ENABLE
BLOG
Ministry Spotlight: GraceWorks Ministries Inc.
In 1995, a small group of concerned neighbors and faith leaders in Williamson County, Tennessee, came together to formulate a comprehensive, collaborative solution to the complex issue of poverty in their community. The ministry they began, GraceWorks Ministries Inc., was and is guided by its motto, “Neighbor serving Neighbor, by the power of God’s grace.”…
Five Ways Older Technology Devices are Threatening Your Church
Older technology devices may very well be one of the biggest security threats in your ministry. Unfortunately, most churches do not fully understand this hazard. Old devices often have known vulnerabilities that make them an easy target for attackers. They can use these vulnerabilities to compromise your ministry and its data. Saving money by extending…
Are You Missing the Opportunity to Use Your Data to Minister More Effectively?
With today’s church management software and technology systems, churches can track and utilize data for ministry to a degree not enjoyed by churches at any other time in history. The modern church’s ability to collect, retain, organize, and utilize member and ministry data provides endless ministry opportunities; nevertheless, in our work, we find that most…
7 Ways Your Church Can Serve Your Schools
It’s that time of year. Summer break is coming to a close, and we welcome the start of the school year. Parents meet teachers, students get their schedules, and the back-to-school hustle begins. With school back in session, and it being a taxing time for teachers, this is a key time for your church to…
Manage Your Technology So That Your Ministry Is Not Disrupted
Churches today depend increasingly on technology to enable, support, and streamline ministry activities and operations. Our church partners utilize a growing array of applications, tools, software, and social media platforms to manage ministry and engage with participants and volunteers. They must therefore manage technology assets strategically and intentionally to ensure that they don’t experience disruptions…
When Helpful Technology Hinders Ministry
In too many churches, the very technology resources that have so much potential to enable and support ministry may actually be hindering ministry efforts by creating complexity and frustration for the staff. Why is this so? And can it be prevented? There are seemingly a thousand and one technology tools available to help you accomplish…
Microsoft 365 Tools vs Other Apps
Utilizing Microsoft 365 Tools to Enable Ministry Simple and clear communication is essential in any organization, and a church is no different. Beyond face-to-face meetings, vital communication occurs in emails, group texts, project planning apps, virtual meeting apps, note-taking platforms, survey tools, etc. With communication options, you name it—it’s out there. Wouldn’t it be great…
Ministry Spotlight: Cherry Hills Community Church
At the dawn of the new year in 2023, something extraordinary was happening with our friends at Cherry Hills Community Church (“CHCC”) in the Denver area. Amid exciting growth and a dynamic increase in attendance, they were also witnessing a significant strengthening of cohesion, unity, service, and love within their staff team. However, things…
Technology Travel Tips: Dos and Don’ts
While technology can be a great blessing to our personal and ministry lives, it also carries a built-in burden. The laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc., that make much of our daily life easier store valuable personal, financial, and transactional data about us. When data of this type finds itself in the wrong hands, bad actors can…
Six Reasons to Go Serverless
The server is one of your church or organization’s most crucial technology devices. Although, very likely, servers are a vital part of your daily ministry operations, you might not even know they exist. A server is a device that accepts and responds to requests made over a network. For example, imagine you want to print…
Trust but Verify – Critical for Keeping Your Data Safe
In today’s world, the threat of cybercrime is everywhere but by implementing Trust but Verify, this can help keep your data safe. Imagine for a moment, though, that you have implemented unique, complex passwords, multi-factor authentication, and anti-phishing services. You can kick back and relax because you have done everything right, right? Oh, how we wish…
10 Vital Cybersecurity Tips for Churches
Cybersecurity rightfully occupies a spot at the forefront of the news today and is a topic of great concern for leadership in churches, ministries, businesses, and organizations of every kind. The concept can be overwhelming to many, and unfortunately, too many churches do not have a comprehensive strategy in place to prevent attacks from those…
Is Your Church Vulnerable to This New Class of Cyberattacks?
Churches Continue to be Prime Targets for Social Engineering Scams and Email Attacks Recently at Enable Ministry Partners, we have witnessed a rash of compromised (hacked) email accounts amongst churches and some of our clients. Compromised accounts pose dangerous security risks to churches and other organizations. Once an account is compromised, attackers can send any…
One of the Most Powerful Discipleship Tools You May Not Be Taking Advantage Of
Long thought of as primarily a management application to track and administer the finances, people, and activities of the church, modern church management software (“ChMS”) may also be one of the most powerful tools a church has to execute and enhance its discipleship process. A Very Brief History of Church Management Software The earliest…
Beware Phishers of Men: 5 Ways to Prevent Their Attacks and 5 Ways to Minimize the Damage After You’ve Been Hit.
At Enable, we are seeing an ever-increasing number of “phishing” schemes and other types of cyberattacks directed towards churches. For a variety of reasons, cybercriminals have identified churches as an attractive and potentially lucrative target. In this article we describe and analyze a recent church-focused phishing attack and provide 10 concrete steps you can take…
Coping with Annoying Printer Problems
After 22 years of providing technology services and consulting to churches, Enable Ministry Partners team members know only too well that annoying printer problems can be a major headache and source of frustration for church staff. Not only do balky printers disrupt workflow and productivity, but they can also pose a significant drain on resources…
Effective Staff Training: How to Decrease Mistakes and Errors
It is 2023! The new year is upon us and now everyone is back at their desk, scrambling because they cannot remember where they stored last year’s mission trip report or how to save their New Year’s photos to the One Drive. Whether it has been a year since your initial staff training or you…
New City Church’s 32-hour Workweek: A Cure for Ministry Burnout?
As part of the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, many workers and organizations are reconsidering traditional work arrangements and thinking differently about work/life tradeoffs. Churches are right in the middle of this conversation, with many describing an increased experience of “ministry burnout” amongst their staff. So, is “ministry burnout” merely a short-term response to a…
7 Key Questions to Ask To Ensure You Get More Helpful Data from Your Current or Future Church Management Software System
In the past several years, I’ve served as a facilitator to over 45 churches to assist them in either selecting a new church management software package (“ChMS”) or helping them to optimize and get the most out of their existing system. The process I go through with them always involves assisting the church staff in…
Ministry Spotlight: FBC Broken Arrow’s Hunger Ministry
Our partners at First Baptist Church in Broken Arrow (“FBCBA”) are guided by a mission “to reach Broken Arrow and beyond by multiplying disciples to follow Jesus.” By faithfully living out this mission for many years, FBCBA has developed Hunger Ministry that was not initially planned and that many did not even realize was needed. …
Recharge and Unplug
To the overworked worship pastor, exhausted preacher, and the ministry assistant up to her eyebrows in check-in sheets, this is for you. After spending the past three years in a full-time ministry position, I am aware of the amount of effort it takes to keep a well-oiled ministry department running effectively. Most of us know that…
Recent Church Management Software Mergers: Can They Pose a Threat to Your Church?
How Can Church Management Software Mergers Pose a Threat to Your Church? In this article, we identify some of the recent major church management software (“ChMS”) company mergers and sales. We also share four key questions you can ask to analyze whether an individual sale or this pattern of acquisitions, sales, and mergers of ChMS…
3 Easy Fixes for Common Computer Issues
During a recent conversation with some of our Enable staff, we discussed three common, nagging computer issues that church staff struggle with regularly. While relatively minor, these issues often cause frustrations and delays that are easily avoided. Below, we provide some quick, simple, and practical ways to help fix these common problems that may…
Enable Webinar | MS 365 Productivity Power-Ups
In part two of this Microsoft 365 Teams mini-series, we have cultivated this list to help you manage your workflow expectations. Click below to find several helpful tips to generate successful productivity within Teams. Find Time Scheduling meetings with multiple people is a snap with this easy-to-use tool. Check out this easy-to-follow demo on Find…
Protect Your Church and Nonprofit From Cyber Criminals
Protect Your Church and Nonprofit From Cyber Criminals Cybercrime is not restricted solely to large corporations and industries as one may think. Often, churches and nonprofits are targeted and fall victim to these cyberattacks. In this webinar, we partnered with Ministry Pacific to discuss the importance of improving your organizations cybersecurity. Also in this video,…
Enable Webinar | MS 365 Essential Features
In this Webinar series we have curated a list of Microsoft 365 Essential Features for you to quickly review specific items within Teams. In this mini-series you will find several quick guides to these popular “Essentials” within Teams. Chat Perfect for quick, informal chats between you and one or two other people. Replaces text messages…
4 Reasons Why Your Church MUST Include IT in Your Construction Planning
There are many things to think about when planning a construction project for a new or renovated church building. Purpose and need, city building codes, emergency exit routes, fire codes, functionality and design, and a myriad of other things must be considered. One especially important thing that often gets pushed to the backburner is the…
File Management 101
While these tips are written in the context of Microsoft Teams, the basic principles can be applied to whichever file sharing & storing platform you use, be it Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc. One of the most important aspects of a collaborative work environment is file storing and sharing. Our favorite file management platform…
Enable’s Ultimate Guide to Successful Videoconferencing
No matter the industry or job title, videoconferencing is pretty much par for the course in today’s work environment. Connecting remotely with people, no matter where you are in the world, is an incredible aspect of the world we live in, and the events of the last few years have made it more common and accessible…
IT vs. Legal: Where to Draw the Line?
Because technology and the IT department are so intimately integrated into so many areas of a church’s operations, there is often a question of where the responsibility for particular policies or recommendations falls. Some believe that IT should drive specific policies because those policies are so closely intertwined with, and enabled by, technology solutions. Others…
Does My Church Need Cyber Liability Insurance?
An All-Too Common Scenario You hear a new story almost every day. Cybercriminals use social engineering to bypass technology safeguards and security protection to infiltrate email systems, bank accounts, credit card accounts, member databases, and other areas containing sensitive data. The criminals then utilize the data to steal money and identities, create access for future…
Ministry Spotlight: The Rowen Glenn Center
The Need Brentwood Baptist Church has had a unique calling to radically care for the special needs community of Middle Tennessee for a long time. Seven years ago, more and more families with individuals impacted by disability started coming to church, and very quickly it became apparent that there was a very large community with…
Office 365: A Powerful All-in-One Platform
Office 365: A Powerful Platform that Enables Ministry, Enhances Stewardship, and Elevates Performance There are seemingly a thousand and one technology tools available to help you accomplish all the things you need to get done in a typical workday. From communicating with your team, planning and building out projects, creating presentations and visuals, conducting virtual…
Enable Webinar | How NOT To Hate Your ChMS
Often times in the church setting you see staff getting frustrated with their ChMS. This usually occurs when they don’t fully understand how the ChMS operates. This frustration can cause you to look for the “new and improved” software that will solve all of your problems. In January we partnered with The Church Network Webinar…
Ministry Spotlight: Thompson Station Church Partnership – Mazatlán, Mexico
Thompson Station Church (“TSC”), located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, has a unique partnership with a church in Mazatlán, Mexico. Alongside longtime missionaries Joe and Laurie Pacheco, TSC has been sending teams down to Mazatlán and partnering with Spirit and Truth Church for over 15 years. The Pachecos have been serving as the lead pastors…
Enable Webinar | The Top 5 Overlooked IT Functions Related to Church Facilities
We partnered with Lee Cool and Smart Church Solutions to chat about The Top 5 Overlooked IT Functions Related to Church Facilities. Enable superstars Elliott Wood and Travis Phipps share their insight on the intersection of IT and church facilities, from network connection to large scale construction projects. Facilities and IT are so intertwined and present so many…
Ministry Spotlight: Tallowood Baptist Church’s Multicultural Worship Service
Our friends at Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, TX hosted a Multicultural Worship Service at the end of the year, and it was a beautiful representation of the picture painted in Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples…
How to Fix Issues Opening Shared OneDrive Links
Microsoft 365’s OneDrive (and Teams/SharePoint) file sharing is a super helpful tool for accessing your files from anywhere on any device and sharing those files with coworkers and other collaborators. However, there is a “trick” to fix issues opening shared OneDrive links and making this file sharing process seamless. Many OneDrive users become frustrated when…
Ministry Spotlight: UpRise Nashville
UpRise: Creating Lasting Change UpRise Nashville is a ministry that perfectly embodies our mission of Changing Lives by Serving Those Who Serve. UpRise is a career development program based in Nashville, Tennessee that primarily serves those who are impacted by financial poverty. UpRise takes a holistic approach to helping the program participants, called Leaders, by…
How to Get the Help You Need from Your “IT Guy”
You are busy, and your technology doesn’t seem to understand that you don’t have time for glitches. You’re already late for your meeting and of course now the printer decides not to work. That file you worked on for hours yesterday seems nowhere to be found today. The report you’re trying to pull just isn’t…
Cybersecurity in the Real World: Spooky Stories From Real Churches Just Like You
Cybersecurity attacks can feel like vague, distant, ambiguous things that “happen to other people.” It’s easy to kid ourselves into thinking we’d never fall for a cyberattack, but the unfortunate reality is that this happens to incredibly smart and accomplished people all of the time. Cybersecurity attacks aren’t so obvious anymore, and they’re not passive…
The Ultimate Guide to Microsoft OneNote
OneNote is a digital notebook that automatically saves and syncs your notes as you work. You can organize your content into different notebooks that you can then divide into sections and pages. OneNote allows you to revise your notes with type, highlighting, or ink annotations. With easy navigation and search, you can always find your…
The Current Top 12 Key Words in Phishing Emails
Phishing emails are on the rise and we expect it to stay that way. The team at Expel decided to dissect exactly how cyber criminals are enticing their victims to open and engage with spam campaigns. They analyzed ten thousand malicious emails to determine the top keywords “bad actors” are using in their email subject…
The Guest Experience: 7 Tangible Ways to Maximize Ministry Opportunities
There has been so much change over the last year and a half and so many shifts for people in their personal and public lives. Many people are excited to get back to their “old life” and attend things in person after missing that for so long, and some have taken this opportunity to visit…
Multi-Factor Authentication: A Must-Have for your Church!
Multi-factor authentication (“MFA”) has emerged as an important tool to provide an additional level of verification beyond user passwords to protect information systems and user data. The goal of MFA is to verify identity and to make sure that the person logging into an account really is the person they are claiming to be. MFA…
Recent Uptick in Phishing Emails Targeting Churches
The unfortunate truth is that cyber criminals are getting smarter and sneakier with their attacks, and we have seen an increase in phishing emails preying on churches specifically as of late. These cyber criminals are smart, and they know that churches are “in the business” of caring for and helping people. They create false scenarios…
Ministry Spotlight: Second Presbyterian Church Pop-Up VBS
This month’s ministry spotlight feature was written by team member Elle Snyder, a member of Enable’s marketing team. Elle lives in Memphis, Tennessee and attends Second Presbyterian Church. She served as a volunteer for Second’s VBS program this summer, and shares about her church’s unique approach to their annual summer program. Our communities are still…
Rebooting Your Computer: Keeping Your Computer Healthy
Whenever one of our clients comes to us with a computer issue, one of the very first things our engineers do is restart, or “reboot” your computer. Oftentimes, this one simple step solves the problem. Getting into the habit of rebooting your computer on a regular basis provides many benefits for the health and lifespan…
Kid Min Tech Trends 2021
Check out the top eight technology trends we’ve seen developing in Children’s Ministry this year, plus ideas for how you can implement them in your own church! 1. APPS FOR INTERACTIVE BIBLE STORIES Kids are used to engaging with online resources for learning in school and life in general, so allow them to connect with…
Enable Webinar | Church in the Cloud
In this webinar, we are breaking down the benefits, considerations, costs, and savings of moving your church over to the cloud. While moving an entire church or organization over to a cloud-based solution is extremely beneficial, there are some important considerations to make before doing so – it’s not quite as easy as just pressing…
Simplify Cybersecurity: Three Critical Things you Must be Doing in 2021 to Protect your Church
Cybersecurity can feel overwhelming. We get it. We really do. It feels like there are so many things you should be and could be doing, and honestly, that is the truth. Cybersecurity requires an active and preventative approach, much like insurance. You must be proactive and invest in security measures before something bad happens. And…
The Enable Guide to Church Digital Signage
Digital signage is a great way for churches to communicate with members and the surrounding community, and most of our church partners use it in some form. The complexity of digital signage can range from a large colorful road side sign with a scrolling RSS feed to a small kiosk display that rotates through a…
Why You Need A Password Manager
It’s not news that secure passwords are the number one end-user security measure you can take to ensure you are safe online. Surely by now you’ve heard how dangerous it is to use the same password for every account you have — but remembering multiple strong passwords is very difficult. How many times have you…
Enable Webinar | Microsoft Tasks by Planner and To Do for Churches
Tasks by Planner and To Do is an amazing new feature from Microsoft that allows for seamless task management functionality inside of Teams. Enable’s Dallas Fort Worth Office Manager Melody Parlett does a great job of showing us how it works and what it can do for your church. In this 20-minute webinar we show you…
Ministry Spotlight: Celebrate Jesus at Tallowood Baptist Church
When people reflect about the phrase, “Celebrate Jesus” many of us think about Advent candles, garland and wreaths, nativity scenes or beautifully wrapped Christmas presents. At Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, TX, we think of camels named Larry, Christmas carolers singing hymns next to a lit fireplace, children playing games and hearing stories of Jesus’…
Tech Tip: Configure Your Multi-Monitor Office Setup
This is a simple technology tip to help anyone setting up a multi-monitor office. This past year, the amount of home office set-ups has increased exponentially, and inclement weather this winter has forced even more to work from home in recent months. These situations inevitably include lots of tech issues, and our Service Desk has…
Tackling the Data Issue with 11 Tips for Keeping your Church Data Clean
A common complaint surrounding most churches’ relationships with their Church Management Software (ChMS) comes in some form of a lack of trust in the data contained in their system. One of the main reasons for keeping track of data for a church is to enable more intentional ministry. Needs can be known, tracked, and met,…
Enable Webinar | Microsoft Teams for Churches
Remote working is not new to any of us anymore. It’s simply the way things are and how the world works. And because we’re all remote, we understand the importance of being connected to your coworkers and working together in the most productive way. We feel like Microsoft Teams does the best job at this,…
Lessons from 2020: Online Ministry Beyond the Couch
To understate the matter considerably, What a year it has been! We have endured political strife, social and racial unrest, and a COVID-19 epidemic that has wrought massive changes in the way we worship, work, shop, engage, connect, educate our children, and do just about everything else in our daily life. Understandably, many are eager…
Ministry Spotlight: Christmas at Northwest Bible Church
The birth of Christ is something we should celebrate to the fullest extent, no matter the circumstances, and Northwest Bible Church in Dallas is doing just that. This year, their team really flexed their creative muscles to dream up a beautiful online Christmas Eve service for their online community. This season is a time for…
Distribution List vs. Shared Mailbox | Microsoft 365
A common issue that we’ve seen among our clients is best practices for communicating with larger groups of people. Often, there are simple and efficient solutions for these types of common problems, so today we want to share a quick tip that you can implement today to simplify communicating with your team. If you have…
“Marie Kondo” Your Files: The Cloud, OneDrive, & Teams
According to the Marie Kondo method, if something doesn’t bring you joy, it’s time to toss it. While unfortunately this concept can’t apply to every aspect of your work life, when it comes to your job, applying a similar principle CAN potentially bring you joy. Holding on to files that you don’t actually need or use anymore simply leads…
What is The Cloud and How Can it Help my Church?
The Cloud is a concept that is integral to today’s online world, especially in the realm of remote work, file storage and access, and the secure backup of data. While it really is a simple and incredibly helpful thing, often times it only takes a few seconds of talking about “syncing your files to the…
Enable Webinar | How to Ensure Your Church is SAFE Online
How to Ensure Your Church is SAFE Online: 8 Myths Executive Pastors and Church Administrators Believe About Cyber Security Now, more than ever, online security is crucial. We partnered with Mortarstone for this webinar to bust 8 common myths surrounding cybersecurity, and clear up the confusion and panic that many churches feel when they…
Teams as a Phone System and How to Use It
Teams Calling Microsoft Teams is a one-stop-shop for groups to collaborate easily and efficiently, and it has become an especially helpful tool right now during the global pandemic when many churches and staff are still working remotely. One awesome feature we want to highlight today is Teams Calling. Calling is used within the Microsoft Teams…
Ministry Spotlight: Crievewood Baptist Church
A Tragic Event Tuesday, June 25, 2019 is a date that staff and members of Crievewood Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee will long remember. On that night, Crievewood was targeted and attacked by an arsonist. Crievewood was not alone in these attacks; it was but one of several churches who fell victim over a week’s…
Enable Webinar | Volunteers & Microsoft Teams
Watch the FREE webinar below! DON’T HAVE AN HOUR? Download the Webinar Cheat Sheet: Submit In this webinar we explored how one church in Texas is effectively using Teams to engage their volunteers, and show you how you can, too! We love Microsoft Office 365 and specifically the Teams tool here at Enable. It…
Communication Tools for Church Meetings
While multiple options for communication tools is no new thing, the major shift to remote work in every industry has greatly increased the need for powerful, effective, user-friendly collaborative communication tools. In the church realm, there are multiple situations where different groups of people need to communicate in different capacities. There is staff-to-staff communication (both…
Strategic Planning for Ministry: 4 Hidden Ways Technology Impacts Your Ministry
In our latest webinar, we explore why strategic planning is vitally important for stewardship and ministry effectiveness, AND how your IT budget and technology equipment impacts your ministry in ways you might not know. While your church’s budgetary process is a key piece of strategizing for technology, it is about so much more than that.…
Staying Ahead of the Curve: Strategic Planning for Ministry
“In ministry, time spent in strategic technology planning and preparation is never time wasted.” Increasingly, churches are investing in technology to support and enable a wide variety of ministry functions. Certainly, this was true before the imposition of quarantines and shelter orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the meeting restrictions and rules put in…
Enable Webinar | Pastor Panel: Ministry Strategies for 2020
We asked a group of pastors and thought leaders from some of our church clients to talk through their ministry approach for the rest of this year, during this time of uncertainty and transition. Our panelists offer honest insights and their willingness to share their thoughts (and even uncertainties) as we all navigate ministry changes…
Return-To-Site: The Technology Checklist
Various local, state, and federal governments are beginning to release plans for reopening workplaces, churches, and other public spaces. Different government entities are recommending different timetables, strategies and plans, so people everywhere are considering the steps that they must take to be prepared to “re-enter” daily life in their specific context. As church doors begin…
Enable’s Top Work-From-Home Tips: Parents Edition
While some of us have hit our stride after a few weeks of working from home, others are still struggling to adjust to the new routine. Having small children at home can make this adjustment much more difficult – while we all love our kids, little ones are the best/worst distractions. We asked the parents…
A Guide to Security and Privacy In Strange Times
During these unprecedented times of “social distancing,” “shelter-in-place,” and “stay-at-home” orders, everyone is having to learn or experiment with new technology and work habits. For many people, this will mark their first exposure to remote work and virtual settings. With these new realities comes a need to not only remember a few fundamental security tips,…
How to Host a Virtual All-Staff Meeting on Teams
Virtual meetings offer tons of benefits for meeting together in situations that prevent in-person interaction, and as a company with multiple offices and locations, Enable has been using this option for years! Depending on the size of your staff, an all-staff in-person meeting might sound like an ordeal to organize, but using a virtual option…
Online Giving Tips From the Pros
We “sat down” last Friday with two experts in the online processing space to discuss the current giving environment. During our conversation we asked them to provide any recommendations they felt were especially important for churches that wanted to be more successful with their online giving efforts right now. Our interviewees have many years of…
Crucial Giving Considerations in the Midst of Crisis
Over the past couple of weeks as we have talked with the many churches we serve, two primary questions have dominated our conversations. First, how can our staff and volunteers utilize technology to communicate, work, serve and minister effectively given the restrictions on our ability to be physically present? In additions to assisting individual churches…
Serving in the Midst of the Storm
We are so excited to see the many churches who have stepped up in the last few weeks to transition to online services and a staff that works from home. You have continued the core functions of the church, including worship, teaching, prayer, and encouragement. You have let people know that the church can adapt and will…
Enable’s Top Work-From-Home Tips
Are you new to working from home? Here are our top tips from Enable’s Work-From-Home pros. 1. Optimize Your Work Setting Create a dedicated work space. Defining the lines between your work space at home and your living space at home does wonders for helping you feel balanced and energized. It doesn’t have to…
Enable COVID-19 Resources: Quick Links
This is a one-stop-shop resource for all of the content we have written and compiled for you pertaining to COVID-19 and its effects on our work lives. Our goal is to provide a central location for best practices and tools to help you work remotely, collaborate with staff, leadership, members, and guests, and to help…
Enable Webinar | Microsoft Teams Live Q&A
Microsoft Teams is a platform that Enable and our clients have found invaluable to a functioning work environment for remote collaboration. The recent situation surrounding the spread of COVID-19 and the associated impacts to working environments means that church teams need resources to communicate with one another remotely. Teams can help you and your coworkers…
Tips for Hosting Virtual Small Groups and Other Volunteer-Led Remote Meetings
When meeting in person just isn’t feasible, video and audio conferencing can provide an alternative way for groups to still meet live! Virtual meetings are much better than not meeting at all, and today’s technology provides options that can feel incredibly similar to being together in the flesh. We hope some of the suggestions below…
Plan B Hospitality: When Traditional Methods Won’t Work
Updated December 2020 Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. As you well know, many traditional church and hospitality practices have been roadblocked this year to protect public health. By this point, we have all transitioned from working off of contingency plans into more permanent situations. Since March, all churches have ridden the roller…
Microsoft Teams: A Quick-Start Guide
Microsoft Teams is a platform that Enable and our clients find invaluable to a functioning flexible collaborative working environment. We created this guide to explain the features of Teams and to help as many churches as possible know about and be able to use this resource. What is Microsoft Teams The best way to…
A Roadmap for Implementing IT Security in Your Church: Part 2
Cybercrime and the threats and risks associated with various types IT security breaches are a real and growing trend. And while churches are a chosen target of this trend, too many churches are simply not prepared to protect themselves against cyberattacks. The bottom line is that IT security is one of the most important considerations for any…
A Roadmap for Implementing IT Security in Your Church: Part 1
Today, IT security and cybercrime are topics that relentlessly demand the attention of anyone charged with the leadership of a church, ministry, school, business, or any other type of organization. The threats and risks associated with cyberattacks are real and growing. It should no longer surprise anyone in church leadership that churches are a chosen target of…
Begin With the End in Mind
Data Analytics Series | Part 2 In Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he identifies Habit 2 as “begin with the end in mind.” This concept is directly applicable to the topic of analytics. Our world is awash in data. Data, in and of itself, can be more confusing than helpful if you…
Enable Webinar | You Ask, We Answer
In our new webinar series, You Ask, We Answer, one of our Senior Engineers and Strategy Consultants tackle the most common church IT and strategy questions our clients run into every day in an interactive Q&A session. In this month’s webinar, they cover everything from managing IT, to the Cloud, to choosing the right vendor,…
An Introduction to Analytics: What’s the Big Deal?
Data Analytics Series | Part 1 If you’ve recently walked through an airport, flipped through a business magazine, viewed any commercials on tv, or paid attention to almost any news source, you have likely heard terms such as “Big Data,” “data analytics,” “business intelligence” and “artificial intelligence.” For many, these terms are more mysterious than…
Everything You Need to Know About Mobile Device Security
It is no secret that we live in a “mobile” world. Our expectations for the availability of connectivity and robust computing power continue to extend to more types of devices, in ever smaller forms that travel with us wherever we go. And we expect all of them to connect seamlessly with all the other devices…
The Do’s and Don’ts of Church IT Security | Enable Webinar Series
Why should you care about cybersecurity? Because your church’s network, environment, data, and the people behind all of that are important! Securing these things shouldn’t be an afterthought. In this webinar, Do’s and Dont’s of Church Security, we talk about the most common cybersecurity threats all organizations face today, including social engineering, passwords, email & download…
Dark Web Research: Is Your Personal Data Safe?
These days it seems we can’t go even one week without hearing about another data breach or leak of our personal information. And all too often, these data dumps include very personal information as well as our email addresses, usernames, and even our passwords. But how do IT security researchers find out about these breaches and recapture the data that has been stolen? They…
Content & DNS Filtering: A Preventative Approach
While not always understood as such, content filtering is a critical security component of technology environments in churches, ministries, schools, and almost every other organization as well. While your church has probably implemented some content filtering by now, you may not understand the breadth of security benefits it can provide. What is Content Filtering,…
VPN: Secure Access Anytime Anywhere
What do you do when you have work to do and can’t make it into the church office? How do you gain access to the church files or systems you need to use so that you can do your job from home or other locations outside the church? These are very common questions posed by…
Technology Checklist for a Busy Sunday | Enable Webinar Series
Check out our latest webinar: Technology Checklist for a Busy Sunday. There are a few times every year when attendance at church spikes dramatically, and the Christmas season is one of those. The influx of guests creates opportunities to connect with and minister to people who are not usually in church, but it may also…
Secure Wi-Fi for Churches: A Necessity, Not A Luxury
The Expectation: Robust, “All-the-time” Internet Access Today, people have an expectation of always-on connectivity and anytime access to Internet resources for information, banking, shopping, research, entertainment, social interaction, reading, communicating and so much more. They can get angry and frustrated when they cannot get online—even when flying in an airplane or traveling in fairly remote…
Office 365: The Extras | Enable Webinar Series
Check out the fourth and final installment of our Office 365 Webinar Series, a look at some of the “extra” tools included in O365. We want to help churches understand these applications, so that you can maximize the resources available! By getting the most out of these features, you can improve your work flow and ultimately…
How do I Create an IT Budget for my Church?
UPDATED FEBRUARY 2021 Technology as a Ministry Enabler Today, technology assumes a prominent place in the work of ministry. Education, communication, collaboration, evangelism, discipleship, training, operations, financial management, events, human resource management, compliance, and many other areas are all supported by technology. A myriad of hardware, software, technology processes, equipment, applications, and other options exist…
SIEM: Powerful Tools to Deal with Dangerous Cyberthreats
Throughout the series of articles that we have been posting on the blog in 2019, we have referred to the increasing intensity, frequency, and sophistication of the cybersecurity threats that churches are battling. Given the type of personal data maintained by churches, whether in their church management system (ChMS) or other data sources, churches are…
Patching: An Easy Way to Increase the Security of your Church Technology
A Consistent Patching Process is Vital to the Security of your Church Technology Network Humans are fantastic examples of God’s creativity and design. As evidence of this fact, humans are capable of creating magnificent, complicated masterpieces like beautiful works of art or…computer software. Yep, computer software. You may never have considered computer software in the…
Disk Encryption: Preventing Unauthorized Access to your Data
In other posts covering the security of your church’s information technology infrastructure, we have covered topics such as multi-factor authentication, UTM firewalls, email security practices, password management, security training, and the implementation of documented security policies. Even if all of these policies are observed conscientiously, there are still opportunities for cybercriminals to wreak havoc on…
Office 365: Collaboration | Enable Webinar Series
Check out the third installment of our Office 365 Webinar Series, a focus on the collaboration tools included in O365. We want to help churches understand the in’s and out’s of these applications, so that you can maximize the resources that are included in the Office 365 E1 (and above) package, which is available at a…
UTM Firewall: What is it and How Does it Work?
It is not news to most church staff (or almost anyone else in the developed world) that the instance and potential impact of cyber-attacks is expanding at an exponential level. Not only are churches not immune from this trend, but, with increasing regularity, they are a chosen target of this trend. This heightened cyber threat environment presents…
Ministry Spotlight: Brentwood Baptist Church Medical Dental Unit
Meeting people’s pressing physical needs is a practical and impactful avenue for sharing the gospel – it’s precisely what Jesus did! Throughout the Gospels, we read account after account of Jesus healing a physical problem and then sharing the deeper spiritual healing that He also offers. Jesus actively sought out people and was committed to…
Beyond Backup: Ministry Continuity
The discussion of technology security goes beyond cybercrime and hacking. It also must focus on the backup of important technology data and assets. The importance of data backup is not a new idea. Churches and other organizations have long recognized the importance of backing up their critical data. Your important church data resides in several…
Ministry Spotlight: For Every Alaskan
Alaska is a place of irony. It is easily one of the most beautiful spots in the world, boasting stunning scenery and teeming with wildlife. At the same time, it is a place filled with brokenness and pain. The levels of drug abuse, rape, depression, and suicide are alarmingly high among the population of Alaska.…
Email Security: The Keys to the Kingdom
You may be familiar with some version of an all too common nightmare email story. A trusted manager receives an urgent email requesting immediate action. Their superior is traveling, does not have cell service, and is unable to connect to the financial accounts or systems. An important payment to a partner, missionary, or vendor is…
Enforced Security Policies: Not Just Rules for Rules’ Sake
I’m sure everyone can find traffic laws to be frustrating at times. What if you knew that there were no consequences for speeding or running a stop sign? Most of us would probably do it when we thought we could safely. However, that would very likely result in many wrecks, injuries, and worse! If there…
Employee Security Training: Your Most Powerful Tool in the Cybersecurity Fight
Imagine that you have installed the most expensive, state-of-the-art security system available to protect your home. A technology marvel, it combines heat sensors, motion detection, hair-trigger alarms, sophisticated locks, intrusion barriers—the whole works. It is a system capable of frustrating and bewildering the most seasoned criminal. But such a system can actually be defeated quite…
The IT Security Assessment: A Critical Check-Up for your Church
IT Security Assessments: Why? Most states require yearly safety inspections for vehicles to ensure that they are safe for operation. When driving a compromised car, you pose a potential danger to not only yourself but also to those who share the road with you. Safety inspections often uncover issues of which the driver is completely…
Office 365: Productivity | Enable Webinar Series
Check out the second installment of our Office 365 Webinar Series, a focus on the productivity tools included in O365. We want to help churches understand the in’s and out’s of these applications, so that you can maximize the resources that are included in the Office 365 E1 (and above) package, which is available at a…
Ministry Spotlight: Irving Bible Church
Meeting Kids Where They Are: Utilizing Technology in your Children’s Ministry Tess Nordick works in children’s ministry at Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas. Before joining the church staff, Tess worked at IBM for ten years. Technology innovation has always been a big part of her world. One of Tess’s strongest ministry passions is pursuing…
Why Children’s Check-in Matters
Children’s Check-in Matters to your Ministry (Yes, Yours!) Whether you are children’s ministry leader or not, if you work in a church that serves people with kids, then your church’s child check-in process has a tangible impact on your ministry. A well-developed children’s check-in process is critical to just about every ministry at your church, whether it’s Bible study, community groups, preschool…
Kid Min Tech Trends 2019
Check out the top eight technology trends we’ve seen in Children’s Ministry this year, and how you can implement them in your own church!
Ministry Spotlight: Special Saturday
Special Saturday is an incredible ministry hosted at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN. It is a respite program for special needs families. Once a month, parents of children with special needs can come and drop their children off for a morning full of music, crafts, snacks, dancing, Bible lessons, and games. The parents get…
Self Care: A Word from Pastor Gary Lindsay
April has gone, May is here, and as churches are coming out of the busy Easter season and looking ahead to all that summer brings it is important for staff members to remember to take care of themselves, too! It is easy to get caught up in all of the planning, preparation, and craziness that…
Office 365: An Overview | Enable Webinar Series
Did you know that O365 includes over 16 world-class productivity tools in its E1 license which is available to churches and non-profits for a majorly discounted rate? O365 has tons of tools to help you collaborate with your team, track the progress of projects, keep you on track, set appointments, gather information, and so much…
Technology Checklist for a Busy Sunday
There are a few times every year when attendance at church spikes dramatically. Easter Sunday and Christmas always see more faces than normal. Other times, the church may be sponsoring a conference or hosting a large event. The common experience during all of these times is a large, episodic influx of visitors. This influx creates…
Ministry Spotlight: Cross Timbers Church
Monday, February 11, 2019 was a low point for Marcie. Overwhelmed and exhausted by a situation that seemed way too big for her, she called Tanya and, in her desperation, confessed, “I just want to run away; I can’t handle it. I don’t know what to do.” Marcie’s call was not merely the product of…
OneDrive for Your Church: Why You Need It
Gone are the days of having to go into the office to fetch a file or email. The Cloud is taking over the world, and quickly. This accessibility brings some major benefits for organizations using it, and churches are no exception! At Enable, we’re huge fans of all things Microsoft/Office 365 and the feature we…
Always Be Improving: Lessons Learned from a Children’s Ministry Hallway
“I’ll try not to lose you in the brick hallway,” I said to a new family, smiling as I walked them toward the church nursery to drop off their children for the first time. I said this to all the new families I showed around on their first day as part of my responsibilities as…
Are You Missing This Key Piece to Your Technology Puzzle?
We talk to churches every day who have invested money, time, and effort into implementing new technology as a tool for ministry, but are disappointed in the results. Through the constant bombardment of news and information regarding ever-changing technologies, they try to pick and choose solutions wisely. They employ these technologies to avoid headaches, but…
This Just In: Technology is Not THE Answer
At their core level, church management software systems, (as well as computers, streaming media, ministry models, buildings, small group and discipleship programs, etc.) are simply tools. As we come to the close of our blog series on church management software, we remind ourselves of how powerful these tools can be, but at the same time, we…
Ministry Spotlight: SchoolWorks
Carlos: A Life is Changed Carlos was in kindergarten. By all appearances, he was a quiet little boy with his whole future ahead of him. But given his actual situation, the statistics predicted that he was very likely to fall through the cracks and miss out on the educational and economic opportunities that our country…
Wi-Fi: Solving the Real Problem
Remember the days when it would take a 10-pound laptop and a 50-foot network cable to access the Internet in any room other than where the cable modem was? Those days are long-gone, and we have Wi-Fi (and some other new technology) to thank for that! Wi-Fi is everywhere now and is in fact a…
Microsoft Licensing for Non-Profits: A Guide
Microsoft Windows Licensing can be very expensive and tricky to navigate for organizations, but it is a vital piece of the technology infrastructure. The good news: there are discounted options for non-profit organizations and churches. The bad news: the structure of these discounts is fairly complicated. In this post we will break down servers, licenses,…
ChMS Champion: The Most Powerful Move You Can Make
The most significant step a church can take to ensure that it enjoys the maximum value and utility from its Church Management Software investment is to provide resources for a designated “ChMS Champion.” Nothing will increase the likelihood of success with ChMS software more than this one move, but some key concepts must be observed…
Why You Need A Password Manager
CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST RECENT VERSION OF THIS POST, UPDATED APRIL 2021 How many times have you seen the “incorrect password” message when trying to log into one of your frequented (or not frequented) sites? Surely by now you’ve heard how dangerous it is to use the same password for every account you…
ChMS Integrations
In our last post, we discussed the necessity for making your ChMS the “Single Source of Truth” for the people and activity data in your church. Once churches implement the necessary information processes and gain the staff commitment to the single source of truth concept, they have gone a long way in ensuring that the…
Ministry Spotlight: Ben Ellis
September was a month of powerful and emotional remembrance. On a national level, we honored those who lost their lives in the tragedy of 9/11. In the community of Brentwood, Tennessee, Enable’s home, we also remembered the life and legacy of our friend, Ben Ellis. Ben left us in September 2016 but lives powerfully still…
Single Source of Truth: Your ChMS
In our experience consulting with churches who are looking for new church management software, there is one “main thing” that triggers most churches’ search in the first place. People don’t trust their data. The reason they don’t trust their data is that many times, the information doesn’t add up. In some cases, they don’t have…
Why We Recommend Ruckus Wireless
The need for and expectations of wireless networks is ever-growing, and it can be overwhelming when deciding what wireless network equipment to install in your organization. There are countless products available from many different vendors, all offering similar features and advertising that they are the best solution for all of your wireless needs. Often times, your decision will come down to what solutions you know others…
ChMS Optimization: If We Cannot Change Our Software, What Can We Do?
“We don’t like our church management system at all. It is confusing, we cannot get the specific reporting that we need, and it simply won’t do a lot of the ministry functions that we require.” Since 2001, when Enable Ministry Partners began working with churches, we have heard complaints just like this one hundreds of…
Are You Making These 3 Mistakes with your Church Management Software?
While talking with our clients over the years, they have described three main mistakes they have made with their Church Management Software. For some, these mistakes have led to a great deal of frustration, multiple software changes, and the waste of a lot of time and money. These issues may be very familiar to…
Where to Start: Your Church’s Unique Strategy
The very first step in making the best software decision for your church has absolutely nothing to do with software. At their core level, church management software systems are simply information tools. As tools, they are helpful only to the degree that they help a church accomplish the ministry objectives that reflect the church’s specific…
Which Church Management Software is Best? Finally, an Answer (Sort of…)
“Of all the available options, which church management software is best?” This is a question that we receive at Enable seemingly every day. It is a question posed regularly in online church technology and executive pastor groups as well. Typically, it is asked by church leaders who have come to a point where they believe…
Ministry Spotlight: ChangePoint Alaska
When caring people are willing to enter unselfishly into dark, ugly situations to help those who cannot help themselves, lives are changed, horrible circumstances are reversed, and “impossible” situations are transformed. The members of ChangePoint Alaska and the surrounding community witness these types of life changing turnarounds on a regular basis. ChangePoint Alaska describes…
10 Keys to Church Management Software Success
Although church management software often seems to promise that it is the answer to all problems related to ministry operations, many churches are less than satisfied with how it operates in their environment. What is your experience? Are you getting the most out of your church management software? Is it helping to accomplish the unique ministry…
Ministry Spotlight: Second Baptist Church – Houston Strong
When Hurricane Harvey made landfall over the Texas Gulf Coast in late August of 2017, people feared the worst, and those fears were undoubtedly confirmed. Harvey was a record-setting category four hurricane – the first of its kind to make landfall in Texas since 1961. One of the hardest hit areas was the city of…
Welcome to Enable
When I come across organizations or companies that have made an impact on the world over time, I am always interested in learning why their founders chose to do the hard work of starting them. To be honest, some have formed companies because, in a flash of self-awareness, they have concluded that the only bosses…
When Does a Church Need to Think About Data Compliance?
Usually, when technology people talk about data compliance, they are referring to policies related to HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI, and other legal and regulatory requirements. These laws list certain requirements for organizations to ensure the security of data with encryption, backup procedures, business continuity plans and data retention plans. One may think that because a church…
Ministry Spotlight: Irving Bible Church
Irving Bible Church is a large church in the Dallas area, dedicated to spiritual growth and community service through its various ministry initiatives, both inside and outside the walls of the church. When Enable Ministry Partners first connected with IBC in 2008, IBC was dealing with some significant technology issues that were hampering its ministry…
Ministry Spotlight: Brentwood Baptist Church
Brentwood Baptist Church, located in the the greater Nashville area, is one of the largest and fastest growing churches in the country. With over 9,000 members, and having grown from just one campus a few years ago to five currently, Brentwood Baptist faces many of the same challenges smaller churches and churches of a similar…
