Tag Archive for: technology

In November of 2022, a tool called ChatGPT was launched for public use. It is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot capable of having a conversation, composing music, writing fairy tales, generating business ideas, and so much more.

Have you heard of it?

Following its popularity, many other AI tools started popping up, and the subject quickly became a focus throughout society and across industries.

As a church leader, you may find yourself wondering, Does AI have any place in the church? After all, we certainly wouldn’t recommend using AI to exegete Scripture or determine the message God has for your congregation. However, there are several ways that churches can utilize AI in their ministry in a way that carefully enhances and supports leaders.

Here at One Church Software, we’ve talked a lot over the years about the value of automation. By automating repeatable tasks in your ministry, you are able to spend more time on the aspects of your role as a church leader that matter most.

Well, the same principle can be true of AI tools. It’s not about how these tools can do your work for you as a pastor; however, it’s worth considering how the tools available to you can support you in remaining consistent, productive, and focused on the most important tasks. As you free up time that previously had to devote to smaller routine tasks, this is about giving you more time to connect with God, connect with His Word, and connect His people to the message of the Gospel.

Read: 6 Processes You Should Automate in Your Church

So what are some principles for using AI effectively and ethically in the Church? Let’s dive in:

#1: Need Ideas or a List Made?

AI can often be great at making lists for you. This could be a list of social media post ideas for the month. This could also be something like a list of questions for small groups pulled from the transcript or outline of the latest sermon. While the generated response won’t be your final version, it can be a great place to simply get started.

In a tool like ChatGPT, an example prompt could look like:

  • “I lead a church in [location]. Next month, we have two main events that we will be promoting. Those events are [event] and [event]. I would like to put together a plan to post on social media every weekday and to promote those events a couple times before they take place. Please put together an example social media plan and calendar with some ideas for the month.” (Again, this would simply give you a draft to help you get started!)
  • “Below is the outline for the sermon I am giving on Sunday to my church. I need you to create 10 options for questions that a small group could discuss based on those notes.” (Take your pick and adjust as necessary!)

#2: Generally, Avoid Using AI-Generated Imagery

Particularly when it comes to AI-generated art, there are many in the art community who have spoken out negatively to AI systems for using existing art pieces to “train” the AI system without the permission of every respective artist. While there are arguments in both directions on this one, it’s wise to simply avoid it altogether for the time-being.

#3: AI is Great With First Drafts of Emails

Got an event coming up? Need to respond professionally to a general inquiry that came in through a contact form? If you give it the information it would need to formulate something accurate, AI tools are great at rough drafts of emails that you can then adjust.. From promotional emails to personal emails, this can be a great way to save time on the day-to-day of ministry.

An example prompt could look like: “On October 25, we have a worship night at First Example Church that will be focused on the idea of celebrating what God has done in our church this year. I need to write a friendly and inspiring email to announce the event to our congregation. I would also like to encourage them to invite their friends. I need you to give me a first draft of that email I could send.” (From there, adjust as necessary, but enjoy the time saved!)

#4: AI Can Pull Potential Sermon Clips for Social Media

Did you know that there are tools that will automatically pull clips from a longer video that are (potentially) compelling for use on social media? This makes sharing sermon clips fairly simple! A popular option is called Opus Clip, which automatically analyzes videos to identify the most compelling hooks and seamlessly arranges a longer video into cohesive short videos.

We know pastors and church leaders carry a heavy workload and are vital to the overall health of their church. There never seem to be enough hours in the day to effectively minister to the people of your church. That’s why we put such a heavy emphasis on having systems and software around you that frees up your time to focus on what is really important – caring for your members, empowering your volunteers, and serving your community.

AI is just one tool that can be used in an ethical way to help you create time for the most important aspects of your role in your ministry. We hope these ideas have inspired you to try some of them for yourself!

If you don’t have a church management system or are considering switching, you can try One Church Software FREE for 14 days to see all the ways it can help you care for your members, empower your volunteers, and serve your community.


As a church leader, you need a software system that operates well and reduces the amount of time it takes to maintain. Our all-in-one technology solution is designed to free up your time so you can focus on what you do best—ministering and caring for people.

But as technology updates, upgrades, and transforms at the speed of light, there are more and more ways to streamline your systems and open up new possibilities to serve your church well and bring resources right into the hands of your staff and volunteers.

We are constantly working to bring these updates to your church through regular tech releases. New this past month are some exciting integrations with PraiseCharts and opportunities to integrate with third-party applications through a public API and Webhooks. While some of these updates are highly technical, the practical applications to make your day-to-day operations run smoothly are endless!

PraiseCharts

PraiseCharts features a large, online sheet music catalog of popular praise and worship songs offering lyrics, chords, stage charts, vocal chart arrangements, orchestrations, plus multi-tracks and patches, all ready to download and play. It has been one of the go-to options for worship leaders and churches across America. 

Now with a PraiseCharts integration in One Church Software, you can access your service plans, complete with sheet music, in one place! With this integration, you can go into services with confidence knowing that the resources for your worship music are easily accessible and organized for your teams. 

Enable with your current One Church Software plan by accessing “Service Planning” from the left-hand menu and selecting “Song Integrations.” Imported song files will be available to all users across your system with the integration enabled. Sheet music can be linked to a song in One Church Software which makes it easily accessible across all future service plans.

See full release notes >>

API & Webhooks

Alright, this one is more for the development nerds out there. Share this with your Developer!

Application Programming Interface (API) is what allows two systems to communicate with each other. This opens up a whole world of possibilities to have a third-party application interact with One Church Software on-demand. Whereas Webhooks are essentially “messages” you can set up to trigger actions in third-party applications that are published in real-time.

This is a big moment: You now can integrate One Church Software with your custom app for your church, third-part application, or other software you have developed.

Some of the current webhook events that can be subscribed to are (more are coming soon):

While our API allows a third-party application to interact with One Church Software on demand, webhooks send information to third-party applications to perform an action based on an event that occurred in One Church Software. These features are a bit techy so you’ll want to grab your tech guy or gal to help understand what specific opportunities this will open up for your church. All the details are in the full release notes linked below!

*API and Webhooks are only available on the Plus and Premium plans.*

See full release notes >>

One Church Software is your all-in-one technology solution. Releases like these are part of what we do to keep you on the cutting edge of technology. When your software runs efficiently, it frees up more of your time to care for your members, empower your volunteers, and serve your community better. 

Access these features and more on your One Church Software account today!



If building an app for your church is something you’ve looked into before, you likely know that in many cases developing a custom app from scratch can be quite expensive, which isn’t always the wisest investment for the average church.

This is why church app templates are an economical and popular option for churches wanting to offer all the features of a custom app but at a tiny fraction of the cost. The reality is that templated church app solutions are not all built the same, though.

There’s no denying that most church app templates allow you to provide a virtual portal to connect and stay informed with the going-ons of your church community. You might even be able to access event information, watch or listen to the latest sermon, and even set up your mobile giving.

But the majority of church app templates don’t connect to your current Church Management System (ChMS) so you can only get the full potential out of the app by manually updating each and every feature. As a church leader, your schedule is already maxed out with caring for your members, managing your volunteers, and serving your community, you don’t need yet another system that requires constant updating to manage.

“You don’t need yet another system that requires constant updating to manage…”

A great church app is valuable. Not only does it simplify communication, but it also ensures that everyone stays connected, informed, and engaged, while even having the potential to extend the reach of the church beyond geographical boundaries, ensuring that faith and fellowship travel far and wide.

There’s a Better Way to Build a Church App

Our priority here at One Church Software is to bring you all-in-one technology solutions for your church that allow you to focus on one thing—your ministry. One of the ways that we do that is by including our free app with all One Church Software plans. This app seamlessly syncs to your One Church Software account so there is no clunky management or combination of multiple softwares.

If you want even more options to go beyond the provided introductory design, we offer an app builder add-on for you to have more control over the navigation and design of your app. Integration and customization right at your fingertips.

All the Church App Benefits Without Unnecessary Work

There are many reasons your church can benefit from having an app. It can enhance the effectiveness of your work and magnify the impact of your ministry by putting tools directly in your church-goers’ pockets.

In One Church Software, this includes things like:

  • Push Notifications: By sending push notifications through an app, you have the ability to provide pertinent information and even lead people to take the next step.
  • Giving: Now, more than ever, people are using their phones to set up giving and respond to special offerings.
  • Sermons: Keep your sermon archives in one central location that is easy for others to enjoy and grow through. You can also offer free-form notes for people to follow along with your sermons live.
  • Pre Check-In: Pre Check-In allows members to check-in themselves or their children before arriving at the check-in kiosk. A scalable QR code is generated directly on the phone which allows for quick scanning and check-in after arriving at your church.
  • Groups: Your members will be able to search through a list of groups and sign up right from their mobile devices. All important details of the group are at their fingertips, so they can make the best choice from what is available.
  • And much more!

A church app can offer a virtual hub of activity and information to ensure that every member of the congregation stays informed about church events, prayer requests, and more.

The decision to offer this essential tool to your church shouldn’t come with a host of extra work to maintain it. Learn how One Church Software’s integrated app can support your church without creating additional workload!


It’s no secret that the generous financial gifts of your local congregation are the backbone of sustaining the day-to-day ministry of your church. Not only does it help provide your staff and leadership with a living wage, but regular giving is also a biblical mandate to support the work of the Church and further the Gospel.

In spite of financial gifts being such an important topic, it remains a sensitive subject. In many churches, it rarely comes up on Sundays or in staff meetings. But with so many changes in the method of giving and recent online giving statistics, church leaders can’t afford to let this topic remain taboo—It’s important to talk about money at church strategically.

To help you kickstart the conversation (particularly internally), here are five important online giving statistics that your church needs to know about:

49% of all church giving transactions are made with a card.

When was the last time you wrote out a check? Odds are it’s been quite a while (outside of the occasional bill!). The number of people who make no cash transactions in a week continues to rise at 41%. (source) This points to a continued trend of many people moving towards a “cashless” economy.

This isn’t a trend to shy away from! Instead, consider: How can we leverage this reality?

When it comes to church giving, this statistic reinforces the importance of having online giving options. If you take up your regular tithe, or a donation for a visiting missionary or specific cause, the majority of your congregation won’t be able to respond without offering online formats for giving.

Only 27% of digital giving happens on a Sunday.

The other 73% happens on the other six days of the week. Did this one surprise you?

Many givers are opting to set up their tithe as a recurring online donation as a monthly gift. But this also points to an opportunity during the other six days of the week to give people a chance to respond to extra giving opportunities or special campaigns. 

When you have a visiting missionary or a special need for your people to respond to, be sure you are giving people time to consider how they would like to respond. Send a direct link to where additional gifts can be made via email or text. And as an added benefit, anyone that missed that particular Sunday still has a chance to give!

Churches that accept tithing online increase overall donations by 32%.

How about this one?

There are two reasons for this statistic: One is that online giving is quickly becoming the preferred method of tithing and the other reason is that online giving often automates recurring donations. People are busy, and while they have every intention of making regular tithes to your church, they can miss a few donations in the process.

Spiritually, an advanced-decision to be generous can be every bit as meaningful as sitting down to write a check every month is for some people. God calls us to be intentional with what we have, and directing our monthly dollars towards the Church is a God-honoring action.

By offering online tithing options, you not only make the process easier for your givers but you also allow them to automate the regular process of giving. This will naturally increase the total amount your church will receive as you make consistency easier!

77% of people who tithe regularly give 11% to 20% of their income.

Did you know that of those who tithe regularly, 77% of them give 11% to 20% of their income? Sometimes they give even more! This makes it clear that people are going above and beyond the standard one-tenth originally shared in Leviticus 27:30 and echoed throughout the New Testament.

The people of your church believe in supporting the work that you are doing. God’s people are passionate about helping those in need, furthering the Gospel, and supporting your ministry.

While you may feel uncertain or that you can’t address finances, it’s clear from this statistic that people are choosing in their hearts to give even more than what Scripture has laid out for them.

Incredible!

55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action.

You may wonder how this applies to giving, so let us explain:

The giving conversation isn’t just about “the ask” itself. In today’s world, people want to be engaged in the causes they care about. They want to see behind-the-scenes. They want to share about the causes they love.

In fact, organizations who engage their audience on social media see them more likely to take action, such as giving or volunteering.

If you’ve ever questioned the power of social media before, this is a clear sign that it has an impact. People desire to listen and respond to you outside of Sunday morning. By making sure you have clear action steps present on social media, whether that be to connect with a leader or make a gift, you can convert their engagement to action.


More than 74% of churches across the United States offer online giving in some form. If your church doesn’t yet have an online giving option, or is considering a switch, take a look at our free 14-day trial to see how One Church Software can help your church with online and text-to-give options.

And if your church already offers online giving, take the time to make sure you are reaping all the benefits by responding to these statistics and making sure your online giving tool allows you to access donor history, donor information, recurring givers, automates donor follow-up, and more! The right online giving tool should work in harmony with your other systems to save you time and help you run more efficiently.

Want to know more about finances and the church? Here are a few other resources you may find valuable:

With so many options for your Church Management Software (ChMS), how can you tell which one is the right choice for your church? Sometimes once you select a ChMS and work to implement it, you discover that a key feature you need costs extra, it isn’t as good as you thought, or there is little-to-no support offered.

To help take some of the guesswork out of picking a ChMS, we asked church leaders what they thought of our software after making the switch to One Church Software.

Check out more reviews for One Church Software here >>


“Reliable, stable, consistent” – Andrew K., Lead Pastor

Our team loves that they only have to learn ONE software to handle our needs. It’s easy to connect with, easy to work with, and the OCS team is VERY responsive to our needs and requests. We love the ability to easily facilitate prayer requests and make the interactions live.


“OCS is teaching us how to be a 21st-century church!” – Jane. R.

We switched to OCS in February 2020. OCS has served our church of 300+ members well throughout the pandemic and beyond! We are working smarter to utilize connection and involvement features. We enjoy how the design of One Church supports our mission to build a supportive, inclusive community that can use technology tools to worship, grow, learn, and work for justice.


“The best church software.” – Mike P.

This software is user-friendly and intuitive by design! The best features are its automation capabilities for follow-up and assimilation. But the report builders are set-up in such a way that even a non-tech-savvy person, like myself, can use them with ease. Having this one-stop shop helps our church stay organized and keeps all of our ministries connected.


“An all-in-one solution that won’t nickel and dime you.” – James D.

OCS has one price for all features, unlike other softwares that charge you for “extras.” They take many solutions and combine them into one great software! OCS includes everything you need from church accountability, text-to-give, text and email communication, easily generates giving reports, and provides some things we didn’t even know we needed!


“Membership Software with Communications Simplified” – Scott G., Pastor

Maintenance of distribution lists has always been an issue when we utilized Outlook and Server software. OCS is a single location to handle all of our communication needs! We have made a great deal of use of the built-in communication capabilities to keep everyone in the loop.


“Great software, even better service.” – Nick P., Children’s Minister

We struggled to know who was a part of our church and how connected they were. But with electronic check-in for children’s ministries and adults, we now have a clear picture of who is engaging with our community. One Church Software is also a great solution for managing teams, organizing groups, communicating with members, teams, and more. With the ability to set up automation, you can focus your attention on getting processes set up and then letting the system do the heavy lifting. OCS comes with a free hour of in-person training with membership.


We set out to make a ChMS that did one thing—helps church leaders. We didn’t just want to design software that handled the technical side of ministry. We created one that would help church leaders care for their members, empower their volunteers, and serve their community better.

When you have a ChMS that handles the behind-the-scenes stuff well, you have extra time to do what you do best—care for the souls of people. You don’t have to take our word for it! Test out our software free for 14 days and see for yourself!

With summer upon us, you’re likely knee-deep in planning VBS and your summer programs for both kids and adults! Or you may already be looking ahead to the plan for next year’s vacation bible school.

VBS is a great way to serve your city and minister to children and families, but we also know this encompasses a lot of staff, resources, and volunteers to pull off effectively.

That’s why One Church Software has tons of features to make sure your calendar is up-to-date, tables and chairs are where they need to be, and you have a volunteer team to help every step of the way. We’ve worked hard to implement every feature in our software that you need to have a successful VBS!

Kid’s Check-In

One of the first things on any parents’ mind is safety, which is why we have made it a top priority to make secure pick-up and drop-off standard practice. We even have space to highlight medical needs or allergies directly on check-in labels.

Kids Check-In is an important feature, whether you utilize it for your regular Sunday kids ministry and for all children’s summer activities!

Volunteer Organization & Communication

It takes a whole host of volunteers and staff to run a successful VBS. But managing those volunteers and making sure they are all on the same page can be a difficult task.

Just like the volunteer scheduling process in our software for Sunday services, you can organize volunteer efforts for events like VBS as well, assigning roles and communicating the flow of each day of VBS so volunteers can prepare as necessary.

Sending out volunteer-wide communication is a breeze with One Church Software as well. Instead of sending multiple texts and emails, you can communicate with everyone at one click of a button. You also have the ability to easily view the scheduled times and availability of all your volunteers to identify where you need to get extra help.

Online Calendar Coordination

Every event gets synced to the church calendar and can be displayed online with One Church Software. This means even if they couldn’t attend a Sunday service, parents and regular attendees can be aware of VBS, summer camp, and other church events.

And if an event is cancelled, delayed because of the weather, or changes location, alerts can go out to everyone that has registered or you can send a church-wide alert, so there is no confusion.

Room Reservation

Make sure you never double-book a room again! With room reservation, you can not only communicate how you need the room set up and ensure it is equipped with what you need, but you can automatically notify facility managers regarding new reservation requests.

When you reserve a room, it automatically syncs up with the church calendar to keep communication clear. Imagine arriving at a fully-equipped room with chairs and tables set-up exactly how you need them!

Resource Allocation

Need extra equipment or special tools? No problem. When you submit a room reservation request, you can see a complete list of all the resources your church has to offer. Simply add those resources when setting up your event or room reservation. Everything from chairs, tables, whiteboards, media carts, and more can be requested. Your set-up time just got cut in half now that you don’t have to spend time trying to find what you need the day of.

Safe Volunteers

In today’s day and age, running background checks on your volunteers is a necessity when it comes to working with children. We’ve made the process easy through our integration with Protect My Ministry. This fully-integrated service lets you order and manage background checks directly within our software.

With background requests typically completed within 48 hours, you can make sure you are doing your due diligence and protecting your members and children.

With thousands of ministries trusting Protect My Ministry, it’s the go-to option for churches in screening volunteers, staff, or your employees, and it’s all at your fingertips from within One Church Software.

Multiple Registrations in One Form

Registering multiple people in one submission makes the user experience much more seamless when registering children for VBS, summer camps, or children’s activities. This is a real timesaver, which is why we’ve added this feature to our forms! Not only will it allow you to process multiple entries at one time, but One Church Software forms can also have individual questions or fields for each person.

This means that you can do things like make suggestions on additional children to register, collect t-shirt sizes for each child, and automatically tally-up any necessary payments. (Learn more about this feature here.)


If you aren’t already using One Church Software, this is the perfect time to try out our FREE 14-day trial to see how these features make this year’s VBS a breeze! Get started today >>

So you’ve decided to look into a church management software (ChMS), but aren’t quite sure where to start? When trying to decide which ChMS is right for your church, there are a few things you need to consider.

You do a lot for your church. Your responsibilities include managing volunteers, leading your staff, event planning, keeping your website up to date, adding events to the church calendar, staying in constant communication with your members, and so much more. With such a wide range of responsibilities, you need to pick a ChMS that can do just as much as you do!

But when it comes to deciding which management software is the right fit for your church, there’s a lot to consider. Not every ChMS offers the same features and some have expensive add-ons to use all the bells and whistles. 

So here are four major things you need to consider when choosing a church management software:

Security

It is the 21st-century and the days of giving your tithes by check or cash are gone for the majority of churchgoers. That means your church needs to offer the ability to give online. But the number one concern when it comes to online giving is security.

You don’t have to be an expert in online security or know all the lingo and latest vulnerabilities in fraud, but an easy way to confirm security is to check to make sure the system you’re considering is a PCI-Compliant Service Provider (like One Church Software). PCI stands for Payment Card Industry and they represent the highest set of security standards in the industry.

Here at One Church Software, our giving platform uses 256-bit SSL technology for data transactions. All personal, credit card, and bank information is submitted using 256-bit encryption. There is no stronger form of protection than this encryption.

Read More: How to Know if a Church Giving Solution is Secure

Customer Service + Training

Regardless of which ChMS you choose, you will have questions along the way. Whether you need help setting up a feature, contextualizing a feature for use, or reporting an issue you’re running into, you’ll want to know in advance that you can get help.

Check to see what contact options each church management software offers before you buy. Do they have a phone number where you can access support easily? A chat feature? A good test is to try their support contact information and see how quickly you get a response.

You should also double-check to see if they offer training for the software or if they have an online help center. (This is also a great way to get a look under the hood before you commit!)

Integration & Functionality

There are some features every church should have like volunteer management, kid’s check-in, event management, and service planning. One of the mistakes often made when choosing a ChMS is picking one that only does one thing or requires costly add-ons to get access to additional features.

When you choose a ChMS with too few features, you typically end up with numerous monthly fees and have to spend extra time learning a new system each time. With an all-in-one solution, you’ll only need to learn one system and it will likely have all the features you’ll need as well as some others you didn’t know you needed.

Some additional functionality to look for is automation, room management, group management, and communication management. You want the software you invest in to work for you!

Consider Cost and Efficiency

For a ministry, cost is often at the top of the list (and sometimes it is the entire list!) when considering which ChMS to get. That is completely fair!

While cost should certainly be a factor, be sure to balance that out with the value and efficiency a church management software will bring you. Have you ever tallied up the number of hours you spend individually contacting your volunteers? Or making a schedule and then re-making it? How long does it take each week to plan out a service, link music, and share it with your team? What gets forgotten in the midst of sermon planning each week? A good ChMS will save you hours on behind-the-scenes tasks so that you can focus on what you do best—connecting and encouraging people.

Start your search with One Church Software and benefit from our all-in-one solution which includes volunteer management, kid’s check-in, background checks, online and text-to-give giving options, service planning, small group management, sermon archives, push and text notifications, automation, and more! You can try One Church Software for free for 14 days, no credit card required.

As a church leader, you know how important it is to follow-up with new guests. Without these touchpoints, someone could easily slip through the cracks before truly getting to know if your church is the right place for them.

To borrow insight from the business world, it is widely accepted that closing a sale takes a minimum of about 6-8 interactions. And a study by The University of Kansas quantified how many hours it takes to move from a mere acquaintance to a casual friend. The result was an astounding 50 hours spent together. 

It should come as no surprise, then, that when it comes to creating effective guest follow-up systems, you need to have several interactions planned to connect with people in a thoughtful way. We can’t expect deep connection to form if we aren’t prioritizing multiple interactions with guests.

But what should that look like?

To help you get started, we are providing examples of what a good guest follow-up workflow looks like using One Church Software. After guest information is collected by your physical or digital visitor card, we encourage you to use these examples and templates to set up your own guest follow-up in your church management system or by trying our free trial!

Welcome Email

The first thing you will want to do is input the data (if you have collected the information on a physical form) and check to be sure everything has been formatted correctly. This means double-checking to be sure their name is capitalized and you have a complete email or physical address. You don’t want to miss out on a potential relationship because there was a typo in their email of “gmail.co” instead of “gmail.com”.

Your first interaction should often be in the form of a welcome or thank you email. A good welcome email thanks visitors for attending and provides helpful links as well as ways to get connected further.

(Pro tip: You can also let guests determine how they’d like to be contacted through options in your first-time guest form. For example, if someone were to select “texting” as their preference, you could have an automated workflow that sends a welcome text instead.)

Here’s an example of what your welcome email might look like:

Hello [FIRST NAME],

Thank you for visiting one of our services! We hope you enjoyed your time worshiping with us and that it nourished your soul.

We know finding a church to call home can be a difficult task, so we’ve provided some helpful links to help you get connected easier and to help you know more about us:

  • LINK TO EVENTS PAGE
  • CONNECT WITH A PASTOR
  • HOW TO JOIN A SMALL GROUP

As you go through your week, we hope it is encouraging to know that I and the rest of our staff are praying for you! If there are any questions we can help answer or ways we can serve you, please let us know.

YOUR NAME
000-000-0000

Feel free to use this template as you create your own guest follow-up workflow, but don’t forget to add any relevant links and make it sound like your own.

Schedule Pauses Between Communication

No one likes to get blasted with one communication after another. That’s why we’ve made it possible in One Church Software to plan pauses in communication so your workflow will have a more natural cadence to it.

We recommend you add at least 2-3 days between most communication. This allows for appropriately paced follow-up that doesn’t feel overbearing.

Send a Text

For some people, email is harder to respond to or might seem more formal. That is why it can be valuable to use several different methods of communication in your workflow. Texts are typically a bit more on the personal and informal side so it might sound something like this: 

Hey NAME! This is YOURNAME from CHURCH. I wanted to personally reach out to see what you thought about your visit last Sunday. Here if you have any questions or feedback!

You might even add a call-to-action or a link to a form they can fill out to sign-up for a group or a class, somewhere they can find more information, etc. Just like this:

You may recall hearing about some of the new groups starting-up soon. You can learn more about those here: [LINK]

Assign Additional Follow-Up to a Key Leader

If you have a Guest Experience Coordinator, Discipleship Pastor, or if you know some of the guest’s interests or stage of life, it can be a good idea to have an associated leader reach out personally after some time has passed.

Let’s say that you know this guest has young children because they were in your children’s ministry. You could take this opportunity to assign a task to your Children’s Coordinator to reach out to them and tell them about the different children’s events going on.

(Pro tip: Task assignments like this can be automated in One Church Software as well!)

By having a key leader reach out to a guest, you are helping them make genuine connections with additional people within your church.

A Few More Guest Follow-Up Tips to Keep in Mind

  1. Be ready to respond! The goal of automating an effective guest follow-up system is to sustainably engage new visitors in a meaningful and consistent way. There will be people who don’t engage with the follow-up, but be prepared for people to respond! We want to be quick to return emails or texts as people engage back with us.
  2. Don’t go overboard. A great guest follow-up system is clear and is intentionally crafted to not be overwhelming. Too many messages will start to get annoying, which is why it’s crucial to have clarity about what you’re trying to accomplish and respect when people are choosing not to engage further.
  3. Know what next steps you want people to take. What next step are you trying to lead new people towards? Signing-up for a group? Taking a class? Grabbing coffee with a staff member? Keep that purpose and goal top-of-mind as you’re crafting follow-up material so it’s clear to the people being contacted as well.

And there you go! Just incorporating some of the suggestions here will give you 3-4 interactions with a guest that you can already have planned out in addition to their experience in-person. While we can’t automate a full 50 hours of interactions to help form deep relationships, automating the first few steps will allow follow-up with guests to happen in a timely manner, save you the time of having to repeat regular tasks, and help lead towards that genuine connection between new people and your church.


If you don’t have a church management system or are considering switching, you can try One Church Software FREE for 14 days to see all the ways it can help you care for your members, empower your volunteers, and serve your community.

As a church leader, you have one of the most important jobs in the world: Leading a team to help your community take their next steps with God. With such an important job, how you structure your ministry and organize your efforts matters deeply in your ability to be effective.

One of the biggest reasons churches don’t feel like they could update to a Church Management Software (ChMS) is because it can feel like it’s too difficult to learn and set-up. Understanding it can feel like a hurdle to implement a ChMS or transition to a new software, we strive to provide every resource to make the transition as smooth as possible.

One Church Software is an all-in-one technology solution but our goal isn’t just to bring your church up-to-speed. The goal is to help you care for your members, empower your volunteers, and serve your community, just as Christ calls you to. In order to do this, we offer best-in-class customer service that can help you overcome any obstacle you might encounter.

As part of that customer service, we want to make sure you know about our Learning Center. This holds frequently asked questions, tutorials, and deep dives on a variety of functions available in One Church Software.

The topics covered include:

  • Contacts
  • Contributions
  • Accounting
  • Groups
  • Events
  • Check-In
  • Rooms & Resources
  • Forms
  • Connections
  • Mobile App (App Builder)
  • Reporting
  • Automation
  • Sermons
  • Service Planning
  • Volunteer Scheduling
  • Communication

Under each section, you’ll find videos just like this one:

Additionally, under each section, you’ll find links to help articles that answer specific questions about the software, such as:


If you are still considering a ChMS, the Learning Center is the perfect place to get familiar with all the features as you test out our free demo. And if you already have One Church Software, be sure to check out these topics and more!

We know that setting up a ChMS can seem like a daunting task, but with the right support team and resources, it doesn’t have to feel that way. Regardless of where you are at implementing a ChMS, we are here to help! Give us a call or check out the Learning Center for yourself. 

It’s 2023, so your church has likely had a website for quite some time! But did you know there are common issues that may be deterring visitors from your church’s website, or communicating messages you don’t want to be sending? Thankfully, there are simple checks you can do to see if these obstacles are impacting your website.

1. Missing Service Times or Physical Address

Helping people get connected to your weekend services is typically a primary push for church websites. However, it’s very common for us to take a look at a church website and not be able to find a physical address for the church or the times services take place. Let’s remove barriers by making sure that information is as accessible as possible!

For any website, it’s pretty common to list a physical address in the footer (the bottom of each page) of the website and on a contact page if you have one. Those are likely the first places people will look. You may consider putting service times near where your address is listed as well as on the header (the top) of your home page so they can’t be missed.

2. SSL Certificate Errors

It may sound complicated, but it’s actually super simple to check if you have an SSL Certificate Error. Check your browser’s address bar right now (if you don’t know, the address bar is where you type in the web address). There is a locked padlock to the left of our web address of onechurchsoftware.com. That locked padlock is a sign that the information shared through the website has been encrypted. This is especially important if you offer online donations, but it is also the industry standard for almost any website nowadays. If you don’t see that locked padlock, you’ll want to get in touch with your website hosting provider or try checking your site through https://www.whynopadlock.com.

3. Outdated or Inaccurate Privacy Policy

Another important consideration for your website is, if you collect any sort of information from visitors to the site, then you are required to have a privacy policy. And even if you aren’t required to have one, it’s still a good idea. By having a customized privacy policy, you show visitors that you are good stewards of their information. If you need some help coming up with a customized privacy policy or just want some more information, we recommend checking out this article.

4. Sermon Archives are Difficult to Find

Do visitors have to click more than three times to find where your sermon content is located on your website? If so, then it’s too hard to find. When visitors want to get a taste of your church or if members want to catch up on sermons they missed, it’s important to make them easy to find and well organized. If you utilize our sermon archive through One Church Software, then we’ve already done the hard work for you to keep your Bible teaching organized and easily accessible for others to enjoy. One Church Software also integrates with YouTube and Vimeo to make video hosting a breeze.

5. Target Audience and Next Steps are Unclear

Many church websites tend to talk to insiders first, instead of targeting people who are not yet a part of your community. And even when church websites target the right audience, the next steps to get connected are often unclear. Should they be reaching out for more information, “Planning a Visit,” signing up for a resource, watching a sermon, or something else?

Be sure to define the next steps you are wanting to lead people towards, and make those next steps as clear as possible on your church’s website.

6. There’s No Contact Form or Clear Contact Information

If people have questions, we want it to be as easy as possible for them to reach out and get those questions answered. The most common way for that to take place on websites is through a contact form (or something similar, like a chat function—that’s what we use here at One Church Software).

In addition to a form, making sure your contact information (phone, email, address) is clear limits frustration and ensures that people can get in touch with your church easily when they need to.

7. Your Website is Disconnected From Other Tools

While this may not only relate to your website, integration across all the tools your church uses saves you a lot of time and makes you more effective in ministry. Too many churches are using different tools for everything from registering for a special event, email sign-ups, event management, volunteer organization, texting software, and online giving. Having to maintain that many systems can get exhausting. Not to mention that it can create confusion and makes it difficult to manage all those systems.

One Church Software is an all-in-one system that connects everything together. If you don’t already have a church management software or if the one you have doesn’t take the place of additional tools, try out our free demo video to see how One Church Software can help.


You don’t have to be a tech wiz to have a website that welcomes visitors and serves your current members. By making sure your church website doesn’t have any of these common issues, you can rest easy knowing that it shows care to your members and guests and points them to resources that can connect them to the life of the ministry.

If you found any of these issues with your website or want some help getting an all-in-one technology solution to help you care for your members, empower your volunteers, and serve your community, we’d love to connect. Give us a call at 855.932.2060 or take advantage of our free trial.