Intro and background
Inspired to Live Church was started in 2011 when Pastor Solomon Adair felt God leading that direction. Though Pastor Solomon began preaching at a young age, he admits that he didn’t intend to pursue pastoring full-time as an adult. Yet, when he felt a prompt from God to plant a church, he knew he must obey. That summer, Pastor Solomon shared with a few friends that he felt God gave the church a name, which is now as we know it, Inspired to Live Church. From the naming of the church, this group of five people began to start the process of building Inspired to Live Church in order to impact the community and city in which they served.
The Right Church Management Software Is Out There
In an effort to not only start Inspired to Live Church but also grow the church, Pastor Solomon recounts the heavy emphasis he placed on discovering a way to systematize and track the people who were attending weekend services. Additionally, he wanted to know how to effectively and efficiently communicate with these people.
The next layer of his search for a solution was to find software that was a “one-stop shop” — software that was a solution that supported more than a couple of the church’s needs. He discovered many options for email, texting, data maintenance, and other necessary solutions, but they were all separate, unconnected solutions that would require configuration to make them all work together. Pastor Solomon wanted to find all of these solutions in one platform.
In his search for software like this, he explored many software solutions that other pastors and churches referred him to. While these options seemed to be a possible fit for the church, they were too expensive for the church at that time due to size and growth rate.
Pastor Solomon’s search for a church management solution came to a quick stop when he discovered Ministry Brands as the affordable all-in-one solution he was looking for.
An Affordable, All-In-One Solution for Church Software
The bottom line for Pastor Solomon was that he needed a church software solution that allowed church staff to get connected with people and stay connected with people. From the start, Pastor Solomon recognized the ease of Ministry Brands software in retrieving guest information, maintaining information in the database, communicating with people via text and email, using workflow systems, scheduling messages to be sent for a future time and date, and automatic guest follow-up.
Pastor Solomon says that there were church management software that supported those needs, but did so in completely separate platforms. In contrast, if a platform did support all of these solutions in one package, he found that the cost was incredibly expensive.
The value of having these solutions together in one software, also at an affordable cost, was a “major win” for Inspired to Live Church.
Growing and Connecting Church Members Through Church Management Software
Pastor Solomon shared a recent story of how a person got connected and stayed connected with Inspired to Live Church. Interestingly, this person's introduction to the church happened outside of a Sunday morning service. During a community event hosted by Inspired to Live Church, connection cards were received from event attendees. Because of the communication options provided by our church software, the volunteer was able to send updates and communications that piqued the interest of this new person.
In the church’s recent New Members Orientation, this person attended and shared that she had been able to stay connected with Inspired to Live Church since the initial event because of the communications and updates offered to her. This led her to attend the church in person, as well as join as a member a little while later.
Pastor Solomon was joyfully surprised that people were actually engaging with those communications. This story is evidence that they were. Further benefits of the software are that these engagements and growth are tracking with people along their journey, enabling the church team to see how people are staying connected.
This story is proof that software gives churches the ability to let people know the church is there for them both on Sundays as well as outside of the weekend service experience.
What to Look for in Ministry-Supporting Software
Pastor Solomon is quick to point out the importance of having a support team that is available to the church team when needed. According to Pastor Solomon, Ministry Brands, has always been a phone call away. Customer support is huge when learning how to fully engage with an all-in-one church management software solution and use it holistically.
For any pastors looking for church management software advice, Pastor Solomon asks them to consider these questions: “How do you want to engage with people who come to your church for the first time? And how do you want to keep people engaged as you grow?” If your answer includes ease of use, comfort, and quick support response when it's needed, then our software solution might be for you.
Next Steps
Interested in exploring how our platform can help you grow your church and keep people connected? Sign up for a free demo today!
