What is ChMS (church management software)?
A ChMS, or church management software, is the system a church uses to keep its people directory and run the ministries around it: groups, events, attendance, volunteers, communication and giving.
"ChMS" is the shorthand churches and vendors use for church management software. At minimum a ChMS holds the people directory: names, contact details, households, and who is a guest, a member or on staff. Most add tools that work from that directory, such as small groups, event registration, kids check-in, volunteer scheduling, giving records and church-wide email.
The value of a ChMS is that every ministry works from one list of people. When the kids team, the small-groups pastor and the treasurer each keep their own spreadsheet, a family's new address gets updated in one place and goes stale in three.
When you compare ChMS options, check:
- whether you can pay only for the parts you use;
- whether volunteers can be given narrow, specific access;
- how your data gets in (and out);
- whether members get an app they will actually open.
Churchory is a ChMS built for small and mid-size churches: each product (Groups, Sunday, Kids, Care and more) runs on one shared people directory, or you can get everything with Churchory One.