50. Elvanto is our new church database system
Church is in people business. If business is about making profit, church is about making transformation in people’s lives. In the business world, companies use analytics and technologies to accurately monitor their performance to make more profit. In the same way, it is very important for our church to keep track of all the steps members has taken, to accurately assess where they are terms of spiritual growth and to lead them to the right direction.
Our church mission is to save the lost and make disciples. We exist to reach out to non-Christians (whom we call “VIP”) with the love of Christ. Our evangelism begins from praying for our VIPs in our house church. To do that well, we need to have information about VIPs before they ever visit house church, to pray for them. To accurately assess their progress to help them take a next step, we need a comprehensive database tool.
We used to use “filemaker” as our database software. It served us well but its price is going up and features are limited. So we’ve decided to find a church database software that has enough features but also customizable for our specific needs. And we’ve chosen “Elvanto”.
Elvanto is a web-based church software that can handle all kinds of church adminstrative work, contact information, reporting and group activities. It is feature rich and yet high customizable. The best part is it will be cheaper than our previous software (at least for now). Since it is completely web-based, there is no need to install any app. It can be accessed from all operating systems or devices.
However, the main reason why we’ve decided to use it is to assist all our shepherds and shepherds’ wives to lead their house church well and more efficiently in their busy schedules. Shepherds’ main job is to pray for their members and to have a tool that can easily access their members’ information and prayer requests is a huge time-saver. It also helps me to help our shepherds’ ministry by praying for them and their members through the house church diaries they’ve written.
Our Welcoming Team leader Joy has willingly volunteered to take care of training people and implementing it to our ministries. For successful implementation, it will be implemented in this order:
Shepherds —> Leaders in Worship Department —> Praise Team —> All Volunteers
Implementation for each group will take about a month so we are hoping to have all volunteers to use it proficiently by the end of this year. For accurate information, each member will be asked to provide or update their information, along with photos. Please cooperate with welcoming team leader and shepherds as they do their best to serve you well.
