“ 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 . And some of us on staff can help coach them through that , simply because we have a little more experience .”
message with a one-sentence description of what their children learned that morning in their ministry classes , along with a few questions for the car ride home . Of course , the suggested conversation questions vary depending on the child ’ s age ; a separate workflow exists for both preschool and elementary children . As McHugh explains , this empowers parents to reinforce or just hear about the lesson , and to be a more active part of their children ’ s discipleship process . “ We survey our members every year , and this is one of the top resources identified by parents ,” he adds . “ And it ' s actually a very simple workflow .”
# 2 : Discipleship and connection
At CityBridge , the membership process begins when someone attends a membership class . “ After that , there ' s a step where we ask them sign our membership covenant , and another step where they ’ re asked to identify and engage in area of service in our church or with one of our ministry partners outside of our church setting , and so on ,” McHugh says . “ We have a workflow that walks with people and helps them through those steps — including email follow-ups along the way — to help them identify the areas where they can best connect to our local body .”
# 3 : Texting
CityBridge uses texting-based workflows in several ways , including , as mentioned above , for parents whose kids are attending Sunday School classes . In other workflows , a text is the start of the entire process — for instance , when a member texts a keyword to a phone number connected to the church database . “ They can text the word ‘ serve ’ to us and receive a registration link immediately ,” McHugh says . “ This is essential for helping them see the different areas of service within our body . “ And when they choose a ministry that interests them , it moves them into a workflow where they receive more information about specific opportunities in that area on an ongoing basis ,” he adds .
# 4 : Lightening the administrative load
Admin staff members at CityBridge enjoy several workflows designed to ease their workload , including automatically updating members ’ information in the church database . “ Some of the tasks we ' re able to automate through workflows take work on the front end to create ,” McHugh acknowledges . “ But in the long run , they reduce the burden on our admin team so that we can serve people well .”
Indeed , CityBridge is an excellent example of how church executives can take the common processes most churches use and make them work for their own churches , regardless of size or people power . All it takes is imagination , a little work , and the right tools .
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