Introducing Church Social
Brothers and sisters,
Council is pleased to inform the congregation that we have recently approved the use of Church Social (churchsocial.com), an exciting new online software platform designed specifically for churches. Our goal is to invite the congregation to join the platform over the upcoming weeks. We want to make sure the congregation is properly informed first. Please be sure to read through this document.
Purpose
The primary purpose of Church Social is to help our leadership and administrative staff with the proper upkeep of our membership records. Church Social not only reduces the administrative burden of maintaining these records, it also provides key insights that will help our leadership with important pastoral care of the flock.
That said, Church Social isn’t only intended for the leadership and administrative staff. It’s also designed for use by all members of the congregation! It provides a safe, secure place online where you can login to access a variety of church related resources, including:
	•	Member photo directory
	•	Calendar of events (including birthdays and anniversaries)
	•	Bulletin archive
	•	Schedules
	•	Photo galleries
	•	File sharing
	•	Group management
	•	Sermon archive
	•	Messaging tools
	•	And more!

Note, Church Social is not a social media platform, and it’s certainly not intended to replace face-to-face interactions. Rather, it’s meant to keep the congregation connected throughout the week, allowing us to stay informed and serve one another better. May this tool ultimately be used by our congregation to the glorification of our Heavenly Father.
Privacy & Security
The privacy and security of our member’s data is of utmost importance to council. With more and more of our church activity happening online, council felt the need for a safe, reliable, and trusted service to help us with the proper oversight of our digital resources. Put simply, we don’t see this as a “move online”, but rather an improvement to the security and organization of the data already finding its way there (ie. Dropbox, Google Docs, Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc).
All data within Church Social is only available privately to members of our congregation. By default, other members will be able to access your name, contact information (phone, email, address), birthday, anniversary date, and family photo (if provided). In short, the information typically found in a church directory. If you are not comfortable with any piece of this information being available to other members in the congregation, please let us know. Church Social provides a numerous privacy settings that can be adjusted on a per member basis.
If you’re interested in learning more about the security of the platform, we invite you to visit churchsocial.com/security for more information.
How to get started
Over the next weeks we’ll begin inviting members to join our new Church Social account. For security purposes access is granted by invite only, meaning the Church Social coordinators will require your email address if you’d like to participate. If you don’t receive an invitation, please email CONTACT NAME at CONTACT EMAIL and he’ll/she’ll help you get setup.