ChMS Conversations

Posted on July 26, 2006 by Jim Walton

I’ve had serveral conversations lately about ChMS (Church Management Software), mostly via e-mail. It is something that people are wanting to discuss and understand.

ChMS is something that is a mystery to some and at the same time, becoming more well known. There are the known, big players, like ACS, Shelby and Fellowship and there are also many other less known players that may or may not be worth your time. The challenge here is how to know what the right choice is for your church.

The key in that last sentence is ‘for your church’. Clearly, there are many products available that would be a good choice for many churches, but every church is different and has different needs and oftentimes, budget is the deciding factor.

If you have the budget for this kind of thing, then that’s great, but what I hear more often than not is how can we jump in there with our small, limited budget or no budget? It still depends on what factors are important to your church and how much money you are willing/able to throw at it. It’s not a cookie cutter solution.

If you are wanting to understand the benefits of using a ChMS, then a good source for this kind of info is Tony Dye, he is working hard to educate the rest of us, as he learns too and build a community to focus on the real needs of churches. These links are from his sidebar:

ChMS Google Group

Ten ChMS feature/function wishes

ChMS products on my “watch” list

ChMS discussion list

ChMS Principles

Tony’s post from yesterday will link you to a good survey of ChMS, however, the survey is from 2003. A lot has happened since then, Fellowship has entered the scene and they have seriously raised the bar for what can be done and what we should expect. I also know for a fact that others, such as ACS, have stepped up to the plate in a big way. I’ve had the privilege of talking with ACS and learning about where they are and where they are going and they are definitely a good option, as well. I know they would love to talk with you and discuss the many different options that they offer.

Church Community Builder is another one that I have been looking at lately and I’m still looking at. I know of at least one church using them and it seems to meet their needs well.

Web Empowered Church (WEC) is a “…powerful web-based ministry-enhancing tools that you can freely use on your church website.” It is also an excellent tool. Read about Brian Slezak’s recent trip to the WEC conference here and more reflections here.
There are many, many others also and I don’t mean this post to be an endorsement for any ChMS in particular, but more like passing on what I know and what I have seen.

If your church budgets for next year over the next several months, then now is the time to get out there and kick the tires on some of these solutions so you know what you need to plan for.

Let’s keep the discussions going, on all fronts and it will help us all.

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3 Responses to “ChMS Conversations”

  1. Tony Dye on July 28th, 2006 12:43 pm

    Thanks for sharing! A number of us started the ChMS Discussion mailing list a while back, but so far activity has been pretty light. Specifically, it seems that I have to start a conversation and sometimes others join in. So…question back to you. Does the mailing list have value, or should we instead direct people back to the blogs of various people who have strong interests in ChMS. Or is there some other idea that can help us all share better?

    - Tony

  2. Kevin McCord on July 28th, 2006 1:50 pm

    Hi Jim,

    Tony put me on to your blog.
    I agree that there is a lot new since 2003 and that no one has a perfect CHMS for every church.
    What’s strange to me is that a lot of time the wrong person is picking the ChMS.
    It’s a bit like sending someone to the car dealer to buy your next car.
    Maybe it is more like sending someone to the grocery store to get your groceries.
    Even better, maybe it is like committing to a grocery store for the next 5 years without seeing if they stock what you want!

    Most pastors don’t think it is a mission critical decision until it causes a mission crisis.

  3. Jim Walton on July 28th, 2006 4:34 pm

    Kevin,
    This is great, Tony put me on to you as well, through his post. I have seriously had your site up in Firefox all day because I wanted to contact you about something and I wanted to see more of what you have out there. Now here you are! Very cool!

    Tony,
    I’m still pondering your questions. I will respond later with what I think, maybe even in a post.

    You both have raised good points. Thank you!