For the past two months we have been working our way through the decision making process of choosing a church management system. Our primary considerations were narrowed down early to Fellowship One and Church Community Builder. Both programs are offered as an online, internet-based software solution (no updates or backups, always available to our users from any web-connected computer) and both would have done an excellent job for us, in my opinion. I asked our technology specialist, Jonathan Pierce (also my son), to provide me with a listing of the pros and cons of each program from his standpoint. He has republished that list for you over at his website, CrewNeckTech.com.
This was one of my more difficult financial decisions in my new role as Executive Pastor here at Crossroads Community Church, and I really wanted to get it right. The reason it was more difficult was because Jonathan could not give me one of his clear-cut, "this one is your best choice" answers. Instead he would tell me about the strengths of the one versus the strengths of the other. I kind of felt like Harry Truman, who was faced with multiple choices from his economic advisors. "On the one hand, Mr. President, you could do this. On the other hand you could do that." At one point the frustrated President Truman begged for a one-handed economist. What I needed in this church management software decision was a one-handed technology specialist. But the choice was just not that easy, at least for us.
At the end of the discussion when the decision had to be made, I chose CCB for the following reasons. First, they more clearly accomplished our goal in church management, which was to connect our large congregation to one another. The social networking abilities of CCB v2.0 is simply incredible and I'm really excited about what it could mean for our church. Second, they offered a calendaring and resource management tool, which we particularly need here at Crossroads. Our staff are on so many different calendars. They each have their own; they have a different one to schedule events; and they use yet a different one to schedule resources. On top of all this - none of our parishoners have access to any of it and must rely on staff to schedule time, space, and resources at the church. CCB v2.0 quite literally gives us the opportunity to all be on one page! Anyone who is in church management has got to love that! Then finally, CCB was the less expensive choice. This allows me a little more budget dollars to spend on the creative side of web development.
This past week I had a long conversation with Steve Caton, my marketing contact at CCB. We spoke at great length about both our desires to partner strategically together to make this work well for everyone. I plan on blogging on a regular basis as we move through the implementation process with CCB. Now the hard work begins. As I mentioned earlier in this post, CCB gives us the chance to get everyone on the same page. But I first have to get everyone in the same book before I can get them on the same page. And how we do that will be the topic of many conversations to come.
