In today’s ministry world it seems like there is “church software” for everything:
- Form software
- Accounting software
- Bible Software
- Bible Study Generating Software
- Volunteer scheduling software
- Worship music transposing software
- Church Management Software
- Church Apps
- Online giving software
- Video Projection software
- And Kid’s Check-In Software
- …And much more
With so many software options, how do you decide which ones are worth paying for and which ones aren’t? In this article, I want to talk specifically about Child Check-In Software: should your church consider carving out money for it?
Can Your Church Afford Child Check-In Software?
If it’s part of a bundle, YES! Most churches already use Church Management Software (ChMS or CMS for short), but many of those churches are not getting the most out of their ChMS because they don’t use all of the features. Many church management systems include kid’s check-in software. If you have a ChMS already, check to see if it includes a kid’s check-in component. If not, you should consider switching to a more comprehensive system that has more features you’ll use.
Churchteams church management software includes many great features like small group management, event registration, online giving, giving records, spiritual growth tracking, and kid’s check-in. There’s no need to buy each of those components separately when you can bundle them all together and save.
A better question is, can your church afford not to have it? If you don’t have kid’s check in software, you really only have three options: use a pen-and-paper system, use a manual tag system or don’t use any system at all. Let’s consider the ramifications of using these systems.
Pen-and-paper systems and Manual tag systems are frankly out of date. There’s a great marketing adage that says, “Your competition is anyone your customer compares you to.” So our competition in ministry is not other churches, but any place providing goods or services that our parishioners think of when they are in our church. People today are surrounded by technology. Technology allows people to pay for things online, check themselves out at the grocery store and order a meal while driving to a restaurant. What do they think when they come to church and can’t check their kids in with a simple technological solution? Yes, I know it’s shallow, but let’s face it: people are shallow (including ourselves). The gospel is for shallow people. Wouldn’t it be a shame to miss the opportunity to share the gospel with someone for something as shallow as technology?
And what about the security of our kids? The kids check-in software in Churchteams generates a random code each week that is printed on the kids’ name tags and printed on a third tag with the same code that a parent or guardian gets. After church the adult may pick up a child only if the number on their tag matches the tag on the child. This kind of security means a lot to guests because nothing is more worrisome to parents than giving their kids over to people they don’t know. They feel much better when it’s clear that no one is allowed to pick up a child without a matching tag. Guests love it when it’s obvious that security is a high value to your church.
Furthermore, imagine this scenario: a man in your church has been abusing his wife and she kicks him out of the house. The man has mental health issues and a Judge issues a restraining order while giving the mother full custody of the kids. The mother feels ashamed of the situation so she doesn’t tell anyone at church. One Sunday she comes to church and checks her kids in. After church before she’s able to pick up her kids, the husband casually walks into the building, picks up the kids, and takes off. Just like that, a preventable kidnapping happened in your church! You’re in the news. You get sued. You lose. Your church caves under the financial pressure and closes. Yes that’s an extreme example, but it IS a possibility. So why risk it?