How are you adjusting to the new norm? Churches across the UK and the world are facing a unique set of circumstances which have very quickly changed the operational reality of being the body of Christ.
Fortunately, we worship a God who is the same, yesterday, today and forever and He will remain a sustaining source of strength, peace and wisdom throughout the present challenges.
UCAN remains committed to offering support and resource to the UK church as it seeks to adjust its practices and administrate itself in a socially-distancing world. A lot of this support comes through our local group network , many of whom are meeting virtually or communicating guidance by email, our online members forum hosted on facebook (just a busy as ever) and through direct requests received at the UCAN office (info@churchadministrators.net and 0300 302 1887). However, here are some general tips and guidance if helpful:
Communications
We’ve observed that churches who use a Church Management system as the central core to their administration have found the communication realities of the present situation easier to deal with. A good CMS will help facilitate pastoral response, mass mailings, text messages, securely sharing prayer needs and online meeting logins and online giving. There are lots of good products out there, with Churchsuite, iKnow and Church Insight being 3 popular examples used by many of the UCAN membership. CMS products can be easy to setup and migrate to, and this may be an opportune moment for your church to do so. If you need support from UCAN, please get in touch with us to have an informal conversation or to book in a video demo or consultation. If you need any remote support with the migration, we are happy to quote.
Over the past year, as we’ve toured around the UK providing Communications training, we have stressed the importance of using social media to facilitate and build community. This has never been truer than today. How is your church approaching using social media in the context of social distancing. Lots of advice can be accessed here https://covid.churcheshandbook.co.uk/
When using Zoom for video calls, please follow the security guidance found here. Zoom has taken great steps to strengthen guidance in response to the unsavoury practice of Zoom-bombing, which has affected lots of religious groups.
Please do not overlook those who are not on social media or do not have access to video conferencing. You may want to allocate resources, finance or the loan of equipment to get the isolated onto zoom for continued fellowship. Or you may need to organise newsletters to be posted, greeting cards to be sent out and a phone list to be managed to help keep everyone in touch. As a church, let’s encourage our members to not only support each other through the present challenges, but also to be active with their neighbours and other communities.
Hopefully you have been able to migrate to streamed or online services and support, but if you need specific advice in this respect, please do get in touch.
Employment
Lots of churches have needed to furlough staff, facilitate home working and make general HR adjustments. Again, if you need specific support, please get in touch. Furloughing staff members, where they generally have no work responsibilities to carry out due to Covid-19 may be a helpful way for you to manage your finances and mitigate some fo the financial risk from a reduction in income. You can visit Stewardship , Anthony Collins Solicitors or Charles Russell Speechlys for Covid-19 employment advice, specific to the charity sector and churches.
If you would like to discuss any of your employment considerations with UCAN, please get in touch with our team.
Please be encouraged to remain pastorally active in caring for your staff team, maintaining a healthy sense of team, communicating openly and realistically about work expectations and being aware of any financial considerations of the staff members affected by reduction in hours.
Finance
Stewardship have lots of guidance available on the response to Covid-19 and financial risk management as charitable trustees.
You may like to consider putting in place a 3 month and 6 month cash-flow forecast, identifying ways to minimise outgoings and risk assessing any potential drop in income. Voluntary donations may decrease as church members find their incomes shrinking and room hire income will probably have ceased. Furloughing some staff may be part of your financial action plan to mitigate risk.
If a significant proportion of your income came from voluntary donations collected through your public worship (Sunday offering), you may need to find digital ways to facilitate online giving, or to encourage people to migrate to standing orders. You can speak to Stewardship about this, or you can look at solutions offered through church management systems (see above) or standalone providers such as Givt.
Over the past few years, we’ve been hugely impressed at the level of service and functionality offered by the cloud based financial management tool Expenseplus. We’ve heard from many of our members over the past month how much they appreciate using this system now they are working from home. If your financial management has been impacted or stalled by working from home, with your system being locally based in the church office, do consider whether migrating to Expenseplus or one of the other cloud based accountancy packages may be a sensible option for you. Do ensure that the system is suitable for charity fund accounting, accountability policies and will allow access for multiple users. If you need help or advice, particularly in relation to our experience with Expenseplus, please get in touch.
We hope and pray that you adjusting well to the present circumstances and are finding the support and guidance you need. Our ‘virtual door’ is always open, so if you need help or would appreciate a catch-up chat, then please get in touch. Bishop Stephen Cottrell, recently said that although there is nothing good about the virus, this won’t prohibit God from working good things during the crisis. Our prayer is that you will see God at work and will experience his grace, peace, healing, mercy and love throughout.