Tips for buying an "off the shelf" small group management system
Dan Lentz
Many years ago, I entered my first church experience as a small group director. Part of my job description was administration of our church and small group database. Initially, we managed everybody's personal information with hand-written records. Over time, we advanced to word processors and spreadsheets. Even with computerized files, much of the record keeping revolved around maintaining multiple ...
Crossroads Christian Church of Evansville, Indiana, addressed the challenge of gathering, tracking, and maintaining a database for small groups by building our own database.
How It Works
Jack Arney, our church staff member in charge of software development, customized a tool to meet our specific needs. Using a program called FileMaker Pro, he created two databases:
"SMALL GROUPS" is our name for the program that tracks every individual enrolled in a small group. In this database, we can find, for example: - What groups any individual has joined - Which active constituents of the church are in a group and which are not (helps with shepherding)
Check out these statistics to get your finger on the pulse of small-groups ministry.
Dan Lentz
Definition: Benchmarking is a tool used to measure or compare your work or progress with others who are doing the same thing. Benchmarking is a powerful tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness"—the mode of thinking that says, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it."
Because it is difficult to get a handle on what is going on in other small groups outside ...
Check out these statistics to get your finger on the pulse of small-groups ministry.
Dan Lentz
Definition: Benchmarking is a tool used to measure or compare your work or progress with others who are doing the same thing. Benchmarking is a powerful tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness"—the mode of thinking that says, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it."
Because it is difficult to get a handle on what is going on in other small groups outside ...
Check out these statistics to get your finger on the pulse of small-groups ministry.
Dan Lentz
Definition: Benchmarking is a tool used to measure or compare your work or progress with others who are doing the same thing. Benchmarking is a powerful tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness"—the mode of thinking that says, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it."
Because it is difficult to get a handle on what is going on in other small groups outside ...
Check out these statistics to get your finger on the pulse of small-groups ministry.
Dan Lentz
Definition: Benchmarking is a tool used to measure or compare your work or progress with others who are doing the same thing. Benchmarking is a powerful tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness"—the mode of thinking that says, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it."
Because it is difficult to get a handle on what is going on in other small groups outside ...
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