What Is Church Management Software? (Plus, Helpful Tools For 2024)

"Wait. Start over. What exactly is church management software, and what can it do?”

Spreadsheets covered my desk; I was in the middle of attempting to organize the children's ministry volunteer schedule. Pastor Ryan, the pastor I was interning under, patiently explained it all over again.

“So I don't need to finish this?" I gestured to my spreadsheets. "And I don’t need to call volunteers to remind them they’re scheduled for youth on Friday?” 

“No, Josh, you don’t have to do that anymore. Our new church management software does it all.”

The church management software does it all. If that sounds like hyperbole, well, I understand. (While I did keep doing the Starbucks runs as an intern, tracking attendance, planning Sunday school curriculum, and communicating with church volunteers got a HECK of a lot less complex after that.)

Today, I'll explain the ins and outs of church management software, known as ChMS. We’ll explore its various forms, features, and benefits. We’ll also give you our shortlist of the top 10 recommended industry leaders this year.

The Basics: What Is Church Management Software?

Church management software is a tool that streamlines nearly every aspect of a church. And yes, that includes worship services, small groups, church event management, administrative tasks, and more. Church management software simply helps organize your processes and workflows, assisting your church administration and leaders rather than more hoops to jump through.

Note from the Author

Over the years, I’ve worked in various churches, each with a different church management system. Some worked really well. Others had extra hiccups. I’ve observed that smooth church management often comes down to taking the time to choose the right ChMS for your church.

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History Of Church Management Software

Some of the earliest records of project management date back to 2570 BC, when the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. Since then, project management has grown and morphed to be more sophisticated and detailed for projects large and small. Project management software started to take shape in the 1980s and 90s when the computer became mainstream and the technology sector exploded.

Church management software first appeared on the market in the early 1980s. Concordia Technology Solutions released its first DOS-based software package in 1984, designed to help churches track member and financial information efficiently.

Today, most ChMS providers are user-friendly and cloud-based, with kiosk/mobile app functionality and competitive pricing (important in the non-profit space). They can facilitate background checks, provide church databases, and report on contribution management for different-sized churches.

Cutting-edge church management software solutions also provide customizable add-ons and features, a functionality that equips your entire church staff and volunteer base.

Why Is Church Management Software Important for My Church?

Church management software is essential because, whether you’re leading a large or small church, volunteers, finances, and church projects need managing. This includes various tasks such as small group management, volunteer management, church membership management, event management, and more.

That doesn’t even include all the ministries to manage, more staff members to hire, and more upkeep for your building facilities. Not to mention figuring out how to manage a church website and social media, automate online giving and fundraising, and follow up with church members to get contact information.

Church management software simply gives you and your leaders the freedom to focus on the reasons you became a pastor in the first place—things like mission, equipping church members, evangelism, and fostering a vibrant church community.  

To learn (pretty much everything you can possibly learn about) about church management software, check out these articles:

• Global demand for church management software
• Essential features of church management software
• Advantages of church management software
• Expected pricing of church management software

Our Shortlist: Top 10 Best Church Management Software Tools

The Lead Pastor has done an in-depth look at different kinds of ChMS to see which could be most useful to your church:

Our Top 10 Recommended ChMS Tools

1. 1. Gracely — Best for managing church donations and events
2. 2. ChMeetings — Best value for price
3. 3. Breeze ChMS — Best for ease of use
4. 4. One Church Software — Best for growing congregations
5. 5. Touchpoint — Best mobile app experience
6. 6. Elvanto — Best for church finances
7. 7. Realm — Best for connecting the church community
8. 8. Excellerate — Best for on-site local network installation
9. 9. Blackbaud — Best for managing people and payments
10. 10. MinistryPlatform — Best for large churches

Show More (5)

Features: What Church Management Software Does

The features of church management software can vary from provider to provider, but most have a general suite of features in common:

• Visitor tracking and follow-up
• Online giving 
• Donor management
• Financial management
• Setup and management for small groups
• Class sign-ups
• Child check-in and attendance
• Email and text messaging notifications
• Event registration and management
• Live streaming capabilities for services
• Reporting
• Volunteer scheduling

What Are The Benefits Of Church Management Software?

When properly implemented (according to our ChMS best practices), the effects of church management can be profound:

1. Improved communication and collaboration. ChMS provides one location for all documents and data, which makes it much simpler to delegate tasks, share ideas and comments, and stay in touch to check in with team members on a project’s progress. This single location also helps mitigate messages coming from various sources like email, texts, and social media and groups all communication in one place so no one forgets anything.
2. Better budget management. Church management software tools can help you do a church budget setup, follow-up, analyze data, compare planned versus actual, map out projections, and more. This software also provides easy ways to share this critical data with key stakeholders, like your elder board or deacons, through personal dashboards, shareable URLs, and exportable reports. 
3. Enhanced process standardization. This streamlines onboarding for future team members and ensures you don’t add confusion or errors. Project management software is the perfect tool to improve process standardization because it provides one convenient location to track and remind people of processes like form naming, workflow automation, and more. 

My team and I have thoroughly examined, evaluated, and ranked the industry leaders in the ChMS space. If you’re looking for an in-depth breakdown, we’ve got you.

Editorial Recommendation

Strong operations and supportive pastoral care are key to effective ministry. My team and I have collected some of our top resources to help you plan, connect, and encourage:

• This guide on how to organize a church conference provides steps for hosting impactful gatherings that foster fellowship.
• These youth ministry newsletters keep teens engaged with timely updates and program highlights.
• This resource on pastoral encouragement in crisis offers vital support for comforting church members during difficult times.

Should I Get Church Management Software?

Short answer: YES.
Long answer: If you’re a church leader looking to improve daily operations, steward finances well, and enhance communication for your staff and members, a church management solution is a good option. It’s a great solution that helps with everyday church aspects like outreach, member management, attendance tracking, online giving, tithes, and more—all of which help fulfill your church's needs.

Check out the following articles to learn more about church management software and management tools and how to start implementing them into your daily operations today. 

• Technology In The Church: What Do Lead Pastors Need To Know?
• Young Disciples: Turning A Youth Group Into A Youth Church
• Church Administration Software For Church Management
• 10 Best Church Accounting Software Of 2024
• 10 Best Church Communication Tools

Next Steps: Choose the Best ChMS for You

Check out our article "How to Choose a ChMS that You (and Your Team) Will Love". It's practical, insightful, and includes some excellent downloadable resources.

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