Church Software

Keep your Church Members Active and Win New Members with Church Membership Software!

Nearly every church has a web presence these days. People have come to expect that. Make your website a valuable resource for your parishioners! Ideally, your church website should have public areas to provide information on your church to site visitors, and private areas for the special use of your membership. By adding member only content to your church site you can keep your parishioners involved all week long and entice potential new members with value-added features. Many churches do have a member directory requiring a login where congregants can gather information on other members. But that�s it! With quality church membership software you can offer so much more and members can be involved when it�s not Sunday morning.

Public Areas

Vital Stats
Visitors will come to your site to find out who you are, where you are, how to contact you, and what your general system of belief is. Include info on parking accommodations, meeting and recreation rooms, and the size of your congregation. A picture of your church would be a great idea! Make sure this very basic information appears on your website. If visitors like what they learn about your church, they�ll likely attend a service.

Pastor Page
Your church website may host a Pastor�s page where visitors can �meet� the leader of your church. Add value and a sense of ongoing communication by having the pastor post messages to his congregation, his thoughts for the day, or inspirational and supportive ideas.

Staff Page
Everyone from the Youth Minister to the Church Secretary should be listed on your site. Describe what each staff member does, and provide their contact info. If a site visitor has an item to be included in the church newsletter or wants to know who is organizing a visitor welcome lunch, they should easily determine whom to contact for information with a quick glance at your staff page.

News
Demonstrate to the public that yours is an active church community, and keep your congregation updated with a �news� section. Did you reach a fund-raising goal? Is there a special supper being held in honor of a guest speaker or in celebration of a church member�s contribution or accomplishment? Birth announcements, weddings and funerals should be listed here as well. Post news items as they occur and remove outdated notices. This will encourage people to check back each day!

Special Ministries
Women�s groups, youth activities, men�s worship, or any other special category of fellowship should be described to further inform potential new members who visit your site seeking a church home.

Services
People considering visiting your church will want to know what time you hold services and for whom. Everyone at 11 a.m. on Sunday? 9 a.m. Sunday school separated by age group? Evenings? Weekends? If you have a particular topic that will be addressed on any given date, your existing members will also be interested in seeing that posted in advance. You might even consider posting transcripts or audio files of previous sermons for those who missed them and to give newbies a feel for what to expect at your services.

Special Events
Keep your congregation updated on happenings of interest and invite the public to your church by maintaining a calendar of events. Include any special outings, weekend retreats or group community service activities. Post pictures of previous activities for the enjoyment of your members and the enticement of your visitors.

Member Areas

Registration and Login Area
Obviously, you�ll need a page for new members to register and existing members to login. Anyone clicking a link to a member area should be redirected to your login page. Once logged in, they�ll be able to access all member areas. Unregistered visitors will have the option to register or to keep to the public areas only.

Downloads
Offer member�s only document downloads. Some possibilities: A monthly newsletter, the minutes of the church board meetings, pamphlets for printing and distributing, and member�s only news items that would not be appropriately shared in the public news forum. You could even offer coloring pages for the youngsters! Any special treats you can give to members will add value to your church website.

Member Store
How about an online store where members can purchase everything from t-shirts to prayer books? You can offer your congregants special pricing and items available only to registered members. And if they buy a t-shirt, that�s free advertising for your church!

Chat or Message Board
An open chat or a message board allows members to discuss church business away from the prying eyes of the public, or to just keep in touch between visits to the church. You may also want to schedule virtual meetings to address current church projects.

Online Classroom
A member area opens the door to so much on your website! Parishioners may take classes online to learn more about their religion. Online training for church leadership and special programs is also an option. Online classes are available to more of your membership than classes held in person. Home and work responsibilities often make it difficult to schedule a real time class to meet the needs of everyone who would enjoy learning.

Member Directory / Member Business Directory
Whether for personal reasons, church business, or to hire a church member to do work, a personal and business directory should be available to your members. Due to the sensitive nature of the items found within � home address, business info � these directories should be in a member-protected area.

Prayer Request
A nice touch for your loyal members is an area for prayer requests. They can share their joys and pains with their church family and not have to worry about the general public gaining access to their thoughts and concerns.

The public area of your site is just that � for the public. Use this to share information on your church and your ministry; and win new church members. The church membership software allows you to add an abundance of extra special amenities to your existing church family, keeping them joyfully involved in your ongoing church mission.