Making a Difference
You make a difference all over the world. PowerChurch makes it easier.
At PowerChurch, we know that your work extends beyond what happens at your desk. For each of you who enters data, collects membership information, tracks and manages contributions or plans events, there is a personal story to tell. After speaking with many of you, we were inspired to share some of your stories with others. The work YOU do encourages us to continue our goal of making church management easy.
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Lou Belanger - Serving others from coast to coast for over 60 years


Name: Lou Belanger

Title: Finance Chairman/Secretary, West Anaheim United Methodist Church

Passion: Always looking for ways to give back

Why PowerChurch: It's the best system ever

Lou is a rock star.

By anyone's standards.

"I'm 81 and I'm one of the young ones," he laughs while family members chatter and prepare for dinner in the background. Lou has been a member of his church for 35 years and says his work with the financial tasks "keep him out of trouble." While he does spend hours on bleachers watching his 4 grandchildren play sports ("I've been a Scoutmaster and even a scorekeeper!"), volunteers weekly and helps organize brown bag lunches for the local food bank monthly, he's always looking for ways to engage further. "I've raised nice kids and they're raising great grandkids, but I've always been impressed with what the ministry can do to change people's lives, so I'm here."

As Secretary and Financial Chair at West Anaheim Methodist, Lou is responsible for accounts payable, contributions and other special collections, and he uses PowerChurch Plus to make these tasks easy and fast. "I pay the bills weekly and because I can handle 2 to 3 items at once, it's a cinch!"

His church is like many in large urban settings in that it has a varied mix of families, races and cultures all mingling to worship, minister and reach out. "We have lots of Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish-speaking parishioners at our church and we also invite and include folks from the local YMCA who want a place to belong."

A current project of Lou's church is taking donations for the victims of the earthquake in Japan that killed nearly 18,000 and devastated the country. "It's a tragedy - a huge tragedy - and even though it didn't happen on our shores, we feel that there are things that we can do, things we should do, to help those people. We sent out a newsletter asking for contributions and the response, even in our small church, was strong."

What is most beguiling about Lou, outside of his contagious laugh and complete joy in the work he does, is his desire to keep moving forward; he's focused on not wasting time. "I do the work at church and can have everything completed in about an hour using the PowerChurch software. Suddenly, we're done and I can move on to other tasks and projects that need attention or I can spend time with my family." Where most retirees would be lounging and enjoying a season of reflection and satisfaction, Lou is propelled forward by his desire to give continuously to others in his community. His only wish these days is for time:

"What I want is simply 5 more years... so that I can watch my grandkids play baseball!"