We’ve always looking for ways to get the most information with the fewest clicks.

Because ChurchPost is driven by collections of subscribers with similar interests we call GROUPS, getting key information about your groups is critical.

ChurchPost 2.0 eliminates the need to continually click on links and “drill down” into sub-menu after sub-menu.

After numerous requests by pastors and other ministry leaders, we’ve added a quick way to see the fundamentals of any group in your account.

In the GROUPS section, simply hover over any group name:

You’ll see a quick overview of the essentials:

• who owns the group
• when the group was last emailed
• who sent the last email to that group
• whether the group is posted on the website (public or private)

You can also quickly view a list of subscribers in that group and see every message you sent to that group.

Lastly, from this quick view, you can click the button to send mail to this group, and you will automatically be taken to the COMPOSE MESSAGE page with that group added to the recipient list.

As always, we LOVE hearing your feedback and feature requests! Visit us online any time at:

http://support.churchpost.com

Need to see the contents of something you sent or have scheduled to send?

Need to print a hard copy of a particular mailing?

No worries! Just click the message subject:

and a popup window will appear with a preview of your mailing, including:

• your message subject
• who it was (or is scheduled to be) sent to
• when it was created
• when it was sent

You can also print a hard copy from this window by clicking the PRINT icon located near the top right of the window. It’s so easy!

One of the coolest features of the new ChurchPost 2.0 is “Send a Similar Mailing”.

When your first login to your ChurchPost account, you will notice on the Email Center page small orange envelopes next to your recent mailings:

Instead of re-typing content and/or layout you want to send again, simply click this icon and you will be taken to the COMPOSE MESSAGE page with the content from that mailing pre-populated.

You only need to add recipients and if you wish, change the content of the mailing.

Then, either click SEND NOW or schedule a date for your mailing!

I use this feature regularly for weekly reminders, etc. that I’ve already spent time creating and just need to change one or two things within the content. SUCH A TIME SAVER!

Funny name – granted. (Think half secretary, half assistant…)

The Ann Arbor District of the United Methodist Church graciously invited us to be a part of their appreciation day Tuesday, May 1 at 1:00pm for the administrative staff for all of their churches. We offer some technical information that may be helpful for every day use, our take on how technology can be used well to enhance communications within the church and we’ll do a lot of listening to find out how we can offer a better service to the church. We may even bring the snacks!

If you are interested in planning something like this for your group of churches, we’d love to talk with you and see if there’s something we can contribute to fill out the event.

At the end of last year it was very apparent that we needed a much better communication system within our church.

We needed a system that would:

1. provide for very easy input of information
2. provide fast & timely information to the committees & congregation
3. would reach all of the congregation

We started using ChurchPost as the core of our new system in January, 2006, and it has been working extremely well.

Our basic procedure is:

• Have each of the committees within the church write up a one page summary of their Meeting Highlights after each of their meetings.
• Then they send these reports out using a predetermined ChurchPost group consisting of the church staff, the church council members, and our web master.

Any members of the congregation can also sign up to receive the committee reports that are of interest. (We have a person post these reports on a central bulletin board for those members not wanting to get their information from the computer.) For anytime access, our web master also posts these reports on our church website.

In addition, each of our committees is using their own ChurchPost group for communication of meeting notices, minutes, agendas, etc within their own committees.

Since using this communication system we have had nothing but favorable feedback from the congregation. Several of our minitries and programs are now using ChurchPost to communicate with those who are interested as well. We are even getting members of our congregation who are spending the winter months in Florida and Arizona signing up to receive the information through ChurchPost.

Bill Lynn
Chairman – Church Council
West Side United Methodist Church
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Communicating with membership is vital to the effectiveness of any ministry and to creating a sense of involvement and community. Printed material is expensive, takes time to produce and is costly to mail. Mass email is free but difficult manage effectively. This past summer we decided to begin a bi-weekly newsletter that would have the look and feel of a web page, with pictures and graphics. We would offer this to anyone who would choose to subscribe through our web site. The question was, how best to accomplish this.

After considering several "services" we learned about ChurchPost. It provided all of the features that we were hoping to find:      

1. easy enrollment and management of groups to receive various emails, each with a different focus . . . and all enrollment and cancellations managed by the user themselves!
2. easy creation of attractive newsletters and communications, using the same features as found in Microsoft Word and Publisher. And best of all…
3. excellent customer service and support provided by friendly, helpful, people.

We now have over 650 who have subscribed to various e-newsletters and the number grows daily as people become aware of the value of a communication device of this nature. Our Church Board can now make a decision at their Monday evening meeting and communicate it to the Congregation on Tuesday morning. This is what our folks want, and deserve.

Another one of our groups allows individuals to be notified when there is a death of a church member – allowing a visit to the family or attendance at the funeral. Not everyone is interested in receiving death information – so those who have subscribed to this service are the only ones who receive this type of information. The ways that this can be used are limited only by our creativity and the interests of our congregation.

I am pleased to recommend ChurchPost to anyone who is serious about communicating effectively with their constituency – whether large or small – on a timely basis.

Barry McKenna
Director of Administration
Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Northville, Michigan

Built by Churches for Churches is not just a tagline. It’s what we live by. Most of the features released in Version 2 came directly from our current and prospective customers.

Here’s a brief list of what we’ve added:

• spell checker
• auto-save and manual Save Now buttons for email composition (AJAX)
• sorting by first name, last name or email address
• detailed reporting including customizable reports in document form
• quick key entry for groups and individuals (AJAX)
• increased search capability for groups, individuals and email content
• better designed, more ministry-specific templates
• ability to print email content with the click of a button
• better use of page – less scrolling
• multiple, random date scheduling for auto-sending
• at-a-glance information on groups and subscribers (AJAX)
• all new, completely searchable knowledgebase/help desk

Don’t see what you were hoping for? Contact us and we’ll do our best to add it to our new features list.