No IT team ? No problem
Making the most of do-it-yourself workflows really works for CityBridge Community Church .
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
For Dan McHugh , becoming operations director @ CityBridge was a natural fit , both for himself and for the church .
When Watermark Community Church in Dallas decided to open a campus in Plano , Texas in 2015 — called CityBridge — McHugh and his family were part of a core group that helped get it off the ground . As a longtime member having served in small groups and marriage ministries , he ’ d not only developed strong relationships with church staff but also brought to the table business acumen honed over 15 years working in commercial real estate financing .
Dan McHugh
“ When the opportunity to come on staff became available , it felt like the next step in my own growth and walk with Christ ,” he recalls . “ It allowed me to do a lot of what I was already doing , but as an area of service and as a vocation — as an extension of what God was already doing in my life .” Within five years of being planted by Watermark , CityBridge had established leadership and teaching in place and members supporting the mission . That ’ s when Watermark decided to make it an independent local church , launching CityBridge Community Church in January 2021 . For McHugh , this represented a learning curve — but one which he welcomed . Perhaps the biggest charge was figuring out how to optimize CityBridge ’ s processes , but without the level of manpower at Watermark . Fortunately , he didn ’ t have to start from scratch ; the church was able to replicate many of the systems in place at the “ mother ” megachurch using a holistic , highly specified software platform : Churchteams .
New demographic = new processes
As McHugh points out , being an independent church enabled CityBridge to take Watermark ’ s ministry philosophy and change it slightly for its own context . “ One of the things we saw in our church , specifically , is that Plano is a much more suburban location than Dallas ,” he says . “ Our demographic includes a lot of 30- and 40-somethings with young kids .”
This immediately altered how CityBridge uses its Churchteams platform — particularly in the area of workflows . “ When I think of ‘ workflows ,’ I just think of a sequence of events or steps in a process that help you to accomplish a desired outcome . It ’ s the ability to break a process into pieces ,” McHugh explains . “ What Churchteams does is allow us to automate a lot of these steps to help us get from point A to point B .” Case in point : while Watermark has an IT department on hand to help develop personalized workflows for ministry leaders , CityBridge has a single IT person . Far from a hindrance , McHugh says that decentralizing the building of workflows has actually proven beneficial . “ Instead of going to someone else to create a [ workflow ], it has opened up the possibility for teams to think through and build those out on their own ,” he explains . “ And some of us on staff can help coach them through that , simply because we have a little more experience .” Additionally , Churchteams gives the CityBridge staff all the tools they need to use mass-texting ; manage small groups ; automate , track and analyze giving ; manage volunteers ; set up event registration ; run check-in ; and much more . “ So , we were able to take a lot of the ideas and ministry strategies from Watermark , and then — as a new church with a new software — take those and think through how to accomplish them using this new tool ,” McHugh says .
4 primary workflows in place at CityBridge
# 1 : Communication
When a family checks a child into the kids ’ ministry at CityBridge , it begins an entire communication workflow . First , a tag is printed that tells parents the specific room where they will take their children , depending on the kids ’ ages ( preschool through elementary school ). Then , just before the church service ends , parents receive a text
28 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | NOV / DEC 2022