Our Favorite Tools to Help Pastors and Care Teams Succeed in 2024

We want this to be the year pastors and their teams find success in meeting their pastoral care goals. Call us biased, but we believe finding the right tech tools can transform a pastoral care ministry – we’ve seen it happen!  Check out this list of our favorite 2024 church tech tools that we think will help you and your team streamline your workflow and do what you do best - care for others.

ChMS Leaders

Church management software (ChMS) is be an important part of your team’s tech stack. Finding the right solution can be daunting, as there are hundreds of ChMS options on the market - we think there are a few that stand out:

Breeze

Breeze offers a user-friendly ChMS with features tailored to the needs of small to medium-sized churches. With features like service planning, check-in and volunteer management, giving solutions, communication tools and more, Breeze provides intuitive tools to streamline church management workflows and enhance communication within the church community.

Church Windows

Church Windows is a robust ChMS solution that caters to the unique needs of churches and religious organizations. Church Windows offers membership management, church calendar tools, donations management, accounting and payroll tools, a la carte or as a suite of powerfully integrated tools that help churches effectively manage their operations and resources.

Planning Center

Planning Center Online (PCO) is a comprehensive ChMS designed to simplify church management and streamline workflow processes. With features that centralize event planning and organize event setup, check-ins and attendance tracking, groups management, giving and more, PCO empowers ministry teams to do it all in one place.

Church Community Builder

Church Community Builder (CCB) helps churches accomplish many different tasks, from member management and giving, website building and maintenance, small group and prayer request management, event planning, content management and more. CCB focuses on tools that help growing churches make the most of their resources.  

Servant Keeper

Servant Keeper is a ChMS platform designed to streamline common church management functions. With features for managing membership records for individuals and families, tracking contributions, and attendance tracking, giving and mass communications, Servant Keeper provides churches with the tools they need to keep operations organized for churches of all sizes.

Pastoral Care Solutions

Spreadsheets, sticky notes, notebooks, and plain ol’ memory - is this how you’ve been managing pastoral care? We hear it all the time, and we might know a better way (or two!)

Notebird

Notebird is an easy-to-use pastoral care software that centralizes all aspects of pastoral care management. From tracking interactions, storing pastoral care notes, scheduling follow-ups, assigning tasks to pastoral care team members, instantly printing customizable care reports and more, Notebird is the one tool care teams need to deliver impactful care to congregants and make sure no one falls through the cracks.

BibliCare

BibliCare is a specialized software solution designed specifically for counseling ministries. With features for managing client information, tracking session notes, and scheduling appointments, and powerful tools for analyzing trends, BibliCare helps counseling ministries streamline their workflows and provide quality care to those in need.

Sermon Prep Software

Though just one of many duties for pastors, sermon prep is vital to the overall mission and messaging of a ministry. Find your ideal workflow with one of the great apps we’ve listed here:

Olive Tree Bible Software 

Olive Tree Bible Software offers multiple Bible study apps that provide users with access to their vast library of resources, including Bibles and study Bibles, commentaries, study guides, and more. With features for creating reading plans, taking notes, and accessing resources offline, Olive Tree Bible App is an indispensable tool for pastors and Bible study leaders.

Logos Bible Software

Logos Bible Software is a powerful tool for in-depth Bible study and sermon preparation. With a vast library of resources, including scholarly works, original language texts, and historical documents, Logos Bible Software equips pastors with the tools they need to exegete Scripture, develop sermons, and engage in academic research.

Sermonary

Sermonary is an all-in-one sermon preparation app that provides pastors with tools for sermon building, sermon organization, and sermon delivery. With features for creating sermon outlines, managing sermon illustrations, and exporting sermons to various formats, Sermonary helps pastors streamline their sermon preparation process and deliver impactful messages to their congregation.

Sermonly

Sermonly is an AI-powered sermon prep software that assists pastors in generating sermon outlines, finding relevant illustrations, and organizing sermon content. With advanced natural language processing algorithms, Sermonly analyzes Scripture passages and provides pastors with insights and inspiration for crafting engaging and insightful sermons.

Digital Giving Tools

The generosity of congregants directly supports the work care ministries do every day, and nurturing the spirit of giving is vitally important for care teams to continue their missions. You’ll see a couple of familiar names again, but we think they provide some of the best solutions in the digital giving space.

Tithe.ly

Tithe.ly is an online giving software platform that provides churches with tools for accepting donations, managing donor information, and analyzing giving trends. With features for recurring giving, cash and check handling, giver-covered fees, text giving and six giving forms, Tithe.ly helps churches increase and make the most of their congregants’ generosity.

Church Windows

In addition to its other offerings ChurchWindows has a module just for managing giving called Donations. This software is full-featured giving software that allows teams to track giving, create robust reports and create statements on demand.

Breeze

Breeze also offers giving solutions as part of its suite of tools. With online, mobile and text giving, Breeze makes it easy for churches to accept donations or collect other payments. Breeze also provides features for creating year end statements in just a few clicks, as well as easily viewing giving history, making it a great streamlined option that works alongside Breeze’s other tools seamlessly.

Planning Center

Planning Center also allows teams to handle giving as part of their broader ChMS offerings. PCO not only allows church teams to receive giving (online or in person) and process those donations, but provides tools for uncovering trends as well – and it’s all integrated into their other services, like their church mobile app, making it even easier for congregants to give.

Other Tools You Should Know About

Faithly.co

Faithly is a digital network for Christians in ministry, providing pastors, leaders, staff, and volunteers with a platform for community, connection, and collaboration - they call themselves “LinkedIn for the ministry world.” Members can create profiles showcasing their ministry journey and engage in deeper collaboration through Faithly Groups aligned with their ministry interests.

OnArk

OnArk is a digital platform that helps churches bring fully customized educational content to their congregants, no matter where they are, allowing church teams to provide a digital experience that matches their in-person church offerings. Church teams can build classes that are totally customizable, from branding and custom forms, video content, URLs and more. OnArk also integrates features that help you connect with members, including built-in personality or spiritual gift tests and live chat.

bltn

We love what bltn is doing to make communicating with congregants easier. Bltn allows you to send digital bulletins, email newsletters, and mass text messages, manage social media posts and even create print bulletins to go alongside. They’ve also incorporated AI tools to make content creation even easier.

Wrap Up

We know that finding the right tools can empower care teams to streamline workflows, enhance communication, and foster meaningful connections within their congregations. Putting together a cohesive set of tools that works for your team can unlock new opportunities for growth, efficiency, and impact, helping you on your mission to provide compassionate care and support to your people.