Statistician’s guide to member management

Church Social Concepts

Automatic member statistics

Church Social automatically generates detailed membership statistics. These statistics are largely based on the following dates:

• Birth dates
• Death dates
• Baptism dates
• Profession dates
• Marriages start and end dates
• Membership start and end dates

Choosing a start date

You will want to choose a date where your statistics officially start within the Church Social software. For example, you might select January 1st of the current year as your start date, though you could go back much earlier if you prefer—you will just have more data entry to do. It is important to enter all historical member data from your start date onward; otherwise, your statistics will be inaccurate. For instance, if your start date is January 1st and today is June 1st, a member who left on March 1st must still be entered to ensure your statistics reflect the full picture.

Managing Members

Memberships

A person is only considered a member if a membership record has been added to their profile. Without a membership record, a person is treated as a “non-member” and will not appear in the church photo directory.

Each member can have one or more membership records. Multiple records are useful when a member leaves the congregation and later returns. Instead of creating a completely new record, simply add a new membership period to their existing member record.

There are two types of memberships: “Member” and “Guest.” The “Guest” option allows a person to appear in the church photo directory without affecting church membership statistics.

Contact information

Contact information is assigned at the member level and includes fields such as address , home phone , work phone , mobile phone and email . The address and home phone are generally set for the primary family member but can differ for individual members if needed, This is helpful, for example, when a son or daughter has moved to college but remains a member of the congregation. The work phone , mobile phone and email fields are always specific to each member and are not shared like the home phone or address fields.

All members must have their own email address, as Church Social does not allow two members to share the same email. This is because the email functions as a member’s username when logging into the software. It is recommended that family members do not share accounts, since different members may have different permissions—for example, a father who is an elder may have access to more sensitive information. If needed, a member can register a free email address (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo).

Milestones

The software allows you to define two milestones for a member: their baptism and profession of faith. These dates are not required but are recommended for use in member statistics.

Parents

Parents are assigned at the member level and do not need to be in the same family as their children—for example, the parents of a married couple may be listed as a separate family. This information can be valuable for understanding family connections and for alerting office bearers to important dates, such as the death of a parent, for members in their shepherding group.

Marriages

Each member can have one or more marriage records. A member is only considered married if a marriage record has been added to their profile, and the marriage status must be set to Active for the family name to include both spouses. The start and end dates of a marriage are optional, but omitting them will reduce the accuracy of marriage statistics. Multiple marriage records are possible for members who are divorced or whose previous spouse has passed away. A member record must exist in the software for the spouse; if the spouse is not a member of the congregation, a record without a membership can be created. This "non-member" record will not appear in the church photo directory.

Deceased members

Deceased members should not be removed from the software for two main reasons. First, if the deceased person was a member, their membership record is necessary to maintain accurate statistical information. Second, keeping a record of the deceased member allows the software to track important dates, such as the death of a child, spouse, or parent. When combined with a marriage record, the software can even track anniversaries from a previous marriage—for example, an elderly member whose spouse has passed away.

Online access

You can give someone access to Church Social by setting Can login to Yes in their account. By default, all new accounts have online access disabled.

A person can have access to the software even if they don’t have an active membership. While this is rare, it can be useful in certain situations.

Non-member records

You may add non-members to your church database for various reasons, such as a member’s spouse who does not attend church or a deceased family member. Adding non-members allows you to keep a record of their contact information, important dates, and other relevant details, and makes this information available to office bearers. To add a non-member, simply create a new member profile without adding any membership records. For office bearers to view the non-member in the member photo directory, the non-member must still be assigned to a family. If appropriate, you may also grant the non-member login privileges.

Managing Families

General

The primary function of families in Church Social is to group members together for display in the member photo directory. Removing a member from a family does not delete their member record; it simply removes them from that particular family group. When entering data, member records should be created first, followed by the family records. Members with different last names can exist in one family, which is helpful for foster children or a spouse with a different last name. Since shepherding groups are assigned at the family level, all family members must belong to the same shepherding group; if a member belongs in a different shepherding group, a new family record should be created for them. If a family is uncomfortable with their information being visible online in Church Social you can remove or hide them.

Primary family members

Each family must have a primary family member. When creating a family, we recommend creating this member first. A member’s relation to the primary member determines their role within the family (e.g., spouse or child). The primary family member must be an "active" member for the family to appear in the photo directory. The family’s last name is taken from the primary family member’s last name. If the primary member has an active marriage and their spouse has been added to the family, the spouse’s name will also be included in the full family name.

Managing Office Bearers & Shepherding Groups

Office Bearers

You can assign as many office bearers to a shepherding group. Office bearers do not have to be assigned to a shepherding group, which is helpful for pastors. Making a member an office bearer automatically grants them access to more sensitive member information. This includes:

• Birth names
• Contact information
• Baptism status, date and church
• Profession date and church
• Mother & Father
• Marriage history
• Membership history

Shepherding groups

To create shepherding groups in Church Social, visit the Groups page. Choose "Shepherding Group" as the group type and assign office-bearers to the group as shown in the screenshot below:

You can change the name of your shepherding groups to match your churches' terminology by visiting the Groups settings page (you must be an administrator to view this page)