Church Software

Automated church software has become big business as churches are using software to ease the church staffs work load while enhancing the parishioners church experience. When software manufacturers began to create products for churches in the 70s, there were over 200 companies creating mainly church management software. Now there only a few providers creating an enormous variety of products, and unfortunately, this have caused price increases.

For churches trying to improve their services and satisfy real needs such as annual reports, decisions have become increasingly complex as administrators try to get products to serve their needs at reasonable costs.

Another problem is that the software is no longer up-dated after two or three years¡Xbut rather at two or three or six month intervals. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to search not only for quality products, but to use providers with whom long term relationships can be built.

In addition to church management software, the following new products may be of interest to your church and ministries: „h Visitation Manager from RCL Software. Tracks members who are housebound or hospitalized and coordinates the schedules of all ministerial staff.

„h ACS Parochial Report from ACS Technologies. Collects and collates monthly data so that year end reports may be generated using streamlined procedures and avoiding possible data errors by creating an audit trail. Helps with certain other reports also, such as monthly attendance reports. „h ChurchInfo is a free, church database program comparable to other church management software.

Two interesting modules are: o Mapping: Users may plot the latitude/longitude coordinates of families so that there is a map of the congregation. Useful for locating the nearest neighbors for a specific family. o Canvas Automation: The congregation can be canvassed and then the info is entered into a database for later use. „h ServiceBuilder 4.5060 1b download from CrookedBush.com Inc. Useful in planning church services and coordinating church musicians.

„h ChurchBells 4.2.4 download from InspiredCode. Carillon software to announce different events through the use of a Clock BellTower. Permits seasonal programming. „h The Keys Program 3.1 download from CyberNiche Software. Database that stores information on the tracking of keys to offices, buildings, vehicles issued to staff and others.

„h Inventory Management Systems 3.3 download from Inventory Solutions. Tracks inventories of rooms and the equipment therein. Eases file claiming. „h Worship Him! 3.8 download from Freedom Software. Allows the presentation of songs from files with automatic backup.

„h Media Library Manager 9.0 download by RCL Software. Complete library system which permits the church to catalog all its resources through one system: books, DVDs, videos, etc. „h SmartScore Pro 5 download from Musitek Corporation. Scans music and recognizes various musical symbols so that arrangers, performers, music educators, and other church ministries are able to adjust music to their needs.

„h Free Baby Boomer Bible Browser 2.3.2 from BibleOcean.com (Also available is Free Teen Bible Browser 2.4.3). Allows user to add his or her own Bible, though English and Spanish Bibles are included, for Bible study and perusal.

The wide range of software for today¡¦s ministries is merely demonstrated by the diverse topics illustrated above. With the advent of Microsoft Vista, it is necessary to see if these products are under revision for the new software, and when these up-dates are anticipated.