Before starting a church, I had been a church administrator for 30 years. I discovered a couple of key issues in running a church: (1) managing the membership database; thus knowing the people at a personal level and keeping a record of that (2) managing the giving of the members in the most transparent way and keeping a record that forms a basis for evaluations and decision making (3) monitoring attendance figures for strategic decisions (4) encouraging fellowship and devising a means to keep everyone in a small group and (5) keeping in touch with members in a personalized way. Additionally, my background as a chartered accountant working with several multinationals necessitated, I apply strong organizational systems and structures to church administration.
When I started a church in 2009, I knew the key things to look out for. One of the key questions of interest to me was the attendance figures. Anytime I asked my team on the numbers, they were able to give me the headcount of attendance but are not able to tell the specifics of who and who were present or absent. I realized that if I am to build a healthy strong mega church, I will have to device a way to efficiently and effectively manage that. I also realized that I needed a system to take care of the five discoveries I made as a Church Administrator.
As a corporate executive, I had worked with several softwares and know the value they can bring on board. In my first six years as a pastor, I bought three different church management softwares but non lived up to expectations. Most of the softwares were sluggish, driven by marketing instead of delivering quality service, they had poor after sales support, were complicated to use and most importantly they were not designed taking into consideration the dynamics of running a church. Also, the softwares did not provide the essential reports I needed to stay on top of happenings in my church to make informed decisions.
I therefore finally made the decision to put together a team made up of software developers and church practitioners to produce a comprehensive church management software. After using and testing the software over a period, I felt I will serve the kingdom of God well with such a tool in the hands of pastors who are seeking to actively engage the world in fulfillment of the mission of God.
iChurch is therefore a product of such a process and commitment towards God’s mission.
