Likewise, those shiny one-size-fits-all phone systems are limited to use in the building. Yes, voicemail can be accessed remotely, but we still make calls on our personal phones when not at the church. We make these calls from our cell phones at our own peril, though, don’t we? My private cell phone has become public information. Even if we capture the cell phone numbers of new visitors and contact them from our own devices, it can lead to the perception of impropriety.
Setting Ourselves Up for Trouble
Pastors love telling a good story, so here is a situation that I have personally witnessed, and of course names have been changed to protect the innocent. Let’s discuss the conundrum that is “John and Jane Doe” and “Tiffany Jones”.
John Doe and his family visit a local church and begin the assimilation process to explore membership. Tiffany Jones is the welcome coordinator who personally makes the phone calls welcoming new people, answering their questions, and talking them through next steps. She uses her personal cell phone to make these calls. John Doe and his wife Jane are having some marital challenges and the trust quotient is already suffering. Jane sees several calls and texts from Tiffany Jones on John’s cell phone and her imagination runs wild. Mr. and Mrs. Jones eventually resolved their marital differences but sadly did not join the church. In fact, they are not part of any local fellowship at the moment, simply doing virtual church.
You can see how even the innocent, and unassuming use of a personal device can cause a challenge in a situation like this. It can certainly do the same for pastors speaking with parishioners from personal devices.
How Can a VoIP Phone System Help?
A good VoIP phone solution can provide a lot of tools to solve this problem, but a great VoIP system allows for robust integration with other tools, like a ChMS.
What if we combine the two systems? Can it be done? Yes, quite simply, and the technology exists. Passion City Church in Atlanta, GA and Trader’s Point Christian Church in Whitestown, IN are both RockRMS users who have integrated their Intulse VoIP phone systems into their ChMS, which goes far beyond basic “click to call” functionality.
It works by upgrading to a phone system that enables users to make calls from the church number using a mobile device (or laptop), then records the details of the conversation in the ChMS through software integration. This protects personal numbers and creates a record of the conversation and who was involved.
Possible? Absolutely. Difficult? Absolutely not. Protecting our ministries is paramount and yet we often ignore the right technology because of cost or convenience. After all, “we’ve always done it this way,” right?
Protect your churches, your people, and yourselves while making your lives easier.
