Churck Management Overview

dthoma — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:37:10 +0000

Shepherd’s Staff is fully integrated church management software currently being used and appreciated in approximately 6,200 churches nation-wide. It is the only church management software on the market today both developed and sold exclusively through a not-for-profit Christian organization, making it genuinely a computer product designed “by church people, for church people.”

Tracking Membership, Attendance, Contributions, and Finances becomes simple with this convenient, “user friendly system.”

Unlike many newcomers to the church management software business, we have been serving the software needs of church and school offices for more than twenty years. In fact, our company has been in business serving churches since 1869! We are uniquely positioned to understand the special needs of the church office and staff. It is our belief that software should be more than a glorified address book. It should be a tool to help your ministry grow.

ACS manages every aspect of your church administration - contribution records, membership tracking, tithe & contribution tracking, attendance tracking, church accounting, financial analysis, fund accounting, growth planning and web sitA complete management system to keep track of parishioners and family members, ministries and parish organizations, wekly and special collections, multiple funds and
pledges, baptisms, confirmation, death, first eucharist, marriage, mass/liturgy schedules, stipends, and attendance of both parishioners and visitors, schedules for meeting rooms and other parish facilitie CCIS Church Management Software has been providing membership, contributions, attendance, accounting & payroll management solutions since 1981 and is currently serving over 8,000 churches across the United States, UK and Africa. The membership program allows you to view members’ activities, contributions and pledges without having to open a different module. AccountAbility is a true fund accounting program designed especially for churches to meet all accounting needs.helps you to manage membership, visitors, individual ministries, and finances . Taking a rather different approach, CGS says that “Every pastor and church leader is given the privilege of investing their time in people, finances and ministries. When they are managed properly, then an increase can be expected in these areas”. Their system
includes:-

Worship - Welcome Cards, Attendance, Donation Modules
Fellowship - People Information, Attendance, Ministry Modules
Discipleship - Spiritual Milestones, Classes & Events
Ministry - Ministry Modules
Missions - Events Modules

Pricing is dependent on size and is designed to make CGS affordable for smaller churches.

Helps you manage:- Households,Individuals,Group Membership,Contributions,Pledges, Meetings/Attendance,Visitations,Reminders,Church Health & Statistics. An innovative church management software system with a unique balance of power and ease-of-use. Free for evaluation. is a robust suite of accounting and management software designed to help you manage over 40 areas of ministry. ChurchPro has intense outreach and visitor tracking modules. Its accounting module is designed specifically for churches. You can track all your expenses in a variety of funds, print checks, develop financial reports and more. The Rapid Offering Recorder™ is one of three options for recording contributions. ChurchPro calculates and prints payroll checks using the easiest payroll package ever developed for churches, Rapid Payroll
Manage financial contributions, payroll and accounting with ease. Assist 4.0 For Windows will track your membership, attendance, contributions, fund accounting, payroll, events, facilities, businessmeeting minutes, counseling notes, assets, appointments, prospects, visitors, and more. produced by White Mountain software. Whether you are just looking for software to track membership and create simple directories, or for full-blown color photo directories, contribution management, tax receipting, and facility and event planning, ChurchWatch is suitable for churches large and small. Ease-of-use is their main focus. Over 30 denominations in eight countries use their products confidently each day. ChurchWatch is used primarily in the United States and Canada but is equally suited for use around the world. Free demo available. Church Windows is a suite of programs available as individual modules or as an integrated package. Modules include Membership (which includes attendance and visit functions), Contribution, Financial, and Payroll. These modules are available in single - user or networking versions

Software modules to help you to manage membership, contribution, attendance, outreach, ledger & payables & payroll

The program consists of five fully integrated modules:
Members / Visitors / Others, Donations,Fund Accounting / Check Writing, Attendance, Visitation / Event Tracking

Developers of LifeWay Church Management Systems Logos Management Software is the only recommended church office software provider for LifeWay Christian Resources of Nashville, Tennessee, the publishing and distribution arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. After a two-year in-depth search of Church Management and Accounting software providers, LifeWay selected Logos.
a comparative newcomer to the scene, this offers a very comprehensive service and a very easy to browse website, explaining the differing modules. Produced by Faith Partnership Technologies, the aim is to cover every aspect of your church, from hrough to signing children in and out safely. Using software that is inspired by Web 2.0, it’s possible for church members to update their own details, create their own pages and add content through the scrapbook module. You can register for a 60 day trial of this software, to see if it suits your own situation.

A software solution that brings all of your ministries together and Internet integration tools that connect your church office to your parishioners, to the diocese, and to the world. Our church management software is designed exclusively for parishes, dioceses and ministries to foster collaboration, improve communication, and save time and money with the goal of more time for ministry.

Why to Consider Churck Leadship Training

dthoma — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:33:08 +0000

Society for Church Consulting - Consultant Training and Certification Level 4 Church Health Consulting Process Details on the Level 5 Consulting Project Becoming a Certified Church Consultant Church Central Consultant Directory Certified Church Health Consultant Certified Transitional Pastor by LifeWay Certified in use of Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis Trained in the use of Growth Spiral and Super Society for Church Consulting - Consultant Training and Certification JOIN NOW Membership only $139! Benefits include $70 off all Church Health Survey purchases for the duration of your membership FREE Church Health Encyclopedia Church Consulting Services Malone Church Solutions is the only design-build or construction firm in the metro St Louis area with licensed Church Health Consultants and national certified Church Design HEALTHY-CHURCHESCOM Why is Church Health so Important There exists a problem of declining growth in many of J Randy Grimes, DMin Certified Church Health Consultant AHCG Daryl Jacobson Northwestern District Church Health ConsultantSpeaker Certified NCD CoachConsultant Professional Ice Fisherman jacobsondnwdcmaorg Public Health Certified Industrial Hygienist Asbestos Consultant Consolidated Consultants Co 289 Church Ave Chula Vista, CA 91910 Industrial Hygienist expert witness, Public Health expert witness, Certified Asbestos Consultant expert Kurt Williams Certified Church Consultant NACDB National Certified Church Consultants CCC Speaker Biographies Testimonials Awards As a Church Central, Licensed Church Consultant, Kurt can help evaluate the Health of your FaithForward - Church Health With our commitment to helping congregations, we are excited to be certified partners with Natural Church Development in offering church health consulting opportunities to Church Doctor Ministries - Consultants Eugene is also a licens ed Church Health Consultant of Church Central Associates, LLC based in Degree from Winebrenner Theological Seminary and is enrolled in a Master Certified sribalo131cd

What can Encore Church Resources Do For You?

If you are thinking about the need for raising capital funds for any kind of ministry need, Encore Church Resources can be the difference between success and failure.

Whether your need is for the expansion of current facilities, relocation or renovation, or debt retirement, Encore Church Resources will provide your church with all the personal guidance and resources it needs.

We recommend one of the following services:

Standard Service This service will serve primarily the smaller churches. It is the closest plan to a do-it-yourself plan that we offer.

Premium Service This service is the most extensively used model we offer. Its advantages are that it can be modified to fit just about any size congregation.

This service is specifically designed for the very large church and includes more on-site visits by the consultant as he directs the campaign

Career and Education information along with Job and Salary Data by Metropolitan Area. Part of The Riley Guide’s
: …” one of the nation’s leading Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs). Our Personnel Management System provides business services that include benefits management, government compliance, employment administration, employer liability management, recruiting and selection, performance management, performance improvement and owner support.”
: A Cleveland, Ohio based staffing agency, this site offers a limited job postings for temporary and permanent office support. The site is updated weekly, and also provides a form to post resumes. Useful information is available on job searching, resume, and interview techniques. A salary guide for this level of employment is also included.
: This professional association promotes professional standards for this new field while also supporting its paid members through alliances and other cooperative agreements. “A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis.” IVAA maintain a database of RFPs where potential clients can submit requests and receive bids from IVAA members. Persons who are interested in possibly working as a VA should review this site very thoroughly and consider a paid membership

Why Create Backgrounds?

dthoma — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:21:55 +0000

PowerPoint offers a healthy assortment of “design templates,” which give users a head start on slide show formatting. They can either choose a template when they create a new presentation, or they can use the Apply Design command to change the appearance of an existing one.

Fortunately, you can give your students the best of both worlds—efficiency and originality. After you show them how to use PowerPoint’s standard design templates, teach them to create a custom template that reflects their company’s image and their own tastes. They can then use that template to create their own trademark presentations. Here’s a sample walk-through that introduces the necessary steps.

These 208 free PowerPoint template kits are for your personal use in the presentations you create for yourself or others. Each set contains 8 templates. They can be used for any presentation you are creating for yourself, a client, your job, school, church, etc. They may not be distributed, sold, or displayed on the Web by anyone except me.

Click each image below to bring up a new webpage showing what is available. The templates can be downloaded as sets or individually. Once downloaded, double click on them to extract the files. See to learn where to store them.

The templates cannot be displayed or offered on any other website, nor can you link to the files from your website. They are here for your personal use in PowerPoint only and cannot be sold by anyone. I regret even having to mention this, but unfortunately not everyone appreciates or respects artistic rights or copyrights.

Make a powerful impression. A few simple improvements can make the difference between a captivated audience and a sleeping one. Browse our selection of Microsoft PowerPoint templates, experiment with PowerPoint or read up on how you can create great-looking presentations that deliver results.

PowerPoint Templates Note:

This is a “collection” of Microsoft PowerPoint templates; some of which were created years ago and in varying versions of Microsoft PowerPoint. The thing is—our members are still using these “older templates” so we are simply adding new templates to the mix.

Think of customer relationships as
investments. Every contact with a
customer is an opportunity to build
your relationship and differentiate
your business. When giving presentations
to customers or prospects make sure to
give them information they can really use.
The best way to do that is to understand
your audience and personalize your
presentation’s content so it’s more
meaningful to them. Here’s how.

1 Think outside in
Forget about what you want. Think about what your customers want.
What products or services do you offer that will help your customers meet
their challenges, relieve their pain points, or achieve their objectives?

2 Make it personal
Don’t give the same presentation every time. It’s true that it takes extra
time to customize your content, but the more relevant you can make it, the
better your chances of connecting with your audience and building your
relationship. Include a welcome or introductory slide with the names of the
people you’re meeting with, the date, their company name (if applicable),
and any other relevant information.

3 Clarify your commitment
Everyone has a job to do, but why are you committed to yours—and the
company you represent? Tell your customers. Keep it brief, but tell your
customers why you believe in what you’re doing and why you’re proud to
represent your company. When customers understand your motivations,
it strengthens your relationship.

4 Keep it simple
Keep your slides short and succinct. Even the titles should add value. As a
rule of thumb, use six (or less) bullet points, with six (or less) words each.
You can cover the details in your discussion and handouts.

Curch Consuting

dthoma — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:23:05 +0000

Those who still go to church in Europe do not usually go there to find out what God requires of them. One report from Italy says: “Italians tailor their religion to fit their lifestyles.” One sociologist there says: “We take from the pope whatever suits us.” The same might be said of Catholics in Spain, where religiosity has been replaced with consumerism and the search for an economic paradise—here and now.
These trends stand in stark contrast with the Christianity that Christ and his followers taught and practiced. Jesus did not offer “cafeteria” or “buffet” religion, where you pick and choose what you like and reject what you don’t like. He stated: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake day after day and follow me continually.” Jesus taught people that the Christian way of life was one of personal sacrifice and effort.—Luke 9:23.

Commenting on this trend, the religion correspondent for London’s Daily Telegraph wrote: “All the main denominations, from the Church of England and the Roman Catholics to the Methodist and United Reformed Churches, are suffering from long-term decline.” He said concerning one report: “Britain’s Churches will be well on the way to extinction by 2040 with just two per cent of the population attending Sunday services.” Similar statements have been made about religion in the Netherlands.

Some churches study business methods to learn how better to “market” their religious services. Congregations pay thousands of dollars to hire church consulting firms. “It was a great investment,” said one satisfied pastor, according to a report on such firms. Megachurches, with congregation members numbering into the thousands, do so well financially that they draw the attention of business publications, such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. These report that megachurches typically offer “‘one-stop shopping’ for body and soul.” Church complexes may include restaurants, cafés, beauty salons, saunas, and sports facilities. Attractions include theater, visiting celebrities, and contemporary music. But what do the preachers teach?

s a pastor it’s not always easy to invest in the church’s leaders as much as I would like to. Sending the team to a yearly conference may ease that guilty conscience a little, but does have very little, long term impact on the lives of the leaders or on their ministry in the church.

Participating this year in Back to Summit has made a huge difference in our church! Instead of being a great motivating talk from some of the world’s best leaders, we were able to make each message applicable to our personal walk with God and to shape and strengthen our church for the future.

Working with Joel has greatly increased my effectiveness as a leader in the local church. Through our times together prepping for the Back to Summit sessions, he has been able to help me develop my ministry goals and strategies in order to bring the session alive for my leaders. I’m a better pastor because of Back to Summit.

After going through Back to Summit with my team, I wouldn’t be able to attend the Willow Creek Leadership Summit without this follow-up ever again. The combination of the conference and the coaching is by far, the best bang for our ministry dollars and a fantastic tool for building up the local church!

I’d hear it every year. “Amazing teaching and leadership concepts! I feel like I’ve sat with a tiny cup under a fire hose. How can we unpack this to get the most of what we’ve learned?” Back to Summit has been the answer for us. Once a month on a Saturday morning, the Leadership Team at Highview, unpacked the concepts first heard at Summit, then sought to develop concrete applications and action steps for our ministry. Through reviewing the talks on DVD, then being led in group discussion and personal reflections, we have been able to assimilate far more of the values and ideas presented last August. Joel’s long term understanding of the local church, combined with many years of association with Willow, made him the perfect catalyst to lead this unique and exceedingly helpful series of sessions for our leaders. I can’t imagine doing Summit without Back to Summit anymore.

Essentials to Create a PowerPoint Background

dthoma — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:14:29 +0000

Custom Animation is a feature in Microsoft Office PowerPoint. It contains a list of effects that you can apply to objects to have them animate during the slide show. PowerPoint 2000 and earlier versions offer basic Entrance effects such as Appear, Dissolve and etc. It is to be noted that in PowerPoint 2000 and earlier versions, all objects can only be animated once.

With the release of PowerPoint 2002/XP, more effects are introduced and are grouped into 4 categories. The 4 categories include: Entrance, Emphasis, Exit (The 3 E’s), and Motion Paths. Objects can now be animated multiple times and effects can be combined to create complex animations such as the Leaf Motion effect. Each effect contains variables such as start (On click, With previous, After previous), delay, speed, repeat and triggers.

Exit effects animate object so that it leaves the slide show. During the slide show view, the object will disappear from the screen based to the effect that you have added. They can be re-called by adding an Entrance effect. A fun fact is that even if you have added an Exit effect on the object, you can still add an Emphasis effect or Motion Path after the Exit effect. The object will still animate, with the exception that the animation will be hidden from the viewers.

Motion Paths animate object by moving it from one position to another. This feature is similar to Motion Tweening in Adobe Flash, but much simpler to manipulate with. PowerPoint provides a wide range of Motion Paths to choose from. In addition, you can draw and modify Motion Paths. The methods available includes Line, Curve, FreeForm and Scribble. Best way to understand how they work is to try them out individually. Take note that if you are using PowerPoint 2004 for Mac, Motion Paths cannot be added, but you will be able to view Motion Paths added from PowerPoint for Windows.

Animation Trigger is a feature introduced in PowerPoint 2002/XP and the later versions. It allows an object to be animated only when a specific object on the Slide Show is clicked, hence triggering the animations. It is widely use for interaction purposes. Triggers can be found under the Timing tab by double clicking on added effects. Check out the Animation Trigger tutorial

How to Create a PowerPoint Background

dthoma — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:12:16 +0000

Before getting all caught up in the gee-whiz features of PowerPoint, remember that the purpose of a presentation is to present information — not overwhelm the audience with a demonstration of all the software bells and whistles. In that respect, using PowerPoint is similar to using a page layout program. The software is merely a tool. Avoid the typical pitfalls of PowerPoint presentations with purpose, simplicity, and consistency.

Match Design to Purpose

Decide if your presentation is meant to entertain, inform, persuade, or sell. Is a light-hearted or a more formal approach most appropriate to the subject and your audience? Keep colors, clip art, and templates consistent with your main objective.

Free Power Point Templates for your presentations. Sometimes using something different than the standard templates that come with Power Point, gives your presentation more impact.

Below we have various themes ranging from tropical settings to Army camouflage. We have also included Power Point templates for each of the state flags. The templates for the state flags are in alphabetical order.

The templates on this site can be used for profit, non-profit, school, or anything else you need them for. We add templates every so often so remember to bookmark us (press ctrl + d).

Thanks and I hope you enjoy.

How to Save Power Point Templates

The Fundamentals of Creating Church Backgrounds

dthoma — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:04:40 +0000

Over the last month, I’ve noticed an interest in worship backgrounds or images for churches to use in PowerPoint or worship software programs. So here’s my first experiment with offering some free backgrounds for your use.

Below are the thumbnails of the backgrounds I threw together … you can see the full files by clicking on each thumbnail (as well as download individual backgrounds that way too).

PowerPoint templates for construction related MS PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint backgrounds with images of construction workers, contractors, bricks, sands, building construction images, construction of roads and highways. Download and buy our online professional construction based PowerPoint slides and presentations with easy. Our template include images, photos, graphics and slides for construction equipment, home & building construction, construction management, construction and maintenance, construction machinery, new home construction, business construction industry building construction PowerPoint slides and PowerPoint presentations.

We provide high quality free PowerPoint templates and background for your church, school and work related presentation. If you want to test our quality download one of our free PowerPoint templates before ordering our premium PowerPoint backgrounds . Also some of other free presentaion templates includes for churches, medical and health themed templates, free backgrounds for educational purpose for students and teachers.

Non Profit Software in the News

dthoma — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:00:17 +0000

Nonprofits seek funding through a variety of means. There are many grants available through both federal agencies and private foundations, but the competition for a really good grant can be huge. Few organizations are able to survive on grant money alone. Building a large base of donors can be the key to long-term sustainability, but keeping donors committed takes work. Larger organizations often can afford to advertise in the same ways that a for-profit business will, using print ads or television, but this is often out of reach for smaller organizations with tight budgets.

Many organizations rely heavily on direct marketing to keep them in touch with their donors and keep the donors giving. Direct marketing is advertising that communicates its messages straight to the public or to another business rather than using an intervening medium, such as television, radio, or print advertising. Direct mail is the most common form of direct marketing. It’s a cheap way to reach donors, and can be very effective both in raising funds and keeping donors involved through regular updates about programming activities. Some organizations also use telephone fundraising (called telemarketing when it’s done for profit) to reach donors. It can be a more personal approach than a piece of mail, but some donors will not be receptive to phone calls from an organization, and the cost can be prohibitively high.

Special events can be an effective means of raising funds. For organizations that work locally or have a large number of local offices, an annual banquet, rummage sale, fashion show, auction, or other activity can bring out many members of the community to participate, potentially bringing in much more money than such an event will cost. An activity such as a walk or run, can also be a useful tool. Participants will ask friends, family, coworkers, or others to contribute a set amount for each mile or kilometer that they travel. Organizations that don’t have the funds or the organizational apparatus to arrange an independent event can sometimes partner with another organization or make arrangements so that participants in an existing activity raise money through their involvement.

Some nonprofit organizations maintain year-round rummage sales - they open thrift stores in which they sell donated items and often train and employ people from the group(s) they are working to serve, such as battered women, the disabled, recovering addicts, or the homeless.

The needs of nonprofit organizations are just as complex as those of other businesses, though many nonprofits lack the IT budget to address those needs. Raising and managing funds depend on efficient management of a diverse team of full-time staff, part-time employees and remote volunteers. Furthermore, accurate tracking of program expenses, as well as information sharing across various teams, present additional challenges.

NetSuite’s solutions meet your needs with the following capabilities:

Complete Application Configuration allowing you to create forms, reports, and terminology specific to your nonprofit organization.
Real-time Dashboards that give each employee or volunteer a customized view into key information, including bank balances, assigned donor lists and more.
Complete Relationship Management enabling your organization to track donor history and involvement, including all previous contacts.
Integrated Web Capabilities to create a Web site capable of taking online donations, processing online forms, and dynamically posting content.

Topical Review of Donor Management Software

dthoma — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:57:02 +0000

Many people I spoke with informally, however, were not happy with the current software choices and had decided to do just that: figure it out and build it. The most common set of complaints was that donor software was either loaded with features that didn’t apply to the organization and made it overly complicated to use, or that it failed to easily integrate with other databases that the organization needed to maintain.

Existing Software Solutions Miss Two Critical Segments of the Nonprofit Marketplace:

Many of the existing donor software solutions discussed at the conference missed two critical segments of the nonprofit marketplace:

small (1-10 person) organizations, which lack the staff capacity to evaluate and test available solutions, and

larger organizations whose donors, clients, and other contacts come out of the same pool.

Startup Non-Profit, Inc. is a local non-profit offering after-school programs and other services to at-risk youth. Their annual budget is less than $50,000 per year. They only have one full-time staff person who also works another part-time job to help pay the bills. Startup Non-Profit was in desperate need of a fast, simple solution for handling donations, receipting, doing mailers, and tracking other expenses. dataIDEAL was the perfect solution for them to get their administrative structure up quickly. The data entry and accounting is so simple, junior-high school students and volunteer moms from the neighborhood could do nearly all the administrative tasks, including entering and receipting donations (both print and electronic), entering expenses, processing mailing campaigns and managing contacts.

Church Membership Software Research (part 1)

dthoma — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:41:41 +0000

This data set contains statistics by state for 111 Judeo-Christian church bodies, providing information on the number of churches and members. The denominations included represent an estimated 91 percent of U.S. membership totals officially submitted to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.

This data set contains statistics by state for 133 Judeo-Christian church bodies, providing information on the number of churches and members. It is not known exactly what percent of total Judeo-Christian adherents this actually represents. When compared to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches: 1990, this study accounts for 23% more communicant members.

The Statistics of Churches in the United States was part of the 11th Census, conducted in 1890 (the U.S. Census collected data on religion through the 1936 Census, though the 1890 Census was the first to count the number of members).

The United States Census of Religious Bodies is, as the name suggests, a census of religious organizations, not a census of individuals (the U.S. Census collected data on religious organizations through the 1936 census). This census provides measures of the number of members in various denominations, by geographic unit. This is the third of four complete surveys on the subject of religious membership undertaken by the U.S. Bureau of the Census (preceded by the 1906 and 1916 censuses and followed by the 1936 censuses).