ChMS of the Top 10 Largest Churches
Last October, Joel Lingenfelter had an interesting post titled, “ChMS,- What do the big guys use?” He listed the church management software used by each of the top 10 largest churches are reported by Outreach magazine.
For convenience, I will reprint his list below:
3 Churches use FellowshipOne (Lakewood Church, Lifechurch.tv, and Fellowship Church)
3 Churches use Arena (Willow Creek, North Point Community Church, and Southeast Christian Church)
1 Church uses iMIS from Advanced Solutions International (Second Baptist Houston)
1 Church uses ACS (Woodlands Church)
1 Church wrote their own database. (Saddleback)
1 Church still uses Shelby V5 with a lot of custom code on top, but is evaluating other solutions (Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale)
As a disclaimer, this list was compiled in early fall, 2009 so I am not sure if this list is still current. Nevertheless, Joel makes this comment, “you should think twice before writing your own system, no matter how much better you think it will be. The work involved and the money that you will spend is huge.” While I agree that building your own ChMS is a daunting and costly task, there is a third option here that is worth consideration….buy and build! It is not until recently that some of the ChMS providers have begin releasing APIs which gives churches the ability to extend the software for their own specific needs. Fellowship One released their API in June, 2009. I think buy and build is the best way to go. This is the approach Second Baptist Church took after writing their own ChMS (and not just once, but twice). Their latest ChMS (iMIS by Advanced Solutions Internation) includes a very mature API that has allowed SBC to develop several modules specific to their ministry processes.
Larger churches should definitely give priority to those solutions that offer APIs when choosing a ChMS.
About Equip Them
Equip Them focuses on technology as tools for evangelism and spiritual formation in the church and family. It is the personal blog of David Drinnon, pastor and Director of Information Technology and Websites at Second Baptist Church, Houston, TX. The opinions and views expressed on this site are his own and do not necessarily represent those of his church.
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