Running a church effectively starts with a consistent, committed relationship to God. But there are also tools and strategies that effective church leaders use to make leading a church more successful and efficient. 

These tools range from online giving to a church CRM to a custom website builder. While each of these tools has a different function, the ultimate goal is the same – to grow your church for the glory of God. 

In the following article, we’ll talk about 10 key tools used by effective church leaders.

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How to Run Church Successfully

The following 10 tools can help you to run your church more successfully. In other words, you’ll save time, reduce your administrative load, stay organized, grow church giving, and engage your church members better. 

1. Online Donation Platform 

An online giving platform can help you grow generosity at your church by making giving simple and convenient for your church members. 

The best giving platforms will:

• Provide multiple options for giving–with credit card, debit card, ACH transaction, and even crypto
• Be mobile-friendly–allowing donors to give on their cell phones
• Have a Cover the Fees feature–so that donors can cover transaction fees as a part of their gift
• Offer Text to Give–a feature that allows church members to give with a simple text message
• Create recurring gifts–providing a feature for donors to set up a recurring payment

At the end of the day, online giving isn’t just a way to simplify donating to your church. It’s also a key to growing a culture of generosity at your church. 

2. Church CRM

A Church CRM (customer relationship management) system is key for keeping track of your church members. Ideally, your CRM should take the place of messy, complicated spreadsheets. 

The best Church CRM’s will:

• Search–Allow you to quickly find your church members, along with relevant contact and personal info
• Customizability–Provide more than just basic contact info fields, with options for adding ministry roles, personal interests, family info, and more
• Background checks–synced background checks, so that you can easily run and keep track of background checks on your church members

Your Church CRM is more than just a church directory; it’s a tool for staying engaged and connected with your church family. 

3. Messaging Tool

Church leaders need a simple, efficient way to regularly contact their congregants. 

The best way to do that is a messaging tool that allows churches to send mass text messages and emails to church members and first-time guests. 

A great church messaging tool will help leaders:

• Send automated campaigns for connecting and following up with first-time visitors
• Connect with church members in the way they prefer–in other words, with text messages
• Allow 2-way messaging so that recipients can actually message you back 

Finally, a church messaging tool will be easy to use and customizable. 

4. Custom Website Builder

Every church needs a beautiful, user-friendly website. 

A custom website is where your new visitors, potential visitors, and current church members can learn about who you are and what you offer. It’s also a place for giving to church. 

Rather than use third-party platforms like Wordpress or Wix for building a website, church leaders can use a custom website builder that’s just for churches. 

The best custom website builders for churches that offer:

• Templates just for churches–making it simple to design a beautiful website with everything churches need
• Live streaming–for easy online church 
• An events calendar–for help site visitors to quickly learn about what’s new at your church 
• A Plan Your Visit feature–for helping new visitors feel comfortable and equipped to come to your church 

Your church website builder should also be cost-effective. You shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to set up and run an awesome website for your church. 

5. Custom App Builder

Most church visitors and members expect you to have a custom app for your church. But building your own app may feel overwhelming–who has the time (or money) to hire a custom software developer?

Just like your custom website builder, there are also tools for building a custom app for church. 

An effective custom app builder for churches will include tools for:

• Customizing your church app to match your branding
• Sending push notifications to keep app users updated about what’s going on at your church 
• Messaging church members and even creating group chats to keep everyone organized, connected, and engaged
• Posting prayer requests so that your church family can stay united and engaged in prayer

Just like your website, your church app shouldn’t represent a new financial burden for your church. 

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6. Reporting

You need insight into your church growth. That includes attendance and financial giving. 

Effective reporting tools will help church leaders to see:

• Who is giving to your church regularly–and who has stopped giving
• Your growth of giving over the days, weeks, months, and more
• Your church attendance over time

Reporting shouldn’t take a PhD to figure out, either. Accessing insights on a single dashboard makes it simple to get insight fast. 

7. Church Management System (ChMS)

A church management system, or ChMS, can help you to better manage ongoing projects and initiatives within your church. It can also be a great way to ensure that everyone on staff is organized and keyed into what’s going on. 

A great church ChMS can help you:

• Manage workflows for different projects–ensuring everyone is on task to successfully accomplish goals and workflows
• Lead small groups with tools for managing groups and making sure everyone is thriving
• Monitor the financial health of your church with tools for reporting, processing cash and check gifts, and sending end-of-year giving statements

A ChMS should give you what you need to help your church members and staff thrive. 

8. Volunteer Management

Your church probably depends on quite a few volunteers to run a weekend service. 

Kids ministry, hospitality, security, parking, and book stores all need volunteers–and they all need a way to check in volunteers.

A tool for volunteer management can help you:

• Check in volunteers safely and securely across different rooms and locations
• Schedule volunteers for the right day and service

Keeping your volunteers organized is key to the health of your church–and especially your weekend services. 

9. Payment Tool

More churches than ever are selling merchandise, books, and even coffee. 

Using a payment tool like Stripe could help you process payments, but it won’t be integrated with the rest of your tools. 

Ideally, you’ll want to use a payment tool that’s created just for churches. 

The best payment tool for churches will allow you to take payment anytime, anywhere–and integrate cleanly with the rest of your toolkit. 

10. Church Media Kit

Your church’s website and social media accounts demand an ongoing stream of customized graphics. But most churches don’t have an in-house graphic designer–and hiring a freelancer can be expensive and time-consuming. 

To make it quick and easy to market your church’s weekend services, sermon series, and other events, you’ll want access to customizable media just for churches. 

The good news is that great media doesn’t have to cost you a penny. The best church media will come in a free kit that requires zero upfront payment. 

Get it All for Free with Tithe.ly

Here’s the good news: You can get all of the above with Tithe.ly All Access. 

The Tithe.ly All Access package includes everything you need to run your church successfully, including:

• An online giving platform 
• A CRM for storing contacts
• A messaging tool for staying connected with your church members
• A custom website builder 
• A custom app builder
• A church management system (ChMS)
• Volunteer management tools
• Reporting tools and a Giving Dashboard
• A payment tool (like Stripe) just for churches
• Free, customizable church media

Here’s the really good news: Just for the summer, you can get Tithe.ly All Access (all of the tools above) for free for 30 days….and we’ll waive the $149 set-up fee. 

If you want to learn more about getting Tithe.ly All Access for free, click here.