8 Resources for Church Security Planning

Unfortunately, churches and places of worship aren’t exempt from becoming victims of violent attacks. While our most important tool is prayer, there are several additional steps church leaders can take to protect their congregations.  Deciding when and which doors to lock, how to respond in the event of an emergency, how to collaborate with first responders on emergency response plans, and establishing safety teams are just a few examples. Unless you have a security expert on staff, you’ll need outside help to provide direction for your church. Below are several church security planning resources to consider: #1 – Insurance company Talk with your church’s insurance agent to see what resources they have available.  Some provide free eBooks and training; others may have a list of preferred vendors you could contact and more. Most will at least offer guidance on what they require as your insurer. #2 – Denomination Check with your denomination’s leadership to see if they provide resources regarding safety and security policies. They might have templates and examples of security policies and procedures you could use. Also, ask if they have a list of recommended security experts to contact. #3 – Kingswood Security Consulting Sometimes it’s best to get expert advice that’s tailored for your church’s unique situation. Founder of the Worship Security Association and Kingswood Security Consulting, Simon Osamoh has an extensive security background. This includes 14 years as a Detective in England, former Head of Counter-Terrorism at Mall of America, and serving as a security advisor for his home church in Minnesota. His company provides individualized church security consulting along with church security training options. #4 – The Church Safety Guys Another organization that offers church security training and advice is The Church Safety Guys. Comprised of individuals who serve in their local church’s security teams, this non-profit organization works to provide training, policy and equipment recommendations, print resources, a weekly broadcast, and more. #5 – The Church Network The Church Network offers online courses on church security. They also have resources such as a Safety and Security Manual, Emergency Preparedness Response Manual, and more (many are free). Also, contact your local chapter of The Church Network to see if they plan on addressing security during an upcoming meeting.  #6 – Church Law & Tax This part of the Christianity Today organization provides several articles and other resources related to church security. Search for “security” in their online store to find several eBooks to use as a starting point for your church security planning.  #7 – Local First Responders As your church develops or updates a security plan, ask local first responders to review the plan and provide input. They’ll be the ones you call on for help in an emergency, so their insights could be extremely valuable. #8 – The Church Operations Toolkit Within The Church Operations Toolkit, you can access “how-to” guides for different aspects of church security. This includes creating a children check-in process, running background checks on staff and volunteers, an introduction to risk management, preparing for natural disasters, and interviews with subject matter experts like Simon Osamoh. No one wants to think a violent attack could occur at their church. However, we’ve seen several instances in the news that prove it is possible, and that we need to be prepared. By leveraging these and other church security planning expert resources, you can create a plan and be prepared to protect your congregation. 

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How To Get Started With Church Event Planning

Church events can cultivate deeper relationships within a congregation and attract more members of a community to the church. Hosting events can also put a tremendous strain on church staff and volunteers. Here’s how to get started with church event planning to increase event success and reduce stress for your team. Think of all the church events each year: Now, think back to the week before these events.  What does that week look and feel like?  Sound familiar? I’ve been there and have worked with churches facing the same challenges. However, I’ve also learned how to avoid those scenarios and have successful (not stressful) events. With a bit of proactive thinking, a standard process, and some disciplined effort, you can eliminate the last-minute chaos and experience events that exceed your expectations.  Here’s how to get started: Step #1: Create an Annual Church Event Calendar Events can be incredible ministry tools. Unfortunately, they can also drain your budget and burn out your staff and volunteers. It is possible, however, to get all the benefits of hosting events without all the trouble. How do you do it? Plan in advance. In fact, I recommend a year out.  You don’t have to create a detailed to-do list a year ahead, but you should at least decide which events your church will host for the year. By doing this early, your team will have time to get all their ideas on the table, discuss what events are best at each time of year, and determine whether or not you need to space the events out. Here’s how to get started planning church events a year ahead: 1) Put All Potential Events on the Calendar This is the fun part: Get a huge wall calendar (erasable is best) and write out every event you intend to host in the upcoming year. Have each ministry department leader put their events on the calendar and make sure you include all church-wide events.  If possible, include information about each sermon series as well. 2)  Conduct a Calendar Review Meeting Once you’ve written them all down in one calendar, organize an event review meeting. It’s important to have all ministry department leaders, the Executive Pastor, Senior Pastor, and ministry support department leaders (Finance, Communications, Facilities, etc.) participate in this calendar review.  3) Discuss the Calendar  At the calendar review meeting, address the details of each event you’re intending to host. Here are some questions to help you move along the discussion:  4) Evaluate the Workload Dive even deeper into your review discussion by evaluating the possible workload issues that could arise with too many events. Ask yourselves these questions:  Step #2: Establish a Budget for Each Event Next, you’ll need to create a budget for each individual event. Here’s a list of items you should account for when creating a detailed budget:  Marketing — To promote your church event, you’ll need marketing communication. This includes things like website design, logos, advertisements, flyers, and email newsletters. Guest Speakers — If you plan on bringing outside guest speakers to your event, you’ll need to account for honorariums as well as their travel and lodging expenses. Catering — Meals or snacks at events can sometimes take a huge portion of the budget. Consider asking for donations from local restaurants or having several church members make the food as a part of their volunteer service.  Equipment and Decor Rentals — This may include renting tables, chairs, three-way radios for communication, tents, sound and lighting equipment, etc. Signage — Most likely, you will need signs around the church campus to help event participants locate key areas.  Merchandise — If you plan to sell books, DVDs, or other items at the event, you’ll need to figure in your initial purchasing costs for these items. Security — For larger gatherings, you may want to hire off-duty law enforcement officers or other security personnel to ensure a safe event space.  Print Materials — Some extra print materials may include name tags, staff lanyards, workbooks, handouts, etc. Once you’ve created a proposed budget for each event, you’ll need to put it through your church’s review process. Depending on how your church handles the annual budgeting process, budgets for events may roll up into each department’s budget for the year. Regardless of how this is handled, you should review each event budget before approving the event to take place. If an event is too costly, it can often be scaled back instead of cut altogether. That’s why reviewing is such an important step to the budgeting process. Step #3: Assign an Event Planner to Each Event To effectively coordinate all the tasks related to making an event happen, you need a single person who’s responsible for keeping track of those tasks and each team member’s progress.  Otherwise, you’re hoping everyone is getting their work done on time instead of actually knowing that they are doing so. At this point, designate one person as the main event planner. By having an experienced event planner in charge, you’re able to avoid the headaches that can sometimes arise with events. For example, do any of these sound familiar?   But what exactly does an event planner do? Here’s a list of the main tasks an event planner will handle to make your event a roaring success. Identify the “why” behind an event Before getting to the details, a church event planner first wants to know the reason for having an event. This involves working with church leadership to determine the overall vision and scope of the effort. Here are a few questions the event planner will ask: The answers to these questions will drive all decisions about the event, so this is a vital step to complete. Lead the planning team An event planner may be in charge, but they aren’t the only person doing work. It’s their job to create and collaborate with a planning team (staff and/or volunteers) to identify the tasks required to make an event a success. Once

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How to Select the Best Church Management Software for Your Church

Church Management Software, or ChMS, can be a great tool to help church leaders do ministry.  You can leverage technology to follow up with guests, coordinate volunteers, provide online communities, record donations, manage church facilities, and much more. Fortunately, there are many vendors providing various options for churches. However, the potential downside of all these options is it can be challenging to find the best church management software for your church.  Whether you already have a ChMS and are considering making a switch, or you’re starting from scratch, selecting a ChMS is a big decision. The investment of time and money can be significant, so you want to take time upfront to carefully choose the system that will best support your church. This isn’t the time to just ask a few other churches what they use and go with that one. Nor should you simply go with the highest rated software – it might be great, but for someone else’s church.  Here’s how to select the best church management software for your church: Step #1: Tell the Story Pull your team together and ask them about a “typical” week.  Capture the narrative of your team’s regular routine. Discuss whether the current processes are working well or if some changes are necessary. Once you’ve documented that information, you can compile a document that lists what the church needs a ChMS to support.  This document should go beyond a list of features to see what software will match that list. Instead, consider how your church operates and what processes you’d like software to make more efficient. Make sure you’ve considered key areas such as: Step #2: Consider End Users Which staff members and volunteers will use the software and for what purposes? Will you provide members of the congregation access to update their contact information and view their donation records?   Once you determine who will use the system, consider their unique needs to anticipate what they’ll want from the ChMS. If you already have a church management tool and are thinking about switching, find out what these groups like/dislike about the current software. Step #3: Research Vendors Implementing a new church management software involves the initial purchase, possibly a long-term contract, migrating data, training your team, and more. After all that effort, you want this to be a long-term relationship with a vendor you like and trust. That means you’ll need to do some initial research on vendors to see if they might be a good fit. Here are several aspects of each vendor to research: Step #4: Request Information Now you know what you want the software to handle and what vendors you’d like to evaluate, it’s time to find out if they can meet your requirements.  A standard method for handling this is to send out a Request for Proposal or RFP. This document should include the narrative you captured from your team. Put the story and objectives at the beginning of the document, and then include a list of requirements. Send this to each vendor and ask them to respond to you by a specific date. Send out your RFP to the top 3-5 vendors you want to evaluate.  Some ChMS vendors offer free trial versions of their software online. In those instances, check out the trial version to see if it will meet your church’s needs. You’ll likely receive an email or call from a salesperson for that vendor, so that might be the opportunity to provide an RFP or schedule a more in-depth discussion. Step #5: Evaluate Responses As vendors reply, look for indications they understand what your team wants to accomplish using the software. Next, check to see if the vendor can meet specific requirements and if so, how. If a vendor doesn’t seem to understand your processes or can’t meet the most important requirements, eliminate them from the list. Rank the remaining vendors and select the top few to continue with the evaluation process.  Step #6: Participate in Demos Just because a vendor says they can meet your church’s needs doesn’t mean they’ll meet them in the way you expect. Their methods may not necessarily work for the culture of your church, so you need more than just reassurances – you need to see the software in action. Step #7: Ask Additional Questions You’ve narrowed the field and seen the software in action. Now it’s time to dig into even greater detail about the remaining vendors.  Step #8: Make a Decision This is where you compile all the information you’ve collected and consider your options. Realize that no software will be perfect or solve all issues. However, you need to select the one that is the best fit for the vision, processes, and culture of your church. Choose the vendor you can trust that provides a quality product and service. Once you’ve made the decision and started working with your new vendor, give careful thought to how to roll out this new tool. Too much change all at once, even good change, can cause friction. Get key staff and volunteer leaders using it first. Once they’ve bought into the new system and become fans of the tool, they can help get others on-board. A ChMS can be a valuable ministry tool or a tremendous headache. By taking the time in this selection process, you drastically increase your ability to choose a tool that supports the vision of your church.

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4 Steps to Building a Volunteer Administration Team

Most churches have volunteers who serve at weekly services in various capacities. Volunteer greeters, ushers, childcare workers, and more make weekly services happen. One area that tends to be overlooked when it comes to volunteers is administration. We don’t often consider administration as an area where volunteers could serve. However, this could be a great fit for members of the congregation who prefer to help behind the scenes.  In addition to offering a way for more people to participate in the work of ministry, these volunteers can also reduce the administration workload for your team. The key is to make a clear path to show potential volunteers how they can contribute, and invite them to get started. Here are a few tips to building a church volunteer administration team: Tip #1: Decide what administrative tasks to delegate to volunteers It doesn’t make sense to start recruiting people until you know what tasks you’d want them to handle.  If you’re not sure where to start, here are some potential options: Consider tasks you could delegate to volunteers that would free up your time to handle other projects.  Tip #2: Document each task You don’t want even the most talented volunteers to make it up as they go along.  The next time you perform a task you’d like to hand off to a volunteer, document each step of the process. This will make training volunteers easier and will greatly reduce the number of mistakes you’d have to fix later. Tip #3: Invite people to volunteer Start by finding detail-oriented, organized individuals who have a background in administrative type work. Someone who has experience as an administrative assistant, a bookkeeper, or in general office work might be a great fit.  When you’re ready to start recruiting, one-on-one invitations will probably work better than a general invite from the stage. Spread the word with small group leaders and other volunteers at your church to see if they know someone who would enjoy and be good at administrative work. Tip #4: Provide training and get them started Once you have people signing up, use the documentation you created and train each volunteer. Find out how often and when they can serve. Provide a variety of scheduling options such as: Set a schedule so they know when you need certain tasks completed.   Establishing a volunteer administrative team requires some creativity in scheduling, knowing what you can delegate, plus detailed documentation. While it does mean you’ll have some extra work to do initially, a strong volunteer administration team can save you a great deal of time in the long run. 

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How Documenting Policies & Procedures Supports Ministry

When it comes to ministry, most people don’t think of employee handbooks, meeting agendas, or policy and procedure documentation. That makes sense – after all, we gather as congregations to grow in our faith and to share it with others. However, since we do have staff and resources to steward, we need to pay careful attention to how we do things. That’s how documenting policies and procedures becomes useful for supporting the ministry of a church. If you’re wondering why you should spend time developing and documenting policies and procedures, here are a few benefits of going through that effort: #1 – Provide clarity These questions and many more should be addressed within the church’s policies and procedures. Instead of having to answer these scenarios as they come up (and potentially having different people provide different answers), documented policies and procedures answer those questions in advance. #2 – Offer Protection Childcare, background checks, and financial approvals are a few processes that can create a great deal of harm to individuals. If handled incorrectly, these can also cause legal trouble for the church. By agreeing on how to handle these situations ahead of time, documenting the procedure, and training those who’re responsible for carrying out these policies, you’re protecting your church and those who attend it. #3 – Saves time While the initial time spent creating these documents is significant, this effort will save you time in the long run. Instead of answering many of the same questions with each new employee, they can read the employee handbook first. From there, you can offer to answer their questions as needed. The person who fields questions can refer to documentation when answering requests for weddings, counseling, benevolence, and more.  If you don’t have these documents in place (or if they could use an update), here’s how to get started: While documenting policies and procedures doesn’t feel like ministry, this effort truly does support the ministry of your church. 

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9 Key Questions to Ask Potential Church Accounting Outsourcing Providers

Leading a church involves all we typically think of as “pastoral” work plus a plethora of behind-the-scenes tasks.  One significant responsibility of church leadership is to be an excellent steward of church finances.  As people tithe, they’re trusting the church to use that money wisely.  To make that happen, you need strong financial controls and processes in place.  While many churches may hire someone to handle the accounting functions in-house, another option is to hire an outsourcing company.    Why should a church consider outsourcing? Reason #1: Expertise If you hire an outsourcing company that works with several churches, you’ll benefit from that breadth of experience.  They can tell you what’s worked for other churches in setting up restricted funds, establishing an annual budgeting process, and how to generate financial reports for lenders.  You may also be able to leverage the knowledge of CPAs along with having someone handle the day-to-day bookkeeping. Reason #2: Reduced fraud risk Unfortunately, churches aren’t immune to theft.  There are several examples of employees stealing from the church.  One way outsourcing can help prevent theft is by ensuring segregation of duties.  For example, an outsourcing company will have processes that require that the person who can create a new vendor within the accounting software is not also able to approve an invoice for payment or sign a check.  This keeps an individual from creating a new (fake) vendor, entering a fake invoice, approving it for payment, then signing a check to pay that invoice. Reason #3: Increased focus on finances Let’s face it – there are many instances in the schedule of a church where it’s “all hands on deck.”  Every staff member, regardless of function, gets pulled into finishing up Christmas decorations or setting up for an event.  When an outsourcer handles the accounting functions, you’re able to focus on church finances no matter what you’re dealing with at the church. Before you hire an outsourcing company to handle your church’s accounting, take the time needed to evaluate potential vendors carefully.  Here are several questions to ask potential outsourcers: Question #1: Does your company focus on serving the church? The accounting rules and processes for churches are different from for-profit businesses and even nonprofit organizations. You want an outsourcer with several years of experience working with and for churches.  Question #2: Do you have church clients of a similar size as ours? If an outsourcer only works with mega churches and yours averages 200 on a Sunday, that won’t be a good fit. A company that works with a variety of church sizes and structures should have the experience necessary to provide your leadership team with the financial reports and support required. Question #3: How long have you been in business? A company that’s been in business for several years will have references and a proven track record of how they serve their clients. While newer businesses can offer excellent service, they will require even more due diligence in the selection process than one with a long history of serving churches. Question #4: What are the qualifications of your staff members? An outsourcing vendor where most employees have an accounting degree plus several years of experience is a great place to start. You’ll also want to ask about their review processes to see if a CPA reviews certain reports or transactions to confirm that their staff completed their work accurately. Question #5: What accounting software do you use? This goes to discovering whether a vendor will require your church staff to use the accounting software the vendor uses or not. If you’ve already invested a significant amount of time and money into your current accounting system, that could be a deciding factor for one vendor versus another. Question #6: How will our team and yours transmit financial information? Depending on the tasks you’re outsourcing, you’ll need to provide the outsourcer with financial data such as invoices, purchase orders, bank statements, payroll changes, and more. The outsourcer will need to provide your team with financial information as well. Ideally, you’re both able to access the accounting software to transmit most of that information. Find out if a potential outsourcing company has a secure online portal to share financial data and documents as well. Question #7: How do you keep your client’s financial records secure? Financial information is sensitive data and needs to be treated as such. Hacking and data theft are real risks, so you’ll want to look for a company that takes prudent steps to protect their client’s data. Ask about their protocols and processes to secure data online and to keep any paper records secure as well. Question #8: What does your new client on-boarding process look like? The answer to this question can help you gauge how detailed and intentional a company is when it comes to getting new customers up and running. Most companies should have a questionnaire for you to fill out, a standard checklist that they complete with every church client, and likely a series of working sessions to ensure a successful start. Question #9: What financial reports will you provide and at what frequency?  You’ll want at least the standard monthly reports to help you analyze the church’s financial health and progress. However, a vendor might also provide weekly reports on giving totals, cash flow projections, and other key metrics that can help your leadership team make informed decisions. Entrusting an outside organization to handle the day-to-day accounting functions of your church can be a daunting prospect. However, outsourcing can free up time to focus on other areas, ensure proper financial processes, and reduce fraud risk. If you’re considering outsourcing, take your time to find the best vendor for your church and establish an excellent relationship from the start.

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Church Facilities First Impressions: 5 Areas to Spruce Up At Church

We don’t always view church facility maintenance as part of ministry but consider how a first-time guest sees your property. Does this new Mom see grime or stained carpet in the nursery? Will a teenager see outdated graphics and technology? Can Dad see a well-kept lawn or are weeds predominant? How church facilities appear to newcomers can make an impact on whether they return. If you’ve ever sold a home, you likely recall the realtor doing an initial walk-through of your house. Afterward, you probably had a list of touch-up painting, de-cluttering, and extremely detailed cleaning to complete. Minor smudges we’ve overlooked for years stand out to someone new walking around the property.  Our church facilities can feel the same way as our homes. We get comfortable and familiar with our surroundings. Before you know it, you can’t see the little handprints in the toddlers’ room or the chipped tiles in the foyer. Maybe there are a few more cracks in the sidewalk than last year or a couple of new potholes in the parking lot.  God doesn’t judge by our outward appearance, but unfortunately, man does. We only get one chance to make great first impressions, so it might be time for a property tune-up. Walk around your church property, inside and out, looking for those areas that could use sprucing up. Area #1: Parking lot & walkways Area #2: Main entrance Area #3: Walls Area #4: Floors Area #5: Childcare rooms I could keep going with this list, but I think you get the idea. As people visit your church for the first time each week, it’s important to view your church through the eyes of someone new.  If you were attending for the first time, what first impression would the facility make on you? We tend to focus on greeting people and making them feel welcome – and rightly so. However, let’s also remember the visual impact we’re making on people. How we care for our church property is a matter of stewardship and caring for those who attend.

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7 Project Plan Elements Every Church Project Manager Should Know

Creating a project plan initially sounds like a simple endeavor. Document a list of tasks required to complete the project, assign someone to each task, and poof…you have a project plan! While that’s a great start, there’s much more to include if you want a project plan that provides critical information to manage the project effectively. Here are the essential project plan elements every project manager should know: Element #1: Task Name A project plan should include clear, concise names for each task on the plan. Ideally, use the language the person who will complete the task used when they discussed the plan with you. This makes it easier for them to remember what that task involves weeks later, when it’s time to complete that task. Element #2: Assigned To This is where you name the individual responsible for completing this task. Note: This isn’t a 2-3 person role. If multiple people are required to work on a task, then you probably need to break the task up into several tasks. Otherwise, assign the task to the one individual you’ll go to for status updates on that task. Element #3: Start Date This is when work on the task can begin. Many tasks are dependent on the output or completion of another task, so not every task can start on the same date. For example: a task to “Finalize Stage Design” must finish before the task of “Submit Purchase Request for Stage Design Elements” can start. Element #4: Finish Date The Finish Date is based on the Start Date plus the number of days a task should take to complete. If your project management software calculates the Finish Date for you, make sure you block out non-working days (holidays, etc.) in the central project calendar. That will enable the software to skip over those dates to calculate a valid Finish Date. Element #5: Dependencies As mentioned above, some tasks can’t start until another task finishes. This is referred to as a task dependency. When a project manager reviews a plan to see if there are ways to overlap tasks to shorten the overall timeline, one variable to consider are task dependencies. Not all online project management tools provide a place to note task dependencies, so you might have to add a note to help you quickly see which tasks have a clear dependency. Element #6: Key Milestones In any project, there are tasks that stand out as key moments or milestones to reach. Examples include receiving approval of the theme and graphics for an event, booking all guest speakers, getting all required permits from the city, etc. You can usually identify key milestones by scanning the plan for dependencies. However, a sure-fire way to find them is to look for several tasks that can’t start until one specific task is completed –  that task is likely a key milestone. Element #7: Critical Path Critical path is the timeline or pathway of key milestones that impact the finish date of the entire project. When a project manager checks to see if the delay of a certain task will impact the plan, he’ll need to see if that task is on the critical path. If it is, then any delays of that task could be a significant issue. Savvy project managers track key milestones and critical path tasks (which tend to overlap) very closely.   Creating a project plan requires attention to detail and clear communication between the project manager and team members. It will likely take more time to develop a plan than you think. This effort involves thinking through all elements of the project, identifying the critical path, and taking the work schedules of each team member into consideration. That investment will pay off when you avoid issues late in the project because of your due diligence in planning. Interested in jump-starting your church’s project management efforts? Purchase the Church Project Management Starter Pack collection of templates and save your team from the hassle of starting from scratch.

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How to Hold Team Members Accountable to Project Deadlines

A challenge that most project managers face is leading a team of people who don’t directly report to them. In other words, the project manager isn’t their boss, and each team member has their main job responsibilities that take priority over project tasks. This makes it more difficult to hold people accountable to deadlines. Fortunately, there are several ways to help team members see the importance of deadlines and be able to meet them. Tip #1: Get Input on Deadlines As you draft the project plan, work with each team member to identify tasks and establish reasonable deadlines. Ask about their other work responsibilities (such as Sunday service prep) and confirm they’re offering deadline suggestions that take the rest of their workload into account. When a team member is the one who provided the deadline, they’re less likely to be annoyed when you remind them a task is due soon. Plus, they should be able to complete the task on time since they kept their regular workload in mind. Tip #2: Provide Reminders We’re all susceptible to forgetting about tasks that aren’t in our regular routine. Project team members are no different. To help them keep up with deadlines, provide a reminder about tasks that are due within the next 2-4 weeks. If the project management tool you use can do this automatically, use that functionality to send the reminders. Tip #3: Be Proactive As you offer reminders and meet with team members, ask if there are any obstacles or potential issues that may prevent them from meeting a deadline. This could be a new job responsibility that their boss added to their plate, a family emergency they dealt with recently that has put them behind schedule, or even waiting on another team member to complete a task before they can start. Discuss those issues and work to remove obstacles or resolve them ASAP. Tip #4: Share the Big Picture Sometimes team members think missing a deadline won’t be a big deal because they don’t know how that task impacts others. To prevent that issue, share a high-level view of the project timeline with the team. Point out key milestone tasks that, if delayed, could derail the entire timeline. Tip #5: Manage the Workload Before the project starts, talk with team members about their current workload. Discuss what tasks they’ll have for the project and how those will integrate into their workweek. Talk with church leadership about team members who may be overloaded. See if they can adjust priorities or delay other efforts so team members can reasonably complete their tasks on time. During the project, periodically poll the team to see if any individuals have capacity to help a team member who’s struggling. Share the workload and reassign tasks if needed. Projects such as planning a big outreach event, launching a new small group ministry, or renovating part of the church building are all additional efforts for an already busy staff. Keep this in mind as you create project plans and set deadlines. Work with church leadership to understand where this project fits in relationship to other efforts – is this a higher or lower priority? Those factors will help you establish a realistic plan and communicate priorities effectively to the team. All of this plays a role in how well the team will respect and meet deadlines.

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Church Project Management: What Should You Treat as a Project?

When it comes to project management and the church, you might wonder what your church should treat as a project. Are weekly services a project? Is facility maintenance a project? What efforts should be put into a standard project management process versus handled as an ongoing task? Thankfully, once we settle on a common definition, it’s not hard to determine what to treat as a project. In this post, I shared the definition of a project from the Project Management Institute as “temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.” With that definition in mind, here are examples of what you may want to treat as a project at your church: #1 – Events, Special Services, & Outreaches Every church hosts a variety of events throughout the year. Vacation Bible School, Easter Egg Hunts, Christmas concerts, community outreaches, and other events certainly fit the project definition mentioned above. #2 – New Ministry or Program Launches If your church leadership decides to launch a small group ministry, you’ll have a significant number of tasks to complete before the big kickoff service. From training small group leaders, to providing an online method for people to sign up and more, you’ll need a project team to make this a successful launch. The same concept applies to starting an addiction recovery ministry, establishing a disaster response team, and other new programs at the church. #3 – Facility Updates Remodeling the church sanctuary, installing new equipment, expanding the nursery, or repainting the parking lot lines are all examples of church facility projects. Of course, a new building or renovation effort would qualify as a project as well. For these efforts, you’ll likely need to engage vendors to help with architectural drawings, city permits, and other specialized trades. #4 – Moving Whether it involves staff members changing offices or the church moving into a new building, there are many logistics involved in a move. Setting up furniture and equipment, stocking office supplies and restrooms, coordinating who moves when, and more are all aspects of that project to manage effectively. #5 – Software Migration and Implementation If your church decides to change accounting software or selects a new church management system, you’ll need to track all the tasks required to make that a seamless transition. For these types of projects, you’ll need to get the software vendor involved to make sure the process runs smoothly. #6 – Website Redesign Church websites periodically need a detailed review and update. Managing this as a project will involve considering various factors such as the church logo, font and color selection, integration with online giving options, updating the content for each page, and many other details. Even for a fairly simple website, this project could become quite extensive. Assigning someone to be the project manager can help your team complete the effort in a timely manner. #7 – Capital Campaign A church leadership team considering a capital campaign should treat that effort as a project. Creating a project charter to define the goals of the project can help the team focus on what’s most important for this initiative. #8 – Succession Planning Even if we expect and hope that someone will stay in their current role for many years, it’s always wise to have a succession plan. You could treat this as a project for each role, and include steps such as documenting tasks, identifying skillsets required to be successful in that job, and considering who on staff has the potential to move into that role in the future. This project is a matter of stewarding the future of the church by ensuring there’s a plan ready to fill any role in a timely manner. #9 – Weekly Services Now, this one might be a bit of a stretch to treat as a project since it’s an ongoing effort. However, each service does have a defined start and finish (well, depending on how long your pastor preaches that week…). You could treat weekly services as a project with the following task categories: Your church can leverage a standard project management process to coordinate these efforts more efficiently, saving the church time and making the best use of its resources. Interested in jump-starting your church’s project management efforts? Purchase the Church Project Management Starter Pack collection of templates and save your team from the hassle of starting from scratch.

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