Here’s How Northridge Church Increased Their Group Sign Ups and Roster Accuracy In Less Than 12 Months
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Location
Rochester, NY
Groups
98
Group Schedule
Semester
Leadership
Staff Coaches
Meet Jason.
He’s been the Community Groups Pastor at Northridge Church since 2016.
Groups are an integral part of their church’s model and structure.
Multiplying their number of groups and group leaders had always been a point of tension and it was hard to track important metrics, like group attendance, growth, and prospective group members.
That’s when Jason turned to GroupVitals.
Jason DeGraaff, Community Groups Pastor
Jason’s Problems?
Usability issues & inaccurate rosters.
Before Jason discovered GroupVitals, growing the number of groups and group leaders at Northridge was a constant struggle.
Because of the headache involved for his leaders, Jason’s group data suffered, and prospective group members were starting to fall through the cracks.
“Our church’s database software was hard for our leaders to manage their group.”
“There was also no way for them to add guests who attended their group.”
The (Failed) Fix?
Time consuming follow-ups.
His current system offered a number of reporting options, but not knowing when a guest had attended a group, or if that guest had eventually become a member, continued to be a problem.
“We figured out some workarounds, but we as a staff would have to follow up with people, and leaders would often say “oh, this person or couple is supposed to be on there.”
“It was more work and more time for everyone to make sure the group roster was accurate.”
Finding GroupVitals
Jason’s serendipitous discovery.
While checking in with other churches to see how they were tracking their Groups ministry, Jason happened to come across GroupVitals.
Right off the bat, the one-step, no-login attendance for group leaders, the ability to easily add guests to attendance rosters, and the GroupFinder’s unique map view drew him in.
He could see the usability and ease the system offered for group leaders as well as himself.
Another selling point for Jason was GroupVitals’ integration with FellowshipOne, Northridge Church’s current database.
With all of these things in mind, he decided it was time to give GroupVitals a shot.
“When I explored GroupVitals and all it had to offer, and the fact that it would sync with our churches database, it made sense that we could just find a better overall solution without abandoning our current system.”
“I didn’t know of any other groups system that does all these different things to measure your groups and track what’s happening.”
“I was more convinced the more I looked into it.”
Setting Up His Account
How Jason learned the ropes.
With the support of Northridge Church’s staff behind him, Jason made the switch to GroupVitals.
Like any new thing, he had to learn the ins and outs and how to make the system work best for his needs.
“I watched and read all of the help docs and video very carefully to make sure I could figure it out.”
“I loved the built-in brief tutorials and pop-up icons with videos that help people get familiar with the system.”
Onboarding Leaders
Jason said it was seamless.Â
Once he had the hang of GroupVitals himself, it was time to onboard his group leaders.
GroupVitals provides a great video tutorial for leaders that pretty much covers all they need to know.Â
“I thought we’d have to have a group leader training and walk through GroupVitals with them.”
“But, it’s so user friendly, we just embedded the pre-made tutorials on our website. It was all very simple.”
Tracking Groups
Everything started humming along.
With GroupVitals live and sign ups underway, groups started to meet and group leaders were beginning to use GroupVitals to track attendance and make notes about their group.
“The prospect pipeline has proved to be one of the most powerful tools.”
“We love having the ability to make sure people don’t fall through the cracks”
Seeing Results
Seeing the fruit of his labor.
Group data and Group Health survey results were being compiled, and Jason was thrilled with the amount of information and insight he had on his groups.Â
“With GroupVitals, we can now tell things like leader turnover, how healthy our group ministry is and people’s response to it, how we can create more group leaders.”
The Final Verdict
“GroupVitals is the best group management system on the market. It’s the easiest for group leaders to use.”
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