Thirty years ago we at RDS Advantage church management made a faith decision to change from developing commercial accounting systems to serve the ministry and management needs of churches. We based our commitment on the Great Commission (below).<\/p>\n
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.<\/em>” \u2013 Matthew 28:18-20<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAs a result of our focus on outreach, many applications have been built into the church management system to support the work of bringing the Good News to more people.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Contact Management \u2013 comprehensive database about contacts for user-defined purposes
\n\u00b7 Attendance and Follow-up
\n\u00b7 Communication tools such as e-mail, VOIP voice messaging, texting, letters, cards, and more<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hear the experience of one family:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last year my family and I visited over 20 congregations in a major metropolitan city in working with pastors. I filled out cards in all of them when they were offered. Only 50% offered any way of identifying yourself as a guest. The variety of follow through is amazing. One congregation still sends me invitations to singles ministry after calling them twice to let them know I am married. Only one congregation made a second contact after their initial attempt. No congregation made an attempt to talk to me after not finding me home. Only three made a personal visit to my house. Only one called. Except for three, no congregant greeted us or showed any personal interest, without my initiating it. Looking for a congregation to call home is not easy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sometimes tasks that seem difficult can be simplified by breaking them down into smaller steps. Here are examples of how to implement an effective outreach program, and how to use a church management system as a tool to support this ministry.<\/p>\n
Data processing:<\/p>\n
Enter information about prospects into the database. Identify each as a visitor\/guest or prospect. From this information, personalized letters, address labels, visitation cards, contact reports, name tags, postcards, envelopes, e-mail and other communications can be produced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Cultivate:<\/p>\n
As prospects begin to participate in church activities, assign them mentors to facilitate integration into full fellowship.
\nTrain mentors to help visitors and prospects take part in church activities. Equip them to assist prospects in becoming part of the body of believers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Nurture:<\/p>\n
Record the activities in which a person is involved, including date of involvement, specifics of the involvement, and position or function, etc. Accurate and consistent attendance tracking is an important tool. Recording attendance isn\u2019t what counts \u2013 the church\u2019s response to absence is what is important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Note:<\/strong> See a slide show example of an outreach program. In the RDS Advantage website, click on the \u201cDownload Free Presentation\u201d button on the bottom left side of the home page and select \u201cOutreach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty years ago we at RDS Advantage church management made a faith decision to change from developing commercial accounting systems to serve the ministry and management needs of churches. We based our commitment on the Great Commission (below). Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given… Continue reading Outreach – Called to Tell the Good News<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8FugP-8j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":489,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/ministry-through-activity-involvement\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":0},"title":"Ministry Through Activity Involvement","author":"admin","date":"08\/14\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Muratorian Canon (c. AD 170) refers to Luke as the author of \"Acts of All the Apostles.\" The dictionary defines an activity as \"a specified pursuit in which a person partakes.\" The RDS Advantage church management system recognizes this link to name one of its powerful features \"Activities.\" As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1142,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/getting-the-word-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":1},"title":"Getting the Word out","author":"admin","date":"09\/05\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis \"Mark 7:31\" We have a wonderful congregation, a beautiful church, good sermons and many activities. Why aren't we receiving more visitors interested in joining? Have we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/rds-advantage-and-rds-connect-pricing\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":2},"title":"RDS Advantage and RDS Connect Pricing","author":"admin","date":"11\/26\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"How much does it cost?\" All prices are based upon the number of concurrent users needed or wanted, and that usually requires discussion about what that number might be for each organization. Pricing by the number of concurrent users is the fairest, most accurate method, and allows each organization to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":477,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/mobile-on-the-go-ministry\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":3},"title":"Mobile On-The-Go Ministry","author":"admin","date":"05\/08\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Mobile data processing represents the wave of the future that is already here. The ability to conduct outreach and ministry while \"on-the-go\" provides pastors, staff and members convenient tools. RDS church management software includes a number of special features for mobile access. Cell phones and tablets: Cell phones can use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/church-planting\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":4},"title":"Church Planting","author":"admin","date":"02\/26\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The apostle Paul dedicated his very life traveling, preaching and establishing and nourishing churches across Asia Minor, Palestine and Europe. He is surely our greatest example of a church planter. We do not need more reason to be involved in church planting than what we are admonished to do in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":491,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/rds-advantage-executive-promotion\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":5},"title":"RDS Advantage Executive Promotion","author":"admin","date":"08\/10\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"RDS Advantage, Inc, twenty-nine year developer of not-for-profit and church management systems, announces the promotion of Gail Miller to Executive Vice-President. Mrs. Miller came to RDS with extensive business and church administration experience, and has held a number of supervisory and management posts with RDS and its related companies for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":516,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}