Being mobile brings more efficient and better communication and saves time when calling on people. With the right mobile devices you can have remote access to your RDS Advantage and RDS Connect database.

Pastor Jones is calling on members at the hospital, and wants to look up all those who are in Mercy Hospital. With a Mini Laptop or tablet he can access the RDS Contact Management records at the church and find information for each person in that hospital. Or he can see any information in his RDS system and make entries about his contacts.

Almost every month sees more equipment available for this purpose. So here are some ideas you might consider.

Tablets and laptops are the best choice because their screens are large enough to see data and make entries. Be sure the tablet you buy supports the app, PocketCloud Pro, which is available for both Android and Apple tablets. This gives you secure access to your data.

Laptops are another choice. PocketCloud is not needed for this purpose, and you will establish a ‘Remote Desktop’ connection. Remote Desktop is used for both Windows and Mac laptops.
E-readers can be used, but many on the market today do not yet support PocketCloud Pro.

Yet this is what you are doing if your staff has not received recent training in your RDS Advantage or Connect system.

If training is required to be a pilot, how much more important is it for the Lord’s workers to be well trained?

Your RDS system is like an airplane. It has superior features to support the ministries and manage the business of the church,
and get the job done more quickly and easily. Lack of staff training hampers the work of the church.

Whenever a church has trouble with its use of a data processing system, it is almost always because of new untrained staff or staff that has not kept up with new features and enhancements of the programs.

Regular classes at the Training Center are available, and you can request on-site training.

Here is what one user said:

“Going to Oklahoma for RDS training was invaluable for several reasons. I learned shortcuts in RDS that my coworkers who trained me did not know about. I was able to pose questions directly to the trainer and get answers immediately.

In one instance, I brought attention to an enhancement I would like and they added it to the list of new features to be programmed.

The trainer created a relaxed and pleasant learning environment. It was great to make a face-to-face connection with the RDS team. I was able to spend time with the staff and the President and founder, and build a personal relationship. Going to Oklahoma for RDS training was a wonderful experience!”

Amy Nelson
Membership Coordinator/
Employee Benefits Coordinator
Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, Minneapolis

1. "Mainline Protestant denominations in the United States continue to a decades-long decline, while the memberships of Pentecostal traditions are on the rise, according to new figures compiled by the National Council of Churches. The figures in the 2011 yearbook, compiled by churches in 2009 and reported to the council in 2010, show that mainline Protestant churches continue the decline in memberships that began in the 1970s. The newest numbers show that the membership drop in mainline churches led to a 1% decrease in total U.S. church membership, to 145.8 million." – USA Today, 2/15/2011

2. "The 78th annual edition of the Yearbook reports a continuing decline in membership of virtually all mainline denominations. And the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the second year in a row, down 0.24 percent to 16,266,920." – National Council of Churches

3. "68% of churches in the West-South Central U.S., and 64% of churches in the East-South Central U.S. have expenses exceeding income. These are the best regions in the country." - Church Finance Today, October 2011.

We believe church membership and participation should be growing – not shrinking, and we believe churches that care can do something about it.

We are committed to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus also said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” – Matthew 9:37

At RDS Advantage we are dedicated to help churches accomplish the plentiful harvest can be reaped. We offer an outreach plan that has been proven to help increase membership and participation. Contact us for information.

Cloud technology is paid incrementally, saving your organization from having to select and purchase servers and state of the art computers. Because of the scalability of Cloud computing, it's easy for you to start small before gradually expanding your use.

• Increased Storage and Security

You can store more data on our dynamic servers than on local computer systems or servers. Our Cloud servers are located in a redundant Tier 3 Data Center, safe from hacking and outages and theft.

• Highly Automated

You no longer need to worry about keeping software up to date or stressing over server updates and other computing issues. We provide the updates, the archives and the daily backup of your RDS Data.

• Strategic Focus

Cloud computing offers you the opportunity to focus on your ministries rather than mired in the details of managing the computer or server issues.

• More Mobility

Employees can access information wherever they are, rather than having to remain at their desks. No geographical boundaries means greater access and flexibility.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." – Matthew 28:18-20

As a result of our focus on outreach, many applications have been built into the system to support the work of bringing the Good News to more people.

· Contact Management – comprehensive database about contacts for user-defined purposes
· Attendance and Follow-up
· Communication tools such as e-mail, VOIP voice messaging, texting, letters, cards, and more

Hear the experience of one family:

“In the last year my family and I visited over 20 congregations in a major metropolitan city in working with pastors. I filled out cards in all of them when they were offered. Only 50% offered any way of identifying yourself as a guest. The variety of follow through is amazing. One congregation still sends me invitations to singles ministry after calling them twice to let them know I am married. Only one congregation made a second contact after their initial attempt. No congregation made an attempt to talk to me after not finding me home. Only three made a personal visit to my house. Only one called. Except for three, no congregant greeted us or showed any personal interest, without my initiating it. Looking for a congregation to call home is not easy.”

Sometimes tasks that seem difficult can be simplified by breaking them down into smaller steps. Here are examples of how to implement an effective outreach program, and how to use a church management system as a tool to support this ministry.

Data processing:

Enter information about prospects into the database. Identify each as a visitor/guest or prospect. From this information, personalized letters, address labels, visitation cards, contact reports, name tags, postcards, envelopes, e-mail and other communications can be produced.

Cultivate:

As prospects begin to participate in church activities, assign them mentors to facilitate integration into full fellowship.
Train mentors to help visitors and prospects take part in church activities. Equip them to assist prospects in becoming part of the body of believers.

Nurture:

Record the activities in which a person is involved, including date of involvement, specifics of the involvement, and position or function, etc. Accurate and consistent attendance tracking is an important tool. Recording attendance isn’t what counts – the church’s response to absence is what is important.

Note: See a slide show example of an outreach program. In the RDS Advantage website, click on the “Download Free Presentation” button on the bottom left side of the home page and select “Outreach.”

Sometimes things that are free are not worth even that cost. Here is something free that is excellent.

You can install the Google Calendar on your website without cost. Better still, your RDS Event Scheduler can export your scheduled events directly into the calendar, so you do not need to maintain events in two places.

You can have multiple calendars and RDS can populate the events for each one. For example, an all-church calendar, youth calendar, missions calendar, staff calendar (password protected), music calendar, and more.

Addresses from the Events Scheduler can be exported into the Google Calendar so that locations can be mapped.

Your RDS Event Scheduler can send e-mail messages to staff personnel who need to prepare for events (food service, child care, set-up tables and chairs, projectors and screens, etc.).

Users can find more information about features of the RDS Event Scheduler by downloading the Tutorial from the RDS Client Login on the website, www.rdsadvantage.com.

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This is both good and bad news. Connectivity can promote innovation and distribute knowledge, but it can also lead to obsession, even addiction, and a decrease in face-to-face conversational skills.

Churches are making increased use of social media to connect congregants and tell the story of the Good News. On the other side, social media has given deviates almost unlimited access to victims.

The speed of the dissemination of information accelerates the pace of our lives. We are becoming obsessed with a need for speed. Methodist Bishop Robert Hays says we are in a rush to go nowhere. He says, "Slow down! When you take your foot off the pedal, you will see, hear, smell and taste the life God has in store for you."

We need to do more things face-to-face. Can we imagine Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount, or Paul taking his message to the Athenians about the unknown god, using tweets? We risk depersonalizing our call to "spread the Good News of Christ" when we substitute social media for direct, personal contact.

History is full of examples of how new innovations have positive and negative uses. Gunpowder, atomic fusion, and today instant messaging, present us with benefits and perils.

God, give us the wisdom to make good choices in the use of new technology.

One example that seems to come up from time to time has to do with direct deposit of employees' payroll. A church hires a new employee who wants to be on direct deposit. To include a new person in direct deposit, the church should send a new prenotification file to the bank, because the bank tests this file, including the new employee's account information.

If the church does not send a prenotification file to the bank, they run the risk that their payroll file will fail. The church must then void and re-enter their entire payroll for all direct deposit employees in order to create a new error-free payroll direct-deposit file. This can be avoided by taking time to send a prenotification file to the bank, even if it means giving the new employee a hard check for his/her first payroll.

RDS builds safety measures into the software to help prevent errors that cost more in the long run. When hiring new employees who wish to be paid by direct deposit, send a prenotification file to the bank!