Conclusion
There is no ‘correct’ solution that will work well for every church and I have only been able to give a very brief overview of the options here, skipping much of the detail. It is interesting that CB has grown out of a conservative evangelical context. Does its highly functional but not particularly aesthetically pleasing approach reflect CE culture? iKnow and CA feel very appropriate for large charismatic churches with their ability to handle multi-site and hands-on approaches to overseeing small group life. CI manages to bridge quite a number of cultures in its highly customisable approach, even though it began life in New Frontiers.
Nothing beats getting stuck into the websites and free trials that these companies offer. It does take time to get to know the software and you could easily spend half a day looking at each and still feel like you’re only scratching the surface. Talking to people who have deployed some of these different solutions has been a great way to get a handle on strengths and weaknesses. But each church is different, and so are the needs and expectations. In many ways it’s only when you ‘go live’ with a new system that you’ll really know if it works for your particular church. There will always be a bit of give-and-take when a new solution arrives with new workflows to learn and new structures to inhabit. The amount of time spent on evaluation, setup and familiarisation should not be underestimated, and the decision should to involve key stakeholders from the earliest of stages.
Five years ago none of these solutions existed in the form they are in now. In fact only CI is more than 5 years old! Who knows where things will be in 5 years’ time!? These solutions provide great tools to help coordinate people for ministry. They won’t build the church (God’s Spirit does that through the word), but they might just help people have a bit less stress over administration to allow a bit more space for the God’s people to get on with their works of service.
This article originally appeared in Church Society’s quarterly magazine, CrossWay. All facts were correct at the time of going to print (April 2015).