in Church Ministries = $5,400 to $8,100 plus books and fees (I didn’t find a total cost, I recommend requesting a list of fees and how often they apply the fees.)
https://www.ibaptistcollege.org/ English Bible classes. $150-$300 per course. Ex: Associates Of Pastoral Ministry = $9,600. I suggest discussing the classes with your pastor. It appears there’s a large discount if your pastor establishes a remote Bible Institute location/website for your church. 

Last thought: if the courses you can afford are not from your church denomination but otherwise close in beliefs, then why not take the course? Compare the statement of beliefs of both denominations and make a decision then. The differences might not even come up the course.

God Speed future pastors and church leaders!

Ourchurch.com Blogging (abbreviation of weblog -> blog, then turned into a verb ->blogging) helps you connect and improves search rankings. However, it’s not easy to create new material every week. Ourchurch.com presents a list of helpful articles on church blogging.

ODPS Ohio Emergency Management Agency Higher Education: Active Aggressor Tabletop Exercise (TTX) Toolkit. From Ohio.gov: Emergency preparedness exercises can be a daunting and costly undertaking. This toolkit was developed to provide a free product for houses of worship to better prepare staff, worshipers, first responders, and other partners to plan for and respond to such incidents.

Thom S. Rainer’s I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference and I Will: Nine Traits of the Outwardly Focused Christian. These are small pocket-size books for members to read. They are also good for a class to read together. Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Thom S. Rainer’s Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. Description above in the previous section. Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Thom S. Rainer’s Becoming a Welcoming Church, is a game plan for church members to truly be inviting towards guests. This is written for members to read on their own or in a class. Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Thom S. Rainer’s Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. This short book is heavy hitting. Every church in America needs to read it and re-read it every year. The pastors need to read it. The church members need to read it. Churches succeed in the Great Commission when following the Biblical paths in this book. If you can’t find a copy, then send me a message and I’ll loan you my copy.  Available at many bookstores or Amazon.

Steveparr.net This is a powerful and practical resource for pastors and leaders of all levels. From the site: In thirty-five plus years of ministry, Dr. Steve Parr has assisted thousands of churches in strengthening their ministries by motivating and training leaders through seminars, conferences, preaching, and personal consultations.

Centerforbaptistrenewal.com This is a site that explores church tradition (mainly Baptist, but all will benefit as well) and examines it under the light of Scripture. I recommend it to all churches. I suggest starting with the oldest blog post first, then work in chronological order.

The ourchurch.com/blog/​ is well written and covers many topics church leadership needs to consider for website design and upkeep. 

As a church visitor, I encounter a range of welcomes. Some provide so much attention that many people would feel uncomfortable and not go back. Others provide so little attention I wonder if I was even noticed. My hunch is most welcoming committees are naturally made up of outgoing people, who use tactics geared towards other outgoing people.

Here are some tactics with the view of an outgoing person; Michael,  and a reversed person; Toby.

• Visitor parking: Michael says, “How nice and thoughtful, they have a space for me.” Toby thinks, “I’m not going to call out attention to myself, I’m not parking there.”
• Welcome greeting at door: Michael enjoys the small talk and greetings. Toby shakes hands and only says hello, then finds a seat quickly in the back.
• Visitor gift: Michael thinks, “How thoughtful and caring.” Toby thinks, “Now I have to carry around a sign that I’m a visitor.”
• Visitor card information request: Toby thinks, “This is wonderful. I can fill everything out and not talk to anyone unless I want to.” Michael thinks, “This is impersonal and not a good use of my time.”
• Stand up and introduce yourself: Michael thinks, “Now this is personal attention. I can announce myself to everyone!” Toby thinks, “Can I fake fainting to get out of this?”
• Walk around and greet everyone: Michael walks around the whole room and makes sure to greet everyone. Toby sits or stands in place, hold his arms close together, greets those that come to them only, and wishes the time would end as fast as possible.

Follow-UpAs a church visitor, I do not receive many follow-ups, even though follow-up is crucial to maintaining a connection with the visitor. They may have visited several churches over a few weeks and the follow-up will remind them about your specific church. It can also be used to highlight upcoming events, like a concert or a children’s event. However, it should be not overbearing or too frequent. I feel a good follow-up is more than once, but less than four times. The first one should be within a week and the others spread out over a couple of months.

Here are some tactics continued with the view of an outgoing person, Michael,  and a reversed person, Toby.

• Handwritten Thank You note from the pastor: Michael & Toby think, “It’s personal and thoughtful.”
• Full page typed letter: Michael & Toby think, “It’s slightly less personal, but still thoughtful.”
• Holiday card or postcard: Michael & Toby think, “It’s personal and thoughtful.”
• Phone call: Michael thinks, “How wonderful to talk to them again and be able to ask some questions I had.” Toby thinks, “I’m not going to answer it because they will ask me a ton of questions.”
• Email: Michael & Toby think, “It’s personal and thoughtful.”
• Surprise House Visit:  Michael welcomes them, but feels it is slightly pushy. Toby starts to have a panic attack because he’s not prepared for guests.

In short, make them feel welcome and follow-up, but not in overbearing ways.