Organization in the church office isn’t just about optics. Having streamlined processes makes things easier for your team and supports your church’s mission as a whole. Have you thought about ways you can do this?
While certain times of year bring organization to the top of mind, it’s always a good idea to pause and reflect on how previous years have gone, and create new systems and processes to make your team’s work easier. Even if your church is in the thick of one of its busiest seasons, it’s important to set yourself up for success. Here are our team’s top recommendations for success.
1. Review Processes
Throughout the year, it’s a good idea to review your processes you’ve used in the recent past to see what’s worked well, as well as what inefficiencies or friction there might be. What you’re reviewing could be everything from your automated email sequences for guests to how your administrators enter offerings.
Ask your staff members to identify which processes cause them to get stuck in their workflow. Maybe they need a project management software to organize their tasks, or perhaps they have an idea to simplify their workflow for a particular recurring task.
Hopefully, as you slowly adopt these new processes going forward, your team will save time, be more efficient, and eliminate unnecessary tasks.
2. Set Up New Systems
Setting up new systems in your church office can be intimidating—it requires a lot of time, effort, and patience from your entire team. However, it can be revitalizing for your team to get a fresh start and approach their tasks with newfound efficiency.
Maybe you’ve been considering implementing a project management software to keep all your team members on track with large projects. Or perhaps you are looking into a chat software like Slack or Microsoft Teams to avoid having inboxes full of unnecessary emails. Whatever you’re looking to implement, make sure it’s within your budget and will actually improve your team’s work.
If you don’t already, using a church management software is a great way to adopt new systems in your church office. It can streamline your processes, keep your team organized, and get you started off on the right foot in the season ahead.
3. Analyze Statistics
When taking a look back at the past month, liturgical season, or year to prepare for the next, it’s important to review your statistics or data. Doing this regularly can help you understand where your pain points are and how you can improve going forward.
For example, you can see how many first-time visitors attended worship in the past year. Was it fewer or more than the previous year? What do you think contributed to that? Did you do more community-focused events? Did you mail out seasonal invitations?
From there, you can make a plan for the future or keep doing what you’re doing! Numbers aren’t everything in ministry, but they can be an indicator of a successful strategy.
4. Clean Out Your Office
This might seem obvious, but cleaning out your physical office space can be a game changer to being more organized! Go through all of your old files, restock low items, and organize misplaced items.
Now is also the time to create physical systems in your office. Ask yourself what recurring issues your team has. Can no one ever find the right paper size for the printer? Place all paper sizes in the same area, and label them on their respective shelves. Do files end up in piles on desks? Create a weekly task for their owner to file them away.
5. Transition from Paper
If your church office is knee-deep in paperwork and file cabinets, it might be time to consider making the transition from paper files to digital ones. This transition is a huge undertaking, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. But if your staff is feeling overwhelmed with the amount of physical papers in your office, it might be time to make the transition.
Again, adopting a church management software such as the Church360° Suite from Concordia Technology Solutions can help you make the transition from physical documents to digital organization. Your attendance, offerings, and records can all be transferred into your new software, keeping everything organized and all in one place!
6. Organize Digital Files
If your office solely uses digital files instead of physical papers, you should still organize your digital files and folders. Go through all of your documents, PDFs, and images and place them into corresponding folders. As you need these assets in the coming year, you’ll more easily be able to find them!
If you haven’t already, create a file structure and naming conventions that will keep your team on the same page and allow everyone to find the files they’re looking for. For example, you might organize your files by year, month, and then event/project. Or, you might organize by file type, such as photos or events. Either way, you need to make it clear to your team what the process is.
Organize your church office with the help of Church360° Members church management software. Your first month is free!
