Delivering Change

Critical Information About Check-in

2008-08-25T16:14:00Z

Hello... Hello... Is this thing on?

One benefit to Fellowship Technologies that you may or may not know is that Big Brother is watching. No, this isn't the fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. But rather our nerdy database team tucked away in a dark corner in a nondescript building at 5605 N MacArthur Blvd, Irving TX. They are always monitoring, checking, and rechecking the health of the Fellowship One database. Each person on this team has multiple computer monitors with strange graphs and numbers constantly changing and refreshing.

Besides the obvious stuff like making sure the server is running, they are also analyzing how you are asking for data and making sure that we are returning it in the most efficient way. Through this monitoring it has recently come to my attention that no one is listening to me when I am on the road implementing Fellowship One. If you were you would not be doing this:

I bet the light bulb just turned on and now you are ready to repent. No? Ok let me explain what you are looking at. This graph is from Sunday June 22, there were 52K (Check-in version 2.5) searches for the day. This data only represents a portion of the overall Check-in traffic, there were 205K total Check-in 2.5 methods called. The problem with the numbers is the first bar which represents name searches. There were over 20,000 name searches performed when trying to check people in. That number is way too high. Why? Because name searches are more prone to mistakes. "Hi Welcome to Super Duper Mega Church can I get your last name? Masolaouski? Is that with one Z or two?" Versus "Hi Welcome to Super Duper Mega Church can I get the last 4 digits of your phone number? 1919. Welcome back Mr. Maslouski, will you be checking in Maggie, Marcie, Mark, and Zagloob?"

Now to be fair some of you are doing terrific. This next graph represents one church that is doing it almost right. The first bar represents bar code searches which is fantastic. That is the best, most efficient way to check in. Way to go Super Duper Mega Church! You know who you are. But before you get too slap happy look at that next bar which represents name searches. When someone forgets their bar code you are using name as a backup search option. The third pancake (I can't even call it a bar) represents phone number searches. Those two should be reversed.

The last issue that I want to speak openly about is the churches that are using our assisted check in option as self check in.

The next graph represents name searches that we pulled out of the system. I am guessing that a highly trained check-in volunteer did not type this into the system.

We have changed some of the names to protect the "innocent" and we definitely removed the vulgar search items that we found. I am still blushing from some of the search requests. This isn't a dating service people!

Assisted Check-In was designed to be "Assisted", meaning that a volunteer checks in the family into their classrooms. We have a great new self check-in application that protects the data integrity of the church and allows for self-sufficient members or regular attendees to check themselves in. I have heard the argument before "our members are smart enough to figure out your very well designed Assisted Check-In solution, and our teenagers would never do anything inappropriate." The above searches prove otherwise.

If you haven't yet NOW IS THE TIME TO REPENT. Take the training classes again. Listen to the soft soothing voice of Bill Wheaton lull you into submissive understanding. Download THIS DOCUMENT which will give your check-in volunteer the approved party line on how to properly check in people that don't have their ~~bar codes~~ Happy Passes. Stay with the flock...

Matthew McMaster

Delivery Manager (and mind control expert)

Swim Lane Documents: Contact Management 201

2008-08-11T16:26:00Z

In this blog entry I will be sharing something the delivery team has been working on. (When we are not doing the Delivery side of our job) We have been documenting processes and putting them into a usable form. The document needed to be flexible because Fellowship One is very flexible and constantly improving how churches work with individuals. We landed on Swim Lane documents. Since the Olympics are on right now, and I think Michael Phelps is winning something in the water as I write this, you should know what a swim lane is. For our purposes we are attempting to show how a task, such as working a contact from beginning to end, flows from one person to another across those swim lanes. The first document was penned by Will Steed. He has been a Delivery Manager at Fellowship Technologies for a while now and comes from a consulting background. Click the picture below to download the document.

The top of the document is the Swim Lane. This represents how the contact flows from the Congregation to the Data Entry Team and on to the Staff. If you are the entire staff at your church, just switch your hat around and pretend you are the data entry team for a short period of time.

The bottom portion of the document should give you best practice tips for each of the blocks in the Swim Lane. This is not meant to be a training document or to walk you through how something is done step by step in Fellowship One. We have a Bill Wheaton for that task. You can find him and the rest of the Education Department on the Education tab. Where Bill stops we try and pick up with the "which is the best way to do this task".

Towards the end of Will's Process the Card Swim Lane it leaves off with "Working the Contact Begins". This can take on different work flows based on what type of contact you are processing. In the example below I describe how contacts can work when fully utilizing the Small Groups Manager in Fellowship One. I tried to make it generic but I was thinking of using the Small Group Manager for Care ministries when I wrote the document. You can get more information on why you might want to use the Small Group Manager to coordinate care ministry activities HERE. Again, clicking the picture of the document will download it for your review.

You are the first to be exposed to our new Swim Lane documents so I would really appreciate some constructive feedback. Nothing like "Will Steed is a silly name", or "I don't like blue font colors". Don't forget my ego is easily bruised or bolstered so feel free to say "Matt, you're the best". For those who are eager to get their hands on these documents, know that we have a dozen swim lane documents created already, but we want to get your feedback on format before we hand them out.

Matthew McMaster

Delivery Manager and Document Producer

Using Group Manager for Care Ministries: A Case Study

2008-07-16T05:34:00Z

Recently I was working with CrossWinds church in Dublin CA and came across a situation I had seen in the past but did not have a great solution to meet their needs. Recent advances in F1's ability to send contacts to small group leaders has provided a solution that now easily meets a care ministry needs.

The Issue:

CrossWinds Church has care teams that are regionally based around the Dublin City area and provide services to people in need. They bring meals to families that need them, they visit people in the hospital, and they provide services such as lawn mowing to single parents. Each team is comprised of a leader and an area coordinator. The leader is responsible for the group and recruiting new volunteers into their ministry. The area coordinator is responsible for coordinating efforts of the team members to provide services and report the information back to the church staff.

Prior to Fellowship One this was being done through a network of Excel spreadsheets, email notices, and phone calls which were all painstakingly tracked by the staff to keep an idea of what was going on across all of the teams. The pastor responsible for care groups also tracked volunteer activity (who was providing the meals or visitation) to keep a list of top volunteers for the purpose of thanking them and promoting the ministry.

The F1 Solution:

The first need was to track who was involved in the teams. Since the church was regionally tracking the teams I proposed that the Activity Groups be the regions of the area that the groups were divided into. This would allow for expansion of the teams or possible sub division of some of the larger teams which could include up to 80 people. The Team Leader then could be assigned at the Activity Group level and the area coordinators could be assigned over smaller groups.

The second need was to be able to take requests for ministry from multiple sources such as web, phone, and information cards. They would all be input into the contact management system in Fellowship One as contact items. Each type of request would be tracked as a separate contact item. (hospital visitation, meals ministry, service requests, etc) This would allow the church to run reports and determine the greatest need of the community at any given point and also perform trend analysis. (I.E. how many meals did the church provide in 2007 compared to 2008?)

After contacts were entered into F1 from the various sources they all routed to an administrative assistant that would validate the request and determine the best team to handle the issue based on area and type of service the team provided. The contact would then be transferred to the small group which triggers an email alert to the Area Coordinator. (See training video in eUniversity for how this occurs)

The Area Coordinator then assigns the task to one or multiple Care Team members who then provide services/meals/visitations to the requesting party. Notes are entered on the contact through the Group Manager by the Area Coordinator for each instance of service. The Area Coordinator also posts "attendance" for the team members who are providing the services. This allows the Church staff to track their top volunteers for the purposes previously mentioned. Through the process the Area Coordinator is setting the proper disposition for the contact item which allows for tracking "success" vs "failures" which are difficult to determine without contact dispositions.

The church staff runs regular reports tracking open, in progress, and closed contacts. They track open and in progress contacts to verify that the area coordinators are properly documenting and following up with service requests. They also track closed contacts for the same purpose as well as to see if any staff follow up is needed.

This same scenario can easily be replicated at your church. Levels of security for this type of ministry can also be adjusted to allow all team members to update the contact items. Training of staff and volunteers is important to the success of this ministry.

Matthew McMaster

Passionate for People Because Christ Is

Take A Census

2008-06-25T11:00:00Z

Attendance carries the stigma from your school days where everyone had to be in class and everyday attendance was taken.

Census means that on some interval of your choosing you stop and count how many people are actually involved in this activity. Like the US census taken every ten years you can choose any interval you want and ask "how many people are in small groups?"

To do this you need to setup your activity schedule to reflect when you want your census taken and not which days of the week your small groups meet. Consider a census on a quarterly basis; you would create an activity schedule that occurs on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31. The idea is you communicate with your small group leaders to post attendance 4 times in the year. the small group leader can still use the manager tool weekly for email, contacts and membership purposes within the group but you as a church only want a quarterly census to track if the groups as a whole are growing or not.

You can adjust the census dates to any duration or interval. Maybe monthly or bi-monthly is more in line with how often you want your census. You can even build the schedule on an as needed basis. Suppose you launch a new small groups’ series in September and you want a census in December you can add that date to your activity schedule for the leaders to post attendance to. Then you can add another date the following spring to see how the groups are doing again.

At this point you may be thinking how do I know when my groups are meeting if my activity schedule is set up for census taking and the not weekly meetings? If you need to know what day a group meets or even what time of day you can use Room Location Properties to track this information. By defining properties and choices and then making the associations between them and your small groups you know who meets when, where and even why (special interests).

If you are not taking attendance today with your small groups consider taking a census instead.

Jeremy Jackson

I am Delivery...

2008-06-11T16:44:00Z

I know where Seat 21F is and the value of “exit row seating”

I know how useless airlines upgrade points can be

I have 2 sets of toiletries, one for at home, one for my suitcase

My toothpaste is less than 3 ounces and is carried in a one quart clear plastic bag

I don’t wear sandals to the airport

I’ve been to Buffalo Wild Wings in 14 different cities

I use up all of my words every day before I go home

I pray with my clients and my co-workers pray with me

I can’t believe they pay me to do this

I’m a “preferred” renter with EVERYONE

I’m a WebEx Ninja

I became a Skype fanatic before many people heard of VOIP

I am glad I will spend eternity with my clients

My CEO asks me how everything is going – and knows my clients by name

I know Fellowship One better than the people that wrote it; and make it do things they never intended

I can multi-task 10 projects at once and track everything to the nearest tenth of the hour

My wife doesn’t understand why I don’t like to eat out on the weekends

I pay for Internet access in hotel rooms in Manhattan, NY and get it for free in Manhattan, KS

Why do I always see Tom Park selling cars, no matter what city I go to?

I know when it starts to sprinkle outside that DFW airport shuts down

My office is where I can boot up my laptop

I know where the power outlets are at the airport

I always wear a long sleeve shirt on an airplane, even in July

I’ve had flight attendants recognize me

I know what should be on a guest registration card; and what shouldn’t

I’ll never ask for a spare razor from the Best Western in Ocala, Florida again

I love local commercials

McDonalds doesn’t have the same menu everywhere you go

I know what PDX, LAX, PHX, AUS, SFO, IAD, and DFW stand for and I have my favorites

I can book a trip faster than most people can put their shoes on

My drink of choice is coffee from the churches break room

I live for takeout food and a big TV in my hotel room

Checking baggage is for vacationers

If I arrive for a flight just as boarding is starting, I’m right on time

I am on staff at dozens of churches

My passion is my ministry

I wonder why the Dev team doesn’t copy and paste more to speed things up

I AM DELIVERY

Why Was I Successful at DC08?

2008-06-02T18:27:00Z

After all the cheering and applause died down following the DC08 conference (mostly in my head) I had to stop and look back at a very successful event and wonder why it (and more importantly I) was so successful. God played a big role in this year’s conference no doubt. We sure did pray a lot. We prayed for Tara Coulson whose tireless efforts made the complicated things simple. She reviewed every presentation and training guide for typos and validated the material. Personally I can’t imagine doing this but she did it with a smile on her face (maybe it was a grimace at times) and a bounce in her step. I personally think she personifies Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.

We prayed for each other because… well… that is just what we do and who we are. We prayed for the safe travel of our guests, the DC08 Conference attendees. I found this particular aspect of prayer very fruitful. I prayed when I first received my list of attendees, then I sent them an email letting them know I was personally praying for each of them and also to ask if there was anything I could do for them and asked when specifically would they be on the road so I could pray again at that time. Once they replied I set reminders in Outlook to pray for them at the specific time they left their homes.

Another reason we were so successful was because we had a Tammy. I think everyone needs a Tammy. I think they are on sale right now at Home Depot for $499 but I am not sure about that. Tammy set time lines, Tammy sent email reminders, Tammy called you on the phone, Tammy griped at you when you didn’t have your presentation done, Tammy was mean when she needed to be, Tammy was a sweet heart when everything was going well, Tammy made the DC08 successful. Everyone is fallen and has a sin nature. When looking at the demographics of the people who read this blog I am sure you would agree with that statement. Not that you are more sinful just more aware. Sloth seems to be a big sin that has been pushed aside for more glamorous sins like Lust and Greed. Tammy is also a part time Sloth Slayer.

As a member of the Delivery Team I think we also had something working in our favor. You may not know this but churches are very busy around Christmas and Easter. At this point you are probably saying to yourselves “finally some useful information!” Stay with me now… Christmas and Easter fall before the DC08 Conference. Since they are busy during that time period they definitely do not want me around telling them all of the things I want them to improve upon or completely change. So I have time on my hands to write blogs and presentations. My manager Jeff has come to realize that this Christmas cycle seems to happen every year so this year he made it perfectly clear that presentations should be written during this annual “Christmas Event”. So as others were hastily writing/rewriting/preparing/panicking at 3AM prior to the conference I was sleeping like a baby. My work was done, my presentation was set, and I was ready.

Lastly, and this is just a personal note that I am throwing in for Steve at Christ the King who recently was reviewing my presentation that I sent him and wondering where all the presentation notes were, I never add my notes to my presentation slides. Sloth might play a role and it is something that I should do after the fact or maybe as a separate handout but having them in my presentation has always caused me problems. I want to know my material backwards and forwards before the event. If I am relying at all on notes I have a problem. No one wants to see me read my presentation. I need passion to sell the concepts I am presenting and notes are a stumbling block for me (Red Bull helps too but next year I am sticking to one instead of the 2 I had on the first day). I prefer to think of the presentation slides as guidepost along the journey of discovery.

I hope that you all enjoyed the DC08 Conference as much as I did. Don’t forget you can find most of the presentations HERE. Also I would like to close with an apology for those that attended the Creative Uses of Check-In session. Steve and I ended up doing way more of a standup comedy routine than I intended. If you missed the point (not 100% sure we had a point) of the presentation it was that you should be more creative with how you use check-in. If you were offended by some of Steve’s comments you can email him at sDrechsler@fellowshiptech.com. Or if you have a sense of humor you can email him and tell him how funny and informative he was.

Matthew McMaster

Delivery Manager (Part Time Public Speaker)

Change and Accountability -- two sides of the same coin

2008-05-19T05:30:00Z

It seems to go hand in hand when you talk about change it brings up accountability. When you talk about accountability it inevitably brings up the need to change things. Fellowship One is an enterprise solution for a church. Enterprise means the whole church will be affected. I think people are less afraid of the change that comes with a new software solution than they are the accountability that comes with it. When you move to a common source of data it is easier to see who is doing what or not doing as the case maybe. Accountability is not a bad thing in and of itself. If presented well accountability can be seen as a benchmark to improving yourself and your church. If used as a threat then it creates resistance which often is mislabeled as resistance to change. Before you can determine accountability you must first know how to measure the results. Software does not hold you accountable it only measures the results of your efforts. If you know how to measure your own efforts then the change and accountability brought on by moving to a new system is minimal.

Jeremy Jackson

Visitor Cards – Is it about the church or about the individual?

2008-04-25T17:25:00Z

Hello! I wanted to share with you my experiences of Visitor Cards. Visitor Cards or First Time Guest Cards or Connection Cards or… whatever you choose to call them play a very strong part in connecting a person into your church. However, some churches seem to miss the point of the Connection Card. The Connection Card is about the individual and not about finding what marketing efforts are working for your church. As well, it’s not solely about “How did we do?”

Here are some questions from some Connection Cards that I’ve seen over the last couple of years that lean to “It’s all about the church”:

The following are from one Connection Card:

· How did you hear about the church?

· Rate your experience.

· What part of today’s service did you enjoy most? Why?

· What part of today’s service did you enjoy least? Why?

· Will you visit us again?

From one church, they simply only have one question:

· How You Heard About Us? The possible choices are then listed on the card.

These are actual examples of questions on visitor cards. It’s OK to ask 1-2 questions about how they heard about the church or their worship service experience. However, it has to be secondary to the needs of the visitor and not a primary focus. Honestly, a Comment section usually takes care of the worship service experience question as most people will definitely let you know what they thought. Too hot, too cold, too loud, I didn’t like Pastor’s suit, shirt, jeans, etc.

Having run a small business myself for 4 years I know how important it is to know where my marketing dollars were being spent and how effective they were. I also wanted feedback on how well my company performed. However, the customer’s needs or in this case, the visitor’s needs, must come above your business needs. We must learn what their needs are quickly and to the point.

The church may only get this one chance to find out the needs of this person.

Please check out my next blog entry where I’ll discuss how much information that we can ask on the Connection Card.

Mark Lindsley

Delivery Manager

Self Check-In: The Red Headed Step Child

2008-04-24T17:50:00Z

Ok, I admit it… I have a bit of an inferiority complex. But I have it because I am misunderstood and underutilized. Why don’t you love me? I am faster than my sibling “Assisted Check-In” and way more flexible than my other sibling “Rapid Barcode Check-In”. I know what you’re thinking… you’re afraid. Why? You were brave enough to try F1 Check-In when your friends laughed and said the technology was too new. Have you aged so much that now you too are afraid of new things?

Maybe it’s a comfort thing. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Check-In is going great. You’re thinking our staff has grown to know and love “Assisted”. They are so comfortable with it they just know it as plain old “Check-In”. If you would only try me out on one station, I can show you why I am 10 times faster than him.

Newer churches, that have come to know and love, me will tell you that even though they still use “Assisted” to check a family with 4 kids into their rooms in about a minute, they are seeing much faster times with me. I don’t like to brag but… I have met the family with 6 kids and can check them into their classrooms in 10 seconds flat.

I heard a rumor from a friend of a friend that some of you think I just don’t have that personal touch. I will try and not be offended by that statement. Sniff… sniff… (Be strong. I told myself I wouldn’t cry…) Look don’t ask me. Of course I will tell you that I am sensitive and personal. Just ask Prestonwood. Fellowship Technologies, my own creators, were a bit skeptical at first too.

Prestonwood has said on numerous occasions that they were able to take the Check-In Greeters, make them real Greeters standing in front of the guests, actually talking to them rather than going through some check in script and asking people for their digits like they are looking for a date at a singles retreat. Ok, so maybe I am a little bitter. My Greeters are actually asking people about their day, telling the little girls how pretty they look in their fancy dresses, commenting on how good it is to see the Jones again, and making everyone feel like they really belong.

I am also flexible. Based on my mood I can change the way I look and act. I have a theme for every occasion. I show my serious side for the Men’s Ministry bible study on Saturday morning. The kids love my Noah’s Ark screens and beg their parents to let them play with me. One church caught me blushing while they were working on my CPU but it turned out to be just a bad video card.

Hey, I bet you didn’t know that you can even use a finger print reader to Check-In rather than barcodes. This works best with Youth Ministries because kids will lose a barcode but they hardly ever leave home without their fingers. Another upside is that they haven’t read Revelations or George Orwell’s 1984 so making the leap from barcodes to the mark forced on people during the end times and Big Brother watching them is not as important as the latest Britney Spears album. (OK, I don’t know anything about music either because the IT department has me locked down and removed all my mp3 files)

OK, here’s the deal. I know and love you even though you don’t know me yet. I am willing to take the first step. I am going to the Dynamic Church Conference and I want to meet you there. I even have my own booth. To sweeten the deal (as if you need more incentives,) I will give you $50 off your registration if you register before the end of the month. Just click here and type in “McMaster” when it asks you for a promotion code. Mr. McMaster has worked out some sort of deal so you should probably plan on attending his “Creative Uses of Self Check-In” presentation since he is saving you so much money and he is some sort of genius.

I’ve got a feeling this is the start of a great relationship between us! Call me.

The Best First Time Visitor with Children Process EVER

2008-04-18T21:00:00Z

The pressure created by putting a title like that on a blog is not lost on me but I love this process. I have seen so many exciting and dynamic churches use this documented process and heard the success stories enough to know that this process has meat on its bones.

I heard it said somewhere that “Assimilation starts in the parking lot” and that is where we will begin. The key to this process is getting as many first time guests in through a particular church entrance as possible. Most churches have lots of ways to get in but we want to funnel the first time guest through the front door. The easiest way to do this is to have a designated first time visitor parking area. One thing that I think is greatly underestimated at many mid sized churches is the parking ministry. With a well trained parking lot ministry you can quickly fill and exit the church parking lot in an orderly fashion.

The next step is signage. I tell my churches that the first time visitor check in area needs to have a sign so big that blind people feel its presence. “FIRST TIME GUEST CHILDREN REGISTRATION” Why be subtle here? Below that sign is going to be the first time visitor desk. At that desk will be a computer station running the Fellowship One Check-In application. There is no need for a touch screen at this location. A fast typist and the Zebra LP-2844-Z printer is all you need. A well trained volunteer can even begin putting the information into the system by reading the card upside down as the parental unit is filling in the information.

The next step is getting your first time guest registration card in their hand. The picture below shows you the key elements. While the parental unit #1 is filling out the registration card the Super Greeter (here to for known as SG) will come and introduce themselves to the additional parental unit and kids.

As you might imagine with a title of SG they have to be special. This is not the position you fill with people that say “I was thinking of volunteering this weekend… Do you have some place to put me?” This is the position that people are promoted to. The perfect person for this position is Chatty Cathy. You couldn’t shut her up if you wanted to. Come on now you are picturing someone in your mind right now aren’t you? This person is super friendly, super nice, super knowledgeable, and has been at the church since they laid the foundation. They need to be well versed on security procedures in the children’s building. They need to know all of the teacher’s names or at least recognize them. They need to know the difference between Nursery and Preschool. They need to know what curriculum is and how it is applied at different levels in the Children’s Ministry. When I think of this person I picture my mother. I am fairly sure that she has never (not even once) sat by someone on a plane where by the time they touched down she didn’t know if they were married, how many kids they have, where they went to school, where they live, and why they are on that plane.

When the parental unit #1 is done filling out the card they hand the card to the regular greeter behind the counter who then enters parental unit #1’s name and DOB into the check-in system. The Regular Greeter (here to for know as RG) then enters in each child’s name, DOB, and any allergy information into the check-in system and prints off the nametags. The nametags are then handed from the RG to the SG who then grabs a church map and circles all of the classrooms where the children units have landed. While the map is being circled by the SG the RG re-instantiates the database by configuring the flux capacitor using the Heins-Bergenstein method which all churches should know by now.

They then escort the family to each of the classrooms dumping the before mentioned information on the family. They introduce the parent to each of the teachers and explain that since the 80’s we no longer take homeless people in off the streets and make them nursery workers. Nowadays we run a background check on every teacher. Not only that but we have strict policies in place to ensure your child’s safety.

After walking the parents to each classroom and explaining the differences between the curriculum and drop off/pick up procedures they escort the parents to the sanctuary. Once there they help the family find a seat near the back of the sanctuary so that if they get paged it will be easier for them to exit. They show them the screens used to page and tell them what to look for. They then introduce them to the Smith family who always sits there waiting for the next first time visitor family to arrive and be friendly to.

Rinse and repeat…

Matthew McMaster

Currently Building My Own Flying Delorian

Check-In Dos and Don'ts

2008-03-03T23:09:00Z

I have recently volunteered to be on site at churches when they go live with Fellowship One check-in. Not too long ago, I always passed on these opportunities because I believed it to be a waste of my time and a waste of the churches money. I had explained to the church several times and they had watched hours of training videos explaining how to setup and run check-in. Not only that but I had just been there walking the church through the check-in process. What was there not to understand?

The issues I will be presenting below I have seen at nearly every church I have worked with helping them to get up and running on check-in. A common issue is facing the kiosk towards the guests. Anyone that has been to an airport lately and seen self check-in would say that they had them setup correctly. The problem was that these kiosks were not for self check-in. In the diagram below you can see the problem. The “Greeter” manning the check-in station has to turn their back on the people they are checking in.

I know what you are thinking now and yes… I do come from a family of artists. Notice the angst on the children’s faces as the check-in greeter does a poor job of checking them in. It breaks your heart doesn’t it?

The next common mistake that I have seen deals with kiosk spacing. When churches initially setup their kiosk in an empty room they tend to place them two feet apart or less. This seems to make perfect sense even when they are testing and having their staff come up to the check-in station and pretend to be a family checking in on Sunday. The problem is that you will rarely ever have just one person checking into a children’s activity. What is more common is a mother checking in with two to four children orbiting her like satellites while dad graciously offered to drop them off at the door so he could “park” the car. What mom probably already knows is that dad only offered because of the chaos that ensues when dropping the kids off. If he can time it right, all the work will be done and mom will be ready for coffee and bagels by the time he makes his entrance. Sorry guys… if I can’t do this anymore because my lovely wife and mother of my 4 kids has figured this out than neither can you! In the wonderfully illustrated diagram below, you can see the proper placement of kiosks.

Lastly we address the issue of lines. Death, taxes, and lines are inevitable if you are human and a part of a growing, dynamic church. The only way to avoid lines is self check-in (which will not be addressed in this blog), teaching your parents not to show up 2 minutes before the service starts (yeah right), or a moral failure by your Sr. Pastor. I personally favor self check-in. In the first diagram, originally painted by Van Gogh and skillfully imitated here, you can see a well organized stanchion lined process for parishioners to flow through.

At the exit will be a friendly greeter assisting families to locate the next available check-in station. There are several benefits to this which include a constant state of movement due to the interval of turnover at the different kiosks. It also helps reduce the chaos factor which can be seen clearly in the second diagram. But my personal favorite reason for one line going to multiple kiosks is that you never get stuck in the slow lane. How many times have you been caught in the grocery store line behind the woman that can’t figure out how to write a check or the cashier has the motivation of a man going in for a vasectomy or the guy in front of you wants to argue that the item was clearly marked on the shelf as being .48 cents not .55 cents! CAN I GET AN AMEN!? That will not happen with multiple options available to you at the point of being the next in line.

You do not need to have stanchions and a long line if you have enough check-in stations. The best approach is to have enough kiosks to be able to have only two or three families in any given single kiosk line. This is not always possible and chaos soon follows.

Matthew McMaster

Delivery Manager/Impressionist

Stories from the field: Paintballing for Christ

2008-03-03T16:43:00Z

I am on the plane flying back from Portland Oregon where I had a terrific onsite visit with Rolling Hills Community Church. For this trip I flew out a few hours early so I could hike Montoloma falls and truly experience the beauty that is the Pacific Northwest. I challenge any atheist to make that hike and view the lush splendor of the 680 foot falls and doubt that there is a God.

Rolling Hills was a terrific host and is very motivated to get their entire staff out of the silos they were in and working together as the body of Christ. My seat is more uncomfortable than usual on this flight. No it isn’t the grumpy flight attendant or the long line to access the “lavatory” but rather pain and discomfort brought on by my recent adventures for Christ. My legs are a bit sore from the hike up the waterfall but I also have bruises covering most of my body. For anyone that has been paintballing before you will know what I mean when I say they feel good and hurt at the same time.

The one on my left flank I like so much that I named it Charley after the teenager that skillfully snuck around behind me and shot me at close range. From the picture below it resembles pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope of far away nebulas. Notice the easily recognizable circle that represents the size of the “Re-Ball” that slammed into my skin at 300 feet per second. I particularly like the purple and green effect the impact had on my tissue.

This latest adventure came about because as I was leaving the church someone came in carrying a paintball gun. If you are into paintball you know them as markers. I am not sure if this is because they shoot paint or because they mark your skin where every ball hits. Actually I am fairly sure the paintball industry named them markers so that my wife would not have as much problem letting her son go into the woods to mark his friends with a marker rather than letting him shoot his friends with anything called a gun. I struck up a conversation with Rex who is in charge of facilities at Rolling Hills and he invited me to join him later for a friendly game of paintball inside the church with the Chosen Ministry. Yes you heard me right… inside the church. How cool is that. I couldn’t turn him down so I went to dinner and returned with a change of clothes and a desire to shoot other Christians.

Fun just doesn’t seem to capture what paintball is. For me it is all my childhood fantasies of hunting down bad guys and fitting them for a pine box with a shallow grave. The best part is that you get to do this over and over again. For indoor paintball they use small rubber balls that contain no paint and hurt like heck when you get shot.

The Chosen Ministry smacks of my Texas Hold Em Ministry that I started when I was a small group leader at Fellowship Church. I wanted to play poker with my friends and wanted to be able to tell my lovely wife and mother of my 4 beautiful children that I was doing God’s work. At first my motives were suspect at best but over time I began to see the need for this type of Christian activity. I was able to invite hell bound friends, which never in a million years would come to a bible study, to a friendly game of poker with my Christian friends. We were able to demonstrate Christ in our lives as well as showing them that Christians weren’t all limp wristed, bible thumping hypocrites. We didn’t drink or cuss at these games. We would talk about church and things going on in our lives.

When you attend Fellowship Church you could always get their attention by talking about the current series that ranged from sex to marriage to a series call the real F word. What the Chosen Ministry is doing is getting teens to church. It might not be how your parents and grandparents did it but it is working. Come as you are and leave changed. For me as well as others the changes were sub dermal.

Matthew McMaster

Delivery Manager / Extreme Sports Fanatic

Stories From the Field: Police in Nacogdoches

2008-02-18T16:22:00Z

One thing I love about traveling is the adventure of it all. I know lots of people that travel and hate every minute of the time they spend running from terminal, to check in counter, to hotel room, to meetings. What I think they fail to notice is the exciting things that can and do happen when you visit new places and people.

This is one of those times. I recently went to visit a church in East Texas, Nacogdoches to be exact. The church was Grace Bible church. They are a dynamic church located on the Stephen F. Austin campus. Prior to coming out for a day visit I asked them if they had a place for me to stay the night. They were a smaller church and I often stay with a pastor’s family when I am on the road to help save costs. Many of my colleagues see this as pure insanity but I have made many a friend this way and for the most part it is better than staying in some anonymous hotel room. They were happy to oblige and said that I could stay in their intern house where they put up college interns when they have them working on staff. They mentioned that they would leave the door open and gave me the address. The drive from North Dallas to Nacogdoches is about 4 hours and I arrived at the address around 10:30PM.

Not a light on in the entire house and to say it looked like the Bates Motel would be a step up. Not only that, but there were people walking around the area. College students no doubt, but if you have seen kids these days they all looked a bit suspicious.

Upon entering the residence that was either built in the late 40’s or early 50’s I had the strange sense that I wasn’t completely alone. I searched the house and made sure that no one was there. Many of the light switches didn’t work or were not connected to lamps so the house was dark. One bedroom contained a freshly made bed with a towel set laid upon the comforter. This led me to believe this was to be my room. The other bedroom was tidy but had the appearance that someone had been sleeping there lately. A bible and a coffee mug on the night stand were the main clues that I had. There were no pictures or clothes lying around so I just assumed someone else had bunked here in the last few days.

The front door did not have a dead bolt. In its place was what can only be described as a screen door latch. Suitable for keeping a screen door from flying open in the wind but nowhere near a security lock. The back door was similarly secured with a screen door latch that when applied might be one quarter of an inch into a suspect door frame.

Although I am always up for an adventure I have seen one too many movies where the killer sneaks into your room late at night and silently slits your throat. I really don’t want to go like that so I latched both screen door security devices went to my room and promptly jammed a folding chair under the door handle. This too would probably not keep a determined killer out of my room but I thought it would give me enough time to dial 911 or at least scream like a girl at the top of my lungs. At this point I feel the need to tell you I am 6’4” and spent 9 years in the Marines. But as my drill instructor was fond of telling us after we had been through combat training “any idiot with a gun can kill an unprepared Marine”.

Sleep came without much tossing and turning. I was dreaming of successful data conversions and happy customers (yeah right) when I was awoken by a loud crunch. At first I thought it must be morning and the church was there to wake me up for breakfast. I slowly got out of bed and stretched. When I grabbed my phone to check the time I was surprised to see it was 3:33 AM. I am easily distracted so I watched the clock for a minute and pondered what a strange time 3:33 AM was and also wondered when the last time I had seen this hour of the night. Then I realized that the noise I had heard had definitely come from inside the house.

I opened my phone and dialed 911. I didn’t hit send but I also didn’t want to have to find those buttons if I came across an intruder. I quietly moved the chair away from the door while I was intently listening for the sound of thugs stealing what little this residence had to offer. I kept the light off in my room and opened the door. The rest of the house was in complete darkness so I used my cell phone to light up the room. I slowly moved to the front door while scanning the room. I was thinking about a movie I had recently seen where Will Smith was in a similar situation. He was trying to avoid blood crazed simi-vampirus humans in a dark environment and I was very possibly in the same situation. It was 3:33AM anything is possible.

The front door was locked and the screen door latch appeared to be doing its impossible job of securing the door. At that point I was surprised by how much relief I had when I saw that latch. It at least told me that no one had been through this door. I then moved to the rear entrance as quiet as a mouse.

As I approached the rear entrance there was something wrong with the rear door. In the darkness it appeared that the frame was somehow dislodged from the door. Upon closer inspection I noticed that someone had kicked in the back door and the screen door latch had failed me! The latch had valiantly clung to the door frame but not the door. I pressed the send button and held my breath.

Thank God for 911 operators at 3:33AM. I quickly and quietly caught the nice lady on the phone up with the situation and tried to explain how this was not my house and I was only a bit sure of the address. She assured me that the police were on their way. I moved back to the front of the house; mainly because there was more room to move around in and I wanted more room to fight in if simi-humanoid vampire appeared out of one of the homes many corners. The 911 operator asked me if I had a weapon. I told her no but that was a good idea and began to move back towards the kitchen to get a knife or a spoon or something. She told me not to do that because the police were now outside the house and she didn’t want me to be shot accidentally. This sounded like an even better idea so I put the butter knife back. I asked her to tell the police not to shoot the big bald white guy in his underwear to which she laughed.

I peeked out through the mini-blinds in time to see 3 police cruisers slowly and stealthily approach the house with no lights on. As they officers exited their vehicles they left the doors open so as to not make a sound. I thought this would be a good idea if you wanted to catch someone but my main goal was to not be killed so I opened the front door and motioned for the closest officer to come in. He was a nice middle sized middle aged non-descript East Texas police officer. The other officers went around searching the outside of the property.

I quickly explained the situation and led the officer to the back door. He agreed that someone had definitely forcibly entered the premises so he began looking around the living room with his flashlight. Again the interior lights didn’t work so it was still dark in the house. I went to the bedroom and put on some pants. If I was going to be killed now I at least wanted to be wearing pants.

The other officers entered the house and they all talked for a few seconds about the situation. One of them noticed there were two closed doors and asked if those rooms had been searched. I mentioned that I had searched them earlier in the night but not since the break in. In one motion they all pulled their guns and flashlights and in C.O.P.S. TV show fashion they approached the door. They grabbed the first door and flung it open while pointing their guns at the quivering vacuum cleaner tucked into the small closet. Unfair as it might have been pictures of Barnie Fife popped in my head and I feared for my life again.

The second door stood ominously as the last possible place for someone to be hiding. I was fairly sure that whoever broke into the house was long gone and so when they grabbed the handle and launched into the room I was fairly shocked when they started shouting. “GET YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!” I was right behind the officers so I glanced around them and saw a terrified 20 something male getting out of bed wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

Dread filled my soul as I realized this must be the intern. I had assumed wrongly that the house was unoccupied. After the police got the intern to show some ID and he explained that he actually lived there the officers turned to me and said “Then who are you!”

The officers all agreed that this would make a very funny story the next day at the church. It is funny now but at the time it was a bit too close to scary to be funny.

Matthew McMaster

Delivery Manager (Part time vampire slayer wannabe)

Data Integrity Team Responsibilities

2008-02-14T04:42:00Z

Weekly Data Integrity Team Tasks

Meet weekly initially to establish training guidelines and come up with a list of authorized data input specialist.
Weekly meetings to establish how and in what format data will be tracked in Fellowship One. I.E. Will we use attendance or attributes to track baptisms?
Establishing minimum information required to input a record in Fellowship One
Establishing and approving any data capture methods such as first time visitor cards, registration cards, and volunteer applications.
Running duplicate individual reports and merging down any duplicate records.
Checking the system status queue in the duplicate finder and reducing the number of system status records to zero each week.
Training classes for any potential data input specialist on staff or volunteers that want to help with data input responsibilities.
Contributions Data Integrity team member match any unmatched checks in Giving Area

Monthly Data Integrity Team Tasks

The first two items in the list should diminish over time and move to monthly then quarterly meetings.

Checking the database for inactive records. Maintaining the integrity of the database through more advanced data mining techniques such as more elusive duplicate records.
If you have multiple campuses, associate individuals with correct campus status per Standard Operating Procedures

Periodic Tasks

The data integrity team should meet after the announcement of a large event at the church to discuss how information will be gathered and tracked. They should also meet with the Fellowship One Champion team to coordinate their efforts.

What did you learn today?

2008-02-13T04:53:00Z

As delivery managers, we have a responsibility to wisely use the time and money provided by the local church to implement Fellowship One. We are called to help empower the church to more efficiently bring people to the table of the Lord.

I often view myself as an educator (amongst other things). I am here to help people understand how to use Fellowship One in their unique environment, and use the wonderful technology we posses to empower the local church. Sometimes people embrace this, other times it can be more confrontational to get people to leave the comforts of their current church management system and learn something new in the name of progress. It requires people to leave their comfort zone and make themselves vulnerable, not many people like leaving anywhere comfortable.

The delivery team at Fellowship Technologies is an evolving team. There was a day and time where we were all cowboys (and cowgirls), roaming the countryside, going from church to church, each doing our own thing as we best saw fit. Those days are long behind us, and it hasn’t been a painless road, I must confess. But I can tell you that the changes we have made have been for the best. Without a structured process and product (being the service we deliver), we would lose our departmental and corporate identity. We now produce a better, more standardized product, and hopefully a more efficient process, leaving us more time to deal with process change within the church itself. In order for this to work, people must be open to change, and if necessary, the pain that goes along with it.

I have been delivering the Fellowship One product to churches now for over 2.5 years and I have learned so much during my tenure. I have realized that, yes, I am a teacher to many, but those many are also teachers to me. EVERY church I work with teaches me something. It’s that something that everyone in my team brings to the table at regular intervals to help us produce a better, more refined product, making better and better use of the church’s time and money. Without you teaching us about you and what you do, we become stagnant and stale and the product no longer evolves. Each delivery manager learning something new puts us in a vulnerable place. We have to ask ourselves if what we did before was the best way to do things. If the answer is no, we have to admit we could have done things better and continue to work hard to discover where we fall down. We do this all in the name of helping you, the local church; more efficiently bring people to Christ.

If I don’t learn at least one thing new during the implementation with a church, I feel I have failed the church, myself, and my future clients (even if it means learning how to be patient!) I encourage all to make a conscious attempt to learn something daily that will help you tomorrow and the rest of your days. And please never stop being a teacher. We’re a team, and we NEED each other to help make the team successful.

Blessings -

Jeff Lewis
Delivery Manager