Improving staff uptake with easier-to-use solution tailor-built for ministries

Safety and security: Launched childcare check-in service

Organized: Created 50+ groups to keep track of members

Reduced errors: Consolidated two databases into one to enable accurate text groups

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Quick statistics 

Training time went from months to a day

Able to use the system in a new area of ministry with the Check In feature

Built and use 50-60 groups for communicating

Reduced the need for a second database for texting their ministry

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Greater Portland Baptist Church is an active ministry serving its community well. Like most ministries, they realized the need to find a church management software solution, especially for tracking and managing gifts to the ministry.

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Initially, they found and chose a solution that was not Servant Keeper. This church management system was built to do “anything.” For a ministry like Greater Portland who is active and desires to grow and serve their members and community well, this seemed like a good solution. 

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Unfortunately though, as happens to many ministries who ultimately switch to Servant Keeper, they found that the first system they chose was so complex that it wasn’t getting used. Months had gone by of multiple members of the ministry team having access to the system, and still nobody felt like they were fully up to speed on how to use it. It wasn’t that they weren’t tech savvy enough; figuring out how to use the system just required ongoing reading and trying to train themselves, which is something most busy ministry leaders just don’t have time for.

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The team finally reached a decision point. They had to decide if they would keep this current “do anything” complex solution, or if they would find one that was easier to use and built more for ministries.

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They started to look around and that’s when they found Servant Keeper. As soon as they got started using it to track financial contributions they noticed that the time it took to get up to speed was dramatically reduced. “I can set a volunteer down with Servant Keeper, and in a day they’re up and running,” explained Pastor Brad. Compared to the months of time it spent to try to learn the previous system, this represents many hours of volunteers’ time saved, as well as time saved for Pastor Brad. 

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Apart from less time spent training, Greater Portland realized a few other benefits of switching to Servant Keeper. They were able to use the Check In feature which was a first system of its kind for their children’s ministry, and helps to keep the children’s ministry more organized and safe. 

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They are able to easily create groups; the church does a great job building out groups based on different areas of their ministry. They have 50-60 groups they built (for example, one for choir, one for men’s ministry, one for women’s ministry, and so on) so that they can track and communicate specifically with those groups. The groups are automated in that if a person’s criteria changes, or if they pass away, they won’t be included in group communications any longer. 

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The simplicity of groups and the way they easily stay up to date made it an easier decision for Greater Portland to be able to use the built in texting feature to text these groups. Previously, they were using another tool to text their ministry members, but it required them to upkeep a second database. Now that second database and tool have been eliminated saving them time each month, and ensuring that communications are always going to the right people.

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