As church membership drops below 50 percent for the first time ever, leaders came together
to discuss the evolving landscape of modern ministry and technology
REDMOND, Wash., May 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pushpay (NZSX:PPH, ASX:PPH, 'Pushpay' or 'the Company'), the leading payments and engagement solutions provider for the faith-based, non-profit, and education sectors, yesterday hosted Church Disrupt 2021: Make Your Mark, an online conference for church staff and leadership teams. The digital event brought together thousands of people across the world for thought provoking keynotes, engaging breakout sessions and conversations focused on leading through change, innovation and the future of church technology.
Amidst the pandemic, churches have had to reimagine what connection looks like, and how to engage in a time when church attendance was already rapidly declining. In fact, according to Gallup, church membership in America recently dropped below 50 percent for the first time in eight decades. As a result, technology and innovation are top of mind as pastors and leadership teams seek to develop digital strategies to meet the needs—and lifestyles—of younger generations.
Molly Matthews, Chief Executive Officer at Pushpay, delivered a keynote about the future of church technology. Matthews dove into some of the pain points churches are experiencing today—including lack of engagement, tool fatigue and nurturing community—and how technology can help bridge the gap. Matthews also touched on future investments the Company is making as Pushpay seeks to help churches with seamless workflows, creating a thriving ecosystem of tools, leveraging machine learning to deliver personal experiences, and much more.
“Amidst today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, churches have an opportunity to reimagine what connection and community looks like—and in ways that weren’t even possible 20 years ago,” said Matthews. “Having a digital strategy is imperative as we consider ways technology can bring innovation and church together to help increase engagement, improve retention and foster growth in the Church.”
Church Disrupt also featured several influential pastors and thought leaders who delivered meaningful keynotes, including Andy Stanley, Senior Pastor at North Point Community Church, Travis Greene, Lead Pastor at Forward City Church, DawnCheré Wilkerson, Lead Pastor at Vous Church, and Tim Timberlake, Lead Pastor at Celebration Church. The conference also delivered four interactive breakout tracks, led by pastors and thought leaders from around the country. Sessions focused on church finance and stewardship, digital discipleship, church technology and Catholic digital engagement.
Pushpay also released seven new product features to help churches connect with their community and create meaningful worship experiences. Top new features across giving, app and ChMS solutions include:
- Lyric and Chord Chart Editor: Provides worship teams the ability to build unique song arrangements for service plans. Whether an original song written by their team, or something from the CCLI Top 100, worship teams can now easily transpose songs, create arrangements, quickly edit lyrics and more—all in one place.
- Web Giving Spanish: Delivers a streamlined giving experience, translated in Spanish. With more than 43 million native Spanish speaking individuals in the U.S. alone, this new experience allows community members to select their user preference to reflect Spanish text—creating a more seamless and personalized experience.
- Donor Development and Process Queues: A nurture workflow that helps connect churches to donors to further invest in their spiritual growth, engage community and spread generosity.
Putting some of the new features directly in the hands of customers, Pushpay hosted a Lyric and Chord Chart Editor song contest. Attendees had an opportunity to vote for their favorite entry during the conference, directly via the Church Disrupt app. Centro de Vida Familiar (Life Center) church in Tacoma, Wa, won the contest for its creation of “Nuestra Esperanza” and was interviewed live on Facebook. Pushpay partnered with Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) and Loop Community for the contest and prizes—which include an opportunity to record a music video, a single-song publishing deal, $1,000 in travel vouchers and more.
The digital conference was a multi-channel experience, delivering a desktop, social and app experience for attendees. In fact, the Church Disrupt app—which is Pushpay’s app technology—allowed registrants to view schedules, check-in to keynotes and breakout sessions, participate in real-time polls, donate to the conference charity partner Convoy of Hope, and much more.
Church Disrupt comes on the heels of Pushpay’s FY21 annual results announcement, where the company reported a 39 percent increase in total revenue this past year. This is further reinforcement that churches are leveraging technology solutions to connect communities and grow generosity like never before.
For more information about Church Disrupt visit www.ChurchDisrupt.com or Pushpay.com.
About Pushpay
Pushpay provides a donor management system, including donor tools, finance tools and a custom community app, and a church management system (ChMS) to the faith sector, non-profit organizations and education providers located predominantly in the United States (US) and other jurisdictions. Our leading solutions simplify engagement, payments and administration, enabling our Customers to increase participation and build stronger relationships with their communities.
Church Community Builder is an affiliate of Pushpay Holdings Limited and provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) church management system predominantly in the US and other jurisdictions. Church Community Builder provides a platform that churches use to connect and communicate with their community members, record member service history, track online giving and perform a range of administrative functions. Combined, Pushpay and Church Community Builder deliver a best-in-class, fully integrated ChMS, custom community app and giving solution for customers in the US faith sector. For more information, visit www.pushpay.com.
Media Contact
Laurel Pierce
Uproar PR for Pushpay
lpierce@uproarpr.com
312-878-4575 x246