Why Church Management Software Can Help You Free Up Time for Ministry

Ministry involves many tasks related to the church, so it naturally follows that a minister is responsible for many things. For some, this might be overwhelming – you might not have enough time in the day to do ministry on top of everything else to do in the church. Fortunately, church management software can help you make time for ministry. How does church management software save time? Read on to find out. What the Bible Says About Ministry Before we get into how church management software saves time, let’s take a look at what ministry is according to the Bible. Scripture defines ministry in Acts 6:2-4: “So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” “Ministry” and “wait on tables” use the same Greek word, diakonos, which means “to serve” or “servant”. This means that ministry is an act of willful service. From this, we learn that a minister serves the church based on a calling. Ministry also covers many things, since the Apostle Paul defined the church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” Just as a body can’t be all legs or all arms, we have different tasks and responsibilities in ministry. Each one is essential to the church operating properly. Why You May Not Have Enough Time for Ministry There are many tasks to accomplish in ministry, so it’s normal to sometimes feel overwhelmed and like you don’t have enough time to do everything. While it may be that there are too many things to do for one person, there may be other reasons why you don’t have enough time, such as: No Time Tracking and Budgeting Have you ever worked on something so hard that, when you’re finished, you say, “Where’d the time go?” That’s because you don’t allocate a time budget. Not budgeting time for activities may result in spending too much time on a particular task and neglecting others. Too Much Multitasking Unfortunately, the human brain isn’t built for multitasking. People who multitask are usually less productive because they need to switch gears when moving from one task to another and then back again. Lack of Delegation Sometimes you don’t have enough time simply because there’s too much to do for one person. Taking too much of the workload yourself without delegating usually ends up with you spending too much time and energy on less important tasks. Lack of Prioritization Many people who feel there’s not enough time in the day don’t prioritize – they do every task that comes their way without regard to how important they are. Unfortunately, this usually results in them being overwhelmed. Not Saying “No” “No” is a simple word, but saying it can be incredibly challenging, especially in a church setting. However, saying “yes” to every request and task that comes your way, regardless of who’s actually responsible for them, is one of the best ways to wear yourself out with the sheer amount of work you have to do. What Is Church Management Software? Church management software is a set of tools that church staff use to organize and manage their daily operations. It offers features like membership management, event schedulers, and financial accounting to minimize manual processes and save time. Church management software also helps you compile all the information in your church in one centralized database. This way, you don’t have to search through dozens of folders or log into multiple computers to get all the data you need. How Church Management Software Saves Time One of the foremost benefits of church management software like Gatherly is its time-saving capabilities, which means you have more time to do ministry. Here are four ways it can help you save time: Sending Group Messages and Mass Texts Sending event notifications and other important church announcements can take a lot of time if you do it manually. Church management software provides a dashboard where you can send messages to members without doing so one by one. Some of them even generate message reports that show you how many people opened them. Tracking and Reporting Donations When you manually compile donation spreadsheets, you may make mistakes and leave some money unaccounted for. Church management software automatically tracks and reports all church donations, so you can get a good (and accurate) look at how well your church is performing financially. Managing Church Membership Church management software helps you group church members based on criteria like age, gender, and membership status. This makes sending customized invites and messages to specific groups of members easier. Monitoring Event Attendance Registering event attendees with paper forms is time-consuming and prone to mistakes. Church management software lets you register attendees with a computer or tablet, ensuring a fast and accurate check-in process. Extra Time-Saving Tips for Church Staff In addition to church management software, you can use these tips to save time on tasks and get more time for ministry: Keep Track of and Budget Time Spent on Tasks Keeping track of and budgeting time on tasks means you’re much less likely to go overtime if a task takes too long. You can always return to that task later if it’s not urgent. Create Time Blocks for Tasks Ministry involves many kinds of tasks, but multitasking isn’t the solution. Instead, make time blocks for each task and focus solely on completing it during the chunk of time allocated. This helps you concentrate and finish tasks faster without being distracted. Prioritize Important Tasks Prioritizing tasks means you won’t spend too much time working on something that’s not urgent and unimportant. Consider learning the Eisenhower Matrix, which categorizes tasks as urgent and important, not urgent but important, urgent but unimportant, and not urgent and unimportant. After you categorize all the tasks on your desk, you can determine which tasks to work on first. Delegate Work to Others If you’re in a position to delegate work to other staff members or volunteers, do so. Delegation takes some of the load off your shoulders and ensures you have enough energy to work on other things. Don’t Be Afraid to Say “No” We understand saying “no” in a church can be more challenging than anywhere else. However, saying “yes” to everything might result in you getting too much work and not having enough time. Learn to turn down additional work that isn’t within your responsibilities or doesn’t align with the church’s goals. Closing Thoughts Thanks to its various automation and management features, church management software like Gatherly can help you save time. Some of the tasks you can automate include tracking donations, monitoring event attendance, and sending group messages.