Ask anyone who attends regularly, and they'll tell you that church is changing. We're living in an era when members are connecting more digitally throughout the week, and the pandemic pushed a lot of churches to learn how to add an online component. There's a good chance your church is already live streaming a sermon or hosting small groups on Zoom. Maybe you've upped the virtual conferences. Or maybe, your members are giving more online than in the offering plate.
So if you're looking for a better way to bring everyone together for virtual worship, you should consider an online church membership software.
Because here’s the thing: If you can create a dedicated space for online church membership management, you can provide an essential service in a world that’s turned on its head.
And below, we’re going to show you how.
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What is Church Membership Software?
Online church membership software is designed to help churches and other religious organizations with administrative and managerial day-to-day duties.
But recently, things have shifted. And in this moment, many users need church membership software to do more than just manage a physical space of worship.
Today, the best online church solutions make it easy to build a digital home away from home for members who can’t physically join the service.
This new, premium class of online church membership software has a few key features: a dedicated space for community, where members can connect with each other and with the church’s leaders; a space to organize and host live events; tools to manage, organize, and get in touch with members; and a website builder that makes it easy to create a branded, easy-to-navigate site, available on the web and mobile devices.
Once you’re more familiar with the features that will help make your online church membership or online church service app a success—and how they work to create an engaged following—building out your new membership site can be surprisingly easy.
Church Membership Software Must-Have #1: A Dedicated Community Space
The best online church software has a dedicated community space, away from the distractions of social media. That means that there are tons of features that encourage your parishioners to participate in conversations in a safe place, from polls and Q&As to a central activity feed and direct messaging.
We also recommend finding an online church solution that lets you create exclusive Groups. That way you can have a specific place for more personalized or intensive resources and instruction, whether it’s a mastermind group, or a bible study group.
Church Membership Software Must-Have #2: Engaging Live Events
A promising online church membership space also allows you to organize and host live events. Within those events, there are a few specific features to look out for: Can you enable text chat? Can you schedule repeating events? Can you livestream natively in your community?
Being able to put on engaging live events is crucial to creating a successful church membership online. It’s going to be the absolute best way to digitally host everything from fundraisers to Sunday School to your weekly service—so you want to be able to find an online church solution that makes it easy.
Church Membership Software Must-Have #3: Manage & Organize Your Members
Next up, the church membership software that you choose should make it easy to manage your members. This is the best way to build a broad picture of who your members are, and how they’re interacting with your online church membership.
The best online church solutions will cover the basics with member profiles, and the ability to create custom categories for those members. We also recommend looking for a platform that lets members find each other by location (especially if your church membership software has a wider scope).
From there, more advanced online church membership management platforms will also let you download your member list. And with that feature comes many, many more possibilities to explore. Depending on the software you choose, you may be able to upload your member data into an external CRM or add members to your email newsletter list.
Church Membership Software Must-Have #4: An Easy-to-Use Website Builder
Lastly, you want a platform that makes it easy to create a dynamic webpage for your online church solution that your members will love. Ideally, it’s something that’s simple enough to launch in a few minutes, but powerful enough to grow with you as you expand your following.
The best church membership software online will help you keep everything organized too, and will be easy for your church members to navigate.
If you can find a website builder that’s compatible with different integrations, all the better—whether it’s PayPal for tithing or it’s your email service provider, so you can send out your weekly newsletter.
Ready to start?
The good news is there is one website builder that has every single one of the features we’ve mentioned above: Mighty Networks.
When you choose to build your online church solution with a Mighty Network, you get all the tools you need to build a thriving, expansive community. You’ll be able to separate your members into groups like small groups or studies. You’ll be able to easily keep track of your members. And you’ll be able to do it all on an online church membership software that’s instantly available on the web, iOS, and Android devices.
Are you ready to get started?