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Gospel Software was something I was made aware of when Scott Moonen contacted me a while back.
I was struck by their simplicity, their apparent approach was not to overwhelm (and then underperform) but to provide simple solutions for obvious needs.
As we exchanged emails, Scott in his own words says it like this:
I think this notion of simplicity, of software not taking up much of your time, and of your hardly noticing when you are using it, is one of the marks of excellent software.
Because of our history of having organically developed this in and for a church, with a goal to serve, this value of simplicity has been important to us.
We have tried to evaluate every feature and decision in terms of whether it actually made life easier for our pastors, administrator and fellow members.
I honestly tend to agree.
As a product developer myself I have seen “scope creep” unlike anything you’ve possibly imagined, where a once-slim-and-trim product that functioned extremely well becomes bloated as additional “candy-like” feature sets are slapped on.
That’s probably the best thing about Gospel Software’s lineup; they just do a good job at what they were supposed to do, which may just be all that you need:
- Directory – An online photo directory and member database for your church.
- GuestView – A complete guest management solution for your church.
- SongBook – Manage your church’s worship songs and set lists.
They’ve got Free Trials all around and a simple visual display of screenshots to show what you’d get.
I went one step further and asked Scott to share a little more via an email interview. Here are some of his thoughts:
1. Introduce yourself in 140 chars or less!
I’m a husband, father, Christian joined to a local church where I serve as a small group leader, and software engineer in RTP, NC.
2.a. What is Gospel Software all about?
We’re all about building elegant and useful web-based software to serve churches with their administrative responsibilities.
2.b. How did it get started?
Gospel Software got started in our own church, where our services were created to serve ongoing ministry and church-life needs:
- To replace a time-consuming and constantly out-of date print directory we created an online searchable photo directory.
- To coordinate and streamline both Sunday-morning and small-group worship planning we created a worship planner.
- To manage and organize our follow-up ministry, we created a guest follow-up database.
We’ve enjoyed an organic growth and refinement as we improved our services to better meet the needs of our own church, and then over time for a growing number of churches. In 2008 we integrated our three services and made them publicly available for the first time.
3. What is your vision/mission for Gospel Software?
Our mission is to serve churches’ needs in an affordable, simple and unobtrusive way. We intend to do this in the way that we serve churches now, in the way that we steadily refine and improve our services, and in the way that we explore other possible services for churches.
4. What can Gospel Software do and provide for churches and ministries?
We provide our services a la carte because we understand a particular church might already have solutions for one of our service areas. We hope, though, that churches will be delighted by our services.
We’ve found that churches are often surprised to discover Gospel Software meets an administrative need they weren’t fully aware of, and are happy to recapture valuable hours of time that they didn’t realize they were losing.
5. Where do you see this type of software as a service going and how are you innovating and “pushing the envelope”?
We want churches to be able to use technology to reduce administrative overhead, not add to it.
By offering Gospel Software as an internet service, churches don’t have to worry about running servers, installing upgrades, or setting up automatic backups. We take care of that; all you need is a computer with an internet connection.
Web services can also be more open and connected; we are regularly looking for ways to integrate with other services and products in our import and export.
Finally, because Gospel Software is an internet service, churches can enjoy our enhancements immediately without any need to upgrade.
Thanks Scott for making software easy and simple again, and pushing the “innovation-envelope” in ways that we’d least expect; making it about the user and the organization’s needs rather than making it hot-pink with cool sound effects just because you can.
If you’d like to check out their software please do, it may be exactly what you’re looking for.
[Images from GospelSoftware, Cobalt]
Jim says
cool
Steve Kryger says
Would be keen to hear comments from anyone who has used this.
Also, what would you say are the competitors to Gospel Software? Who is doing a similar thing?
human3rror says
Steve,
Great questions. There's a lot of open source apps that you can use as well. Those would be competitors in my book
Steve Kryger says
Thanks John. Are you able to share some links to apps that you've seen/would recommend?
I've also just published an article on the "Search for the ideal church database" (http://communicatejesus.com/2009/07/searching-for…
human3rror says
I will. I'll probably create a big post on it.