Making a Difference
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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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Sha-Ron Worthen - Empowering a community in Michigan


Name: Sha-Ron Worthen

Title: Trustee and Treasurer, Empowering Disciples ministry

Passion: Working behind the scenes so that plans can come to fruition

Why PowerChurch: Our ability to manage all the church business with a single software

Lao Tzu said famously: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." Sha-Ron Worthen knows this well. Just over three years ago, their church ministry had no structure to call their own. "We held our services in rented spaces, hotels or conference centers." Sha-Ron said inaugurating their new building felt like they "had finally come out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land!"

With that first hurdle accomplished, they continue to dream big and power forward. As trustee, member of the finance ministry and treasurer of record, Sha-Ron describes herself as a seasoned and contented "behind the scenes person," doing all of the work necessary to see goals accomplished and dreams fulfilled. PowerChurch Online is a big part of that background work.

"Prior to PowerChurch Online, we used a combination of QuickBooks, Membership Plus, and Excel spreadsheets to manage all church financial and membership information and transactions. We then attended a seminar on using PowerChurch and the benefits of managing all church business within one software application, and the advantages were significant.

"It was the work that we did preparing to secure the mortgage for our new church that led us to PowerChurch Online as a better option for church management than what we were using previously. The ability to have an online tool alone was enough to sell us on the product. As a church that operated with no "home base" for three years, it was often challenging having to store information on one computer that was not accessible to all the members of the finance ministry and relying on email to communicate info back and forth and update manual spreadsheets."

With church management tasks centralized and simplified, Empowering Disciples can focus on the work they feel driven to do: creating disciples and leading them - through "raw and real" preaching - to live the lives they've been made for. This work extends to individuals and families, and to the entire community as well. The next step is to reach out to their suburban community with a childhood education center. "Our pastor's teaching style really appeals to the younger generations, and we initially considered a daycare center for members. The more we discussed it however, the more we realized that we wanted to aspire to a higher standard of education than the public schools do." They are currently in the exploratory phase of the project, but fully intend to create a purpose-built place for those seeking a Christian education.

Since moving into their new building, the membership of Empowering Disciples has quadrupled. Clearly, their journey is in the right direction.