August 22, 2024 • 25 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey guys, frank here with another episode of Modern
Church Leader.
I'm here with Jared Romano.
Jared, what's going on, man?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to the show, thank, you so much for having me
.
It's been I'd say I've been afan of the podcast for a while
and honored to be a guest.
We've gotten to know each otherin this world for a while, and
then yeah, just my pleasure tobe here.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , we have.
We have a lot of great guestson this show, so thanks for
coming on.
Where are you?
Well, I mean, let's just kindof jump in like where are you
coming to us from and like giveus a little bit of your story
into where you're at todayworking on church mission
software.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, as a previous listener, the popular Nashville
Tennessee.
Lots of guests from Nashville.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I mean so many, so many folks from Nashville.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, we definitely post-COVID and I'm part of the
problem.
I was Los Angeles when we metall those years ago, moved from
LA to Nashville, tennessee, butI didn't go south, I didn't go
to Franklin, I went a little bitnorth and we've got a farm,
little 20 acre farm, north oftown and then one of the
(01:21):
co-founders of a missionsoftware and a pastoral software
called Go and Growth Method andthen, yeah, just I guess, a
serial entrepreneur along theway.
Definitely born and raised onthe front row of the church.
My father was an Assemblies ofGod AG pastor's kid and so
(01:42):
really grew up Sunday morningchurch, sunday night you had
Monday off, but Tuesday was bandpractice, wednesday was midweek
service, thursday was youthgroup.
I mean, really spent my time.
Even Saturday night at 10 pmwas prayer for Sunday morning's
three services.
(02:02):
So I really grew up behind thescenes of the church and then
that is oddly placed me upon myfather's retirement as a pastor.
He actually goes into missionswork and becoming not a quote,
unquote missions pastor.
But the gentleman who took thechurch over was from South
Africa for my father and theybecame very close and fast
(02:25):
friends and through that processhe says I want to take you to
South Africa, I want you to seewhere I'm from.
And that sparked in himmissions, work and then many,
many over, I believe, 30different trips to Africa and
Bulgaria and.
Haiti and all these differentareas.
He had this kind of techie sonand what he did in terms of
(02:48):
ministry we've been trying to doin terms of technology, and so
we built different technologyplatforms.
I think maybe what we talkabout today is some of those
missions sides of things, but areal burden and a heart for
missions and built and and builta, built a service and built a,
a platform for the church to bemore efficient with those
(03:09):
things.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, yeah, and that's where we connected.
You know four or five years ago.
Um, I don't remember exactlywhat happened but, right, we
probably had shared customerssomehow.
And one of us reached out andwe're like, hey, we should, you
know, we should, you know, dosome sort of integration, we
should somehow partner up.
And you know, that was that wasages ago.
(03:31):
But yeah, tell us about.
You know what's the name of thecompany and the product and
what does it do for churches andhow does it help kind of
missions trips and missionsorganizing get better?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, absolutely so.
So, yeah, I think you're right.
I think it was Nashville was ameetup and I got to meet your
team and we were really, reallyexcited to partner together.
What Go Method is the name ofthe company, so Go Method is
this and you guys rebrandedright, like you were Focus
Mission.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Originally we were Focus Ministry and then you reb,
we were Focus Ministry.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
And then you re-branded.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Focus Ministry.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, we had a small organization by the name of the
Catholic Church had bought up abunch of different acronyms and
trademarks the Fellowship ofCatholic University Students is
the acronym FOCUS and so we said, oh my goodness, we're getting
(04:27):
all these different youngCatholic organizations signing
up on our website and confusingback and forth.
And so there was a rebrandright around 2020 to Go Method,
and so Go Method being any sortof event, whether it be we've
sometimes said concerts andmen's retreats and staff
(04:51):
retreats, any sort of gatheringof 10 or more folks there's a
tremendous amount of paperworkthat goes with it and background
checks and costs and all ofthat.
And our background for GoMethod is any sort of missions
and administration space as wellas helping fundraise.
And so if you were to kind ofstructure your standard missions
(05:15):
pastor or events leader insideof the four walls of the church,
there's a website that you'vegot to put together and you've
got to advertise your events.
Well, we come alongside and wecreate that for you.
Then you're an individual, likeFrank is either maybe bringing
the kids and he's a trip leader,or maybe, individually, you
(05:36):
have an interest in goinginternational this year.
Well, now we've got to get yourallergies and we've got to
understand the heart and yourtestimony.
We've got to maybe pull a legalbackground check just to ensure
the safety of the organization,and then we've got to come to
an approval process.
So that approval process allhappens within the software,
(05:56):
making sure that we protect theorganization.
And then now it's homework timefor someone in Frank's position
.
So now I've got permissionslips and I've got standards of
conduct, digital signatures.
I need your passport front andback.
I need expiration dates.
I need usually around 15 to 20different assets from the
(06:19):
individual, and so we become thesignatures, we become the
document storage, but really webecome the reminder system,
which is a lot of the time thatis spent.
I always joke with missionspastors how many times have you
signed the documents on the wayto the airport?
And they go, oh, like everytrip.
(06:41):
So it's that protection timesavings.
Going back to my father, he hadthat three ring binder with the
pleather cover on it and thatwas his way of doing things and
each trip had a tab and he had200, 300 pieces of paper per
event and broken down by these20 different people.
Unless you were as manual ashis process was, something's
(07:08):
going to fall between the cracks.
And so, looking at his process,gosh, 10 years ago now, we've
been Go method and focusmissions.
We have taken all of that andthen finally came to the side of
like, well, what's the lastpiece of this puzzle Is we've
got to start accepting money onbehalf of our organizations,
(07:29):
because it's really not realuntil you maybe put a deposit
down and solidify your seat.
But now here's a six-monthprocess where we're training and
we're getting ready.
We've got to start fundraisingduring that time.
We've got to start fundraisingduring that time.
And that's really where thelight came on, I think, in our
friendship and our relationshipwas there's nobody that can stop
(07:53):
a software administrationsoftware, like your finance
director.
So what we've learned very,very quickly is working inside
of the organization is sure wecan make the trip goer, remind
them and get them engaged andwalk them through the process.
We can work with differentdatabases and we can make sure
(08:17):
that all of the legal side ofthings are being taken care of,
but the finance piece is a hugeelement of guiding the
individual.
How much more do I have to raise?
Is it easy for me to raise Morethan likely?
That individual, at least inthe past, was up to doing a
GoFundMe themselves or makingtheir own PayPal account or
(08:40):
those sorts of things wherewe've actually tasked the
individual to go on Facebook andpromote themselves and find a
way to get that money to thechurch.
So our heart was working withthat finance director to make
sure.
The same way that you would beable to give through Tithely on
a Sunday morning and give adonation or give a tithe is the
(09:02):
same process.
It is to support an individualgoing on an event or to pay for
my own trip.
Maybe you guys don't dofundraising or anything and it's
just part of paying that $2,200to go on that event.
I can set up a little paymentplan there and I can start
paying towards that throughtithing.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So you I mean I guess layman's terms right For
someone who doesn't run you makeit, I guess layman's terms
right for someone who doesn'trun you replace the entire
offline paper-driven or Excelspreadsheet-driven system with
purpose-built technology formission trips.
That's the heart.
(09:42):
Set up the mission trip andthen they can organize all the
tasks and then they can havepeople sign up to come on the
mission trip and help them gothrough the sign up and approval
process and then all the way tothe point of if the person has
to fundraise or wants tofundraise, or if the church as
part of their mission trip, theydo fundraising like they can
fundraise right on the platformversus using GoFundMe or some
(10:04):
other method, versus usingGoFundMe or some other method.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's the heart of it and being able to take that
and then repurpose that time ofactually managing it.
So one thing that we get toshare is, if that process is
worked through, the backgroundchecks and the databases and
Tithely and all of these piecescoming together it's about 100
(10:28):
hours of administration time.
If I was the one leading thatevent, I'd be 100 hours of my
time that I get back, and thenthe goal here is to do more with
that time.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So if I'm that missions director or
communications person or reallyit's I joke, miss Betty, but
it's Miss Betty's time thatwe're returning who's picking up
the phones and is also Just,miss Betty used to be able to do
one mission trip a year and nowshe can do 10 of them.
Like Correct, just because yougave her 10 times the time, as a
(11:03):
superpower, to go do moremission trips if they want to.
Right, like you.
Just like.
One person doesn't need tospend all year doing one mission
trip because it's so like, it'sjust so much work.
Right Like.
They can go do a bunch more now.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And the heart is more delightful.
I was going to say it's a.
We would always joke.
There's the difference betweenmy father's generation.
And then the person replacingmy father is coming out of
school and he's 27 years old andhe's getting his first job.
At his trip or at the church,he expects an Apple level of
(11:40):
technology.
My dad went from a three ringbinder to the level of Apple
technology.
And to meet in the middle ofthose places of saying, yeah,
we're going to use technology totime save, but all of that is
really in the heart ofadministration time saved so
that we can do other stuff.
And even a lot of organizationswill say, well, we have an
(12:02):
organization that we partnerwith to do those sort of
missions, trips and things ofthat nature, which is great, Um,
but there's likely a time in inyour one year of as a church
where you're gathering peopletogether and moving them to
another location, uh, that thatcould look like those concerts.
That could look like men'sretreats, those could look like,
um, any sort of, uh, travelingmoment.
(12:26):
There's usually parent consentform there.
There's usually some sort ofbackground adult next to
children sort of thing that'sworth looking into and we could
just automate and make thosethings a little bit more
efficient in the world of events.
How?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
what does a normal or like cause you have an
interesting view or vantagepoint into?
Like church missions trips,like all over the US and maybe
further right, so you get to seelike lots of them versus what
one person at one church mightsee.
So, like I don't know, tell usa little bit like what have you
(13:02):
learned?
What have you seen over theyears?
Like, what do general missionstrips look like and how big are
they?
How many people go, how muchmoney do people raise to go do
them?
How do they celebrate whenthey're done?
Like I don't know.
Give us a little behind thecurtains.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Absolutely so.
There was this very pesky thingI'm not sure that you remember
three years ago, this globalpandemic.
It really allowed us to take alook at every aspect of going on
an event, on a trip, and we did.
We went into the hard parts ofthe data and the exciting part
(13:39):
is one we're having our banneryear.
This is the best year we'veever had pre-COVID, and so
people are coming back to thisworld Some great stats to know
as a church.
So if I'm that missions pastor,I'm that person leading this
side of things.
The average church does sevenmissions trips a year.
(13:59):
So at least something thatwould qualify.
We would consider a missionstrip, something domestic as well
.
So if we're in New York andwe're going to help a relief in
a fire or something down inFlorida because of a hurricane,
we would still call thatmissions.
But we see on average sevenmission strips.
(14:20):
The average attendance on thoseis 11 people.
That fluctuates between 11 and14 on average, and so you
usually have one or two leadersleading those 14 people.
And then the average fundraisethat we see around that is
between $2,200 and $2,400.
And so if you're doing that-Like per person or per trip Per
(14:42):
person?
Is that per person?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that should include yourflight, that should include some
sort of level of insurance andthen your lodging of the
individuals there.
Sometimes people have differentbudgets for food or host homes
or things of that nature, and sothat can drive prices up or
down.
But on average, we're seeing afundraise, if you will as a
(15:05):
church, around $25,000 per event, and so as you start to budget
and start to see things cometogether, that's really helpful
to know.
Are we overspending, are weunderspending, is there
opportunity for better flightrates and things of that nature.
But yeah, those 11 to 14 peopleseem to be a manageable group.
(15:27):
Plus you've got that camaraderie, and one part that a lot of
organizations aren't as adeptwith is we've accomplished the
goal.
We come home and we just tryand get them to do it again, and
the big part is actually therelationship that you can now
establish throughout the rest ofthe year as that missional
(15:48):
program or that events-basedprogram.
We've just had this bondingtime.
Frank and Jared have just builtsomething or gone somewhere or
have this sort of thing, and Ijust go all right, bud, we'll
see you next year.
That's really an opportunityfor greater pastoring.
That's helping them plan thenext different events.
(16:09):
A lot of times we'll havetraining classes for the
returning of possibly what we'veseen there culturally different
spiritual impacts that we'vehad during those times.
So as much as the front end ofa missions trip or a heavy
travel trip is administrativebased, the return or the back
end of the trip could really bespiritual growth and the fact
(16:32):
that together I as the spirituallead of that trip, if I'm
leading it that way, or thehouse of worship that I'm a part
of I now have a tremendousamount of heart, social equities
, connection to this place and Iof course would want other
people to go and experience whatI've seen, but bringing them as
(16:54):
part of the next team orhelping them shape the next
event, the next missions trip.
A lot of churches do forgetabout that part.
It's thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Let's start fundraising for next year, but
there's just a massive communitythat can absolutely grow as a
(17:24):
result of people you know.
But oftentimes you probablywent with some people you didn't
know and so now you know morepeople, you have more connection
in the church.
Like there's a lot of byproductgoodness that comes from people
going on a mission trip.
That's like not necessarilydirectly tied to the work they
did on the mission trip.
Like all those relationshipsand connections and even if you
(17:46):
did it with your church, likenow you're even that much more
connected, kind of connected toyour church, like you have an
extra.
You have this extra thing thatbonds you to that community of
people and your church, you know.
So it's like it's superpowerful and you see it with
kids going like kids going onmission trips and doing youth
cores and youth camps and allthat kind of stuff.
Like all of that is like has asimilar effect on people.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
We saw it in our family through kingdom Builders.
When you're talking about youngfolks going to a local city
together, meeting other families, creating those relationships,
I have a story.
Actually my sister out ofRichmond she did Kingdom
Builders with her kidsestablished a relationship with
a family there.
(18:30):
They became friends and, lo andbehold, it was time they felt
called to start a church and outof that church came the school.
Well, the woman who runs thatschool came right out of that
missions program and those timesthat they spent together in
Kingdom Builders together andthey would have never had that
relationship is one side of it.
(18:53):
And then we often talk about,especially in the missions world
we don't want to be the neonshirts that are painting the
school for the 10th time and youhear all those sorts of John
Crist-like jokes whichabsolutely are part of that
industry.
If you will, what we reallyreally are is getting probably
(19:15):
more from the locations than wepotentially could even give.
Yes, we're there as arepresentation of Christ.
Yes, we're there as a part ofwhat?
Can we now support you overthis time in between events and
(19:37):
seeing continued fundraising forthe event?
Yes, of course we have that$2,200 to $2,500 that we have to
raise per individual or that$25,000, $30,000 per event as a
church.
But how can we take thatministry, partner alongside of
them?
Yes, they know maybe we'recoming twice a year with these
(19:58):
different groups, butestablishing these connections,
that aren't we're here to helpyou and this and that, but we're
here to partner alongside withthis organization and the
impacts that we see statesidebecome those opportunities for
more community and greaterprocess.
And so there's differentarticles that we have in terms
(20:21):
of best ways and best practices.
We even partner with anorganization called Standards of
Excellence, helping you coverall your bases prior to getting
to an event, cover all yourbases prior to getting to an
event.
And then really, the big, thebig, the biggest followup aspect
of that is what are we doingnow that we've returned?
(20:42):
What, what, what spiritualimpact have we had and how can
we insulate community aroundthat?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, how many missions trips do you think you
guys will do this year, like howmany missions will run through
your software?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
A right around between 14 and 15,000 is the
expectation this year, so we'reright on track.
It's a lot.
So the I mean coming out ofCOVID, we were just absolutely I
joke with our business partners.
I now know what it felt like tobe on the stock floor of the
(21:20):
Great Depression.
It was literally that day.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
It never stopped.
Our mission trips all stoppedcompletely.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It stopped for 24 months.
It really really did, and therewas a cultural concern there
where, even as we're starting tokind of peek out of the hole,
the last thing you want is yourfaith-based organization going
to somewhere and creatingpotentially another outbreak or
greater contaminant.
I mean, we were the lastorganizations to start traveling
(21:51):
again, and so we were blessedto have weathered that season.
But that was such a reformationon why do we do what we do One
as a software and as a business,why do we do what we do?
But really, the capital Cchurch of we have been really
put aside and told to stay homefor a 12 to 24-month period.
(22:16):
Now that there's permission andthe ability to do so, that's
really what comes as a result ofhaving our banner year.
There is this pent-upopportunity.
There's this man we haven'tseen you guys in upwards of
three years.
How can we help?
How can we come back?
And so we're seeing increasedcommunication between
missionaries saying, hey, we hadCOVID in our village.
(22:42):
This is ways that you canbetter support us and how you
can guide us, and then, as youcome in, here are some sensitive
and cultural ways that you canreally make an impact that again
we joke about you're paintingthe school.
We want to be more than schoolpainters and we really want to
be able to establishrelationship and be able to take
(23:03):
away more than we, or an equaltakeaway as much as we give.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, love it.
Man.
How do folks get to know moreabout you guys?
Yeah, so let's make sure youguys do 15,000 trips this year.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Oh, that would be incredible and we'll see you
guys.
Definitely we're going to beattending Modern Church Leader
your conference coming up, I'mvery excited.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
If you haven't registered, make sure you
register, y'all.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Get in there, I'll be standing at a booth there.
We've got some promotionsspecifically for Tithely
Churches that we're going to bereleasing at that conference.
Oh cool, we've got just ways tomake sure that you guys
experience what we're talkingabout and get the blessing of
that.
And then you would go toacstcom slash go.
(23:55):
So we had a partnership therewith ACS.
Technologies is an organizationout of South Carolina and they
are kind of our parent companyin this process and so we come
alongside them.
They've been able to increaseour customer service and our
trainings and things of thatnature.
(24:15):
If you're ever on the phonewith someone from ACS, you're
going to hear a sweet Southerndrawl, which is good when you're
talking with churches and doingall the instructions and the
customer service side of things.
And then we're building moreand growing our technology and
you can one see a 30-day trialof that If you go to
acstechnologiescom slash go.
(24:37):
That's just 30 days for you toget a feel for it and then come
October we're going to have somepromotions for you guys.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Love it, man.
Well, thanks for coming on theshow.
Love the product, Love what youguys are doing.
Like 15,000 mission trips,no-transcript.
Yeah, we'll be there.
Awesome man.
Well, thanks for joiningeveryone.
Another great show.
Join us next week on anotherepisode and we'll catch you
(25:12):
later.
Bye-bye.
Hey guys, frank here with another episode of Modern
Church Leader.
I'm here with Jared Romano.
Jared, what's going on, man?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to the show, thank, you so much for having me
.
It's been I'd say I've been afan of the podcast for a while
and honored to be a guest.
We've gotten to know each otherin this world for a while, and
then yeah, just my pleasure tobe here.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , we have.
We have a lot of great guestson this show, so thanks for
coming on.
Where are you?
Well, I mean, let's just kindof jump in like where are you
coming to us from and like giveus a little bit of your story
into where you're at todayworking on church mission
software.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, as a previous listener, the popular Nashville
Tennessee.
Lots of guests from Nashville.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I mean so many, so many folks from Nashville.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, we definitely post-COVID and I'm part of the
problem.
I was Los Angeles when we metall those years ago, moved from
LA to Nashville, tennessee, butI didn't go south, I didn't go
to Franklin, I went a little bitnorth and we've got a farm,
little 20 acre farm, north oftown and then one of the
(01:21):
co-founders of a missionsoftware and a pastoral software
called Go and Growth Method andthen, yeah, just I guess, a
serial entrepreneur along theway.
Definitely born and raised onthe front row of the church.
My father was an Assemblies ofGod AG pastor's kid and so
(01:42):
really grew up Sunday morningchurch, sunday night you had
Monday off, but Tuesday was bandpractice, wednesday was midweek
service, thursday was youthgroup.
I mean, really spent my time.
Even Saturday night at 10 pmwas prayer for Sunday morning's
three services.
(02:02):
So I really grew up behind thescenes of the church and then
that is oddly placed me upon myfather's retirement as a pastor.
He actually goes into missionswork and becoming not a quote,
unquote missions pastor.
But the gentleman who took thechurch over was from South
Africa for my father and theybecame very close and fast
(02:25):
friends and through that processhe says I want to take you to
South Africa, I want you to seewhere I'm from.
And that sparked in himmissions, work and then many,
many over, I believe, 30different trips to Africa and
Bulgaria and.
Haiti and all these differentareas.
He had this kind of techie sonand what he did in terms of
(02:48):
ministry we've been trying to doin terms of technology, and so
we built different technologyplatforms.
I think maybe what we talkabout today is some of those
missions sides of things, but areal burden and a heart for
missions and built and and builta, built a service and built a,
a platform for the church to bemore efficient with those
(03:09):
things.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, yeah, and that's where we connected.
You know four or five years ago.
Um, I don't remember exactlywhat happened but, right, we
probably had shared customerssomehow.
And one of us reached out andwe're like, hey, we should, you
know, we should, you know, dosome sort of integration, we
should somehow partner up.
And you know, that was that wasages ago.
(03:31):
But yeah, tell us about.
You know what's the name of thecompany and the product and
what does it do for churches andhow does it help kind of
missions trips and missionsorganizing get better?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, absolutely so.
So, yeah, I think you're right.
I think it was Nashville was ameetup and I got to meet your
team and we were really, reallyexcited to partner together.
What Go Method is the name ofthe company, so Go Method is
this and you guys rebrandedright, like you were Focus
Mission.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Originally we were Focus Ministry and then you reb,
we were Focus Ministry.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
And then you re-branded.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Focus Ministry.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, we had a small organization by the name of the
Catholic Church had bought up abunch of different acronyms and
trademarks the Fellowship ofCatholic University Students is
the acronym FOCUS and so we said, oh my goodness, we're getting
(04:27):
all these different youngCatholic organizations signing
up on our website and confusingback and forth.
And so there was a rebrandright around 2020 to Go Method,
and so Go Method being any sortof event, whether it be we've
sometimes said concerts andmen's retreats and staff
(04:51):
retreats, any sort of gatheringof 10 or more folks there's a
tremendous amount of paperworkthat goes with it and background
checks and costs and all ofthat.
And our background for GoMethod is any sort of missions
and administration space as wellas helping fundraise.
And so if you were to kind ofstructure your standard missions
(05:15):
pastor or events leader insideof the four walls of the church,
there's a website that you'vegot to put together and you've
got to advertise your events.
Well, we come alongside and wecreate that for you.
Then you're an individual, likeFrank is either maybe bringing
the kids and he's a trip leader,or maybe, individually, you
(05:36):
have an interest in goinginternational this year.
Well, now we've got to get yourallergies and we've got to
understand the heart and yourtestimony.
We've got to maybe pull a legalbackground check just to ensure
the safety of the organization,and then we've got to come to
an approval process.
So that approval process allhappens within the software,
(05:56):
making sure that we protect theorganization.
And then now it's homework timefor someone in Frank's position
.
So now I've got permissionslips and I've got standards of
conduct, digital signatures.
I need your passport front andback.
I need expiration dates.
I need usually around 15 to 20different assets from the
(06:19):
individual, and so we become thesignatures, we become the
document storage, but really webecome the reminder system,
which is a lot of the time thatis spent.
I always joke with missionspastors how many times have you
signed the documents on the wayto the airport?
And they go, oh, like everytrip.
(06:41):
So it's that protection timesavings.
Going back to my father, he hadthat three ring binder with the
pleather cover on it and thatwas his way of doing things and
each trip had a tab and he had200, 300 pieces of paper per
event and broken down by these20 different people.
Unless you were as manual ashis process was, something's
(07:08):
going to fall between the cracks.
And so, looking at his process,gosh, 10 years ago now, we've
been Go method and focusmissions.
We have taken all of that andthen finally came to the side of
like, well, what's the lastpiece of this puzzle Is we've
got to start accepting money onbehalf of our organizations,
(07:29):
because it's really not realuntil you maybe put a deposit
down and solidify your seat.
But now here's a six-monthprocess where we're training and
we're getting ready.
We've got to start fundraisingduring that time.
We've got to start fundraisingduring that time.
And that's really where thelight came on, I think, in our
friendship and our relationshipwas there's nobody that can stop
(07:53):
a software administrationsoftware, like your finance
director.
So what we've learned very,very quickly is working inside
of the organization is sure wecan make the trip goer, remind
them and get them engaged andwalk them through the process.
We can work with differentdatabases and we can make sure
(08:17):
that all of the legal side ofthings are being taken care of,
but the finance piece is a hugeelement of guiding the
individual.
How much more do I have to raise?
Is it easy for me to raise Morethan likely?
That individual, at least inthe past, was up to doing a
GoFundMe themselves or makingtheir own PayPal account or
(08:40):
those sorts of things wherewe've actually tasked the
individual to go on Facebook andpromote themselves and find a
way to get that money to thechurch.
So our heart was working withthat finance director to make
sure.
The same way that you would beable to give through Tithely on
a Sunday morning and give adonation or give a tithe is the
(09:02):
same process.
It is to support an individualgoing on an event or to pay for
my own trip.
Maybe you guys don't dofundraising or anything and it's
just part of paying that $2,200to go on that event.
I can set up a little paymentplan there and I can start
paying towards that throughtithing.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So you I mean I guess layman's terms right For
someone who doesn't run you makeit, I guess layman's terms
right for someone who doesn'trun you replace the entire
offline paper-driven or Excelspreadsheet-driven system with
purpose-built technology formission trips.
That's the heart.
(09:42):
Set up the mission trip andthen they can organize all the
tasks and then they can havepeople sign up to come on the
mission trip and help them gothrough the sign up and approval
process and then all the way tothe point of if the person has
to fundraise or wants tofundraise, or if the church as
part of their mission trip, theydo fundraising like they can
fundraise right on the platformversus using GoFundMe or some
(10:04):
other method, versus usingGoFundMe or some other method.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's the heart of it and being able to take that
and then repurpose that time ofactually managing it.
So one thing that we get toshare is, if that process is
worked through, the backgroundchecks and the databases and
Tithely and all of these piecescoming together it's about 100
(10:28):
hours of administration time.
If I was the one leading thatevent, I'd be 100 hours of my
time that I get back, and thenthe goal here is to do more with
that time.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So if I'm that missions director or
communications person or reallyit's I joke, miss Betty, but
it's Miss Betty's time thatwe're returning who's picking up
the phones and is also Just,miss Betty used to be able to do
one mission trip a year and nowshe can do 10 of them.
Like Correct, just because yougave her 10 times the time, as a
(11:03):
superpower, to go do moremission trips if they want to.
Right, like you.
Just like.
One person doesn't need tospend all year doing one mission
trip because it's so like, it'sjust so much work.
Right Like.
They can go do a bunch more now.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And the heart is more delightful.
I was going to say it's a.
We would always joke.
There's the difference betweenmy father's generation.
And then the person replacingmy father is coming out of
school and he's 27 years old andhe's getting his first job.
At his trip or at the church,he expects an Apple level of
(11:40):
technology.
My dad went from a three ringbinder to the level of Apple
technology.
And to meet in the middle ofthose places of saying, yeah,
we're going to use technology totime save, but all of that is
really in the heart ofadministration time saved so
that we can do other stuff.
And even a lot of organizationswill say, well, we have an
(12:02):
organization that we partnerwith to do those sort of
missions, trips and things ofthat nature, which is great, Um,
but there's likely a time in inyour one year of as a church
where you're gathering peopletogether and moving them to
another location, uh, that thatcould look like those concerts.
That could look like men'sretreats, those could look like,
um, any sort of, uh, travelingmoment.
(12:26):
There's usually parent consentform there.
There's usually some sort ofbackground adult next to
children sort of thing that'sworth looking into and we could
just automate and make thosethings a little bit more
efficient in the world of events.
How?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
what does a normal or like cause you have an
interesting view or vantagepoint into?
Like church missions trips,like all over the US and maybe
further right, so you get to seelike lots of them versus what
one person at one church mightsee.
So, like I don't know, tell usa little bit like what have you
(13:02):
learned?
What have you seen over theyears?
Like, what do general missionstrips look like and how big are
they?
How many people go, how muchmoney do people raise to go do
them?
How do they celebrate whenthey're done?
Like I don't know.
Give us a little behind thecurtains.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Absolutely so.
There was this very pesky thingI'm not sure that you remember
three years ago, this globalpandemic.
It really allowed us to take alook at every aspect of going on
an event, on a trip, and we did.
We went into the hard parts ofthe data and the exciting part
(13:39):
is one we're having our banneryear.
This is the best year we'veever had pre-COVID, and so
people are coming back to thisworld Some great stats to know
as a church.
So if I'm that missions pastor,I'm that person leading this
side of things.
The average church does sevenmissions trips a year.
(13:59):
So at least something thatwould qualify.
We would consider a missionstrip, something domestic as well
.
So if we're in New York andwe're going to help a relief in
a fire or something down inFlorida because of a hurricane,
we would still call thatmissions.
But we see on average sevenmission strips.
(14:20):
The average attendance on thoseis 11 people.
That fluctuates between 11 and14 on average, and so you
usually have one or two leadersleading those 14 people.
And then the average fundraisethat we see around that is
between $2,200 and $2,400.
And so if you're doing that-Like per person or per trip Per
(14:42):
person?
Is that per person?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that should include yourflight, that should include some
sort of level of insurance andthen your lodging of the
individuals there.
Sometimes people have differentbudgets for food or host homes
or things of that nature, and sothat can drive prices up or
down.
But on average, we're seeing afundraise, if you will as a
(15:05):
church, around $25,000 per event, and so as you start to budget
and start to see things cometogether, that's really helpful
to know.
Are we overspending, are weunderspending, is there
opportunity for better flightrates and things of that nature.
But yeah, those 11 to 14 peopleseem to be a manageable group.
(15:27):
Plus you've got that camaraderie, and one part that a lot of
organizations aren't as adeptwith is we've accomplished the
goal.
We come home and we just tryand get them to do it again, and
the big part is actually therelationship that you can now
establish throughout the rest ofthe year as that missional
(15:48):
program or that events-basedprogram.
We've just had this bondingtime.
Frank and Jared have just builtsomething or gone somewhere or
have this sort of thing, and Ijust go all right, bud, we'll
see you next year.
That's really an opportunityfor greater pastoring.
That's helping them plan thenext different events.
(16:09):
A lot of times we'll havetraining classes for the
returning of possibly what we'veseen there culturally different
spiritual impacts that we'vehad during those times.
So as much as the front end ofa missions trip or a heavy
travel trip is administrativebased, the return or the back
end of the trip could really bespiritual growth and the fact
(16:32):
that together I as the spirituallead of that trip, if I'm
leading it that way, or thehouse of worship that I'm a part
of I now have a tremendousamount of heart, social equities
, connection to this place and Iof course would want other
people to go and experience whatI've seen, but bringing them as
(16:54):
part of the next team orhelping them shape the next
event, the next missions trip.
A lot of churches do forgetabout that part.
It's thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Let's start fundraising for next year, but
there's just a massive communitythat can absolutely grow as a
(17:24):
result of people you know.
But oftentimes you probablywent with some people you didn't
know and so now you know morepeople, you have more connection
in the church.
Like there's a lot of byproductgoodness that comes from people
going on a mission trip.
That's like not necessarilydirectly tied to the work they
did on the mission trip.
Like all those relationshipsand connections and even if you
(17:46):
did it with your church, likenow you're even that much more
connected, kind of connected toyour church, like you have an
extra.
You have this extra thing thatbonds you to that community of
people and your church, you know.
So it's like it's superpowerful and you see it with
kids going like kids going onmission trips and doing youth
cores and youth camps and allthat kind of stuff.
Like all of that is like has asimilar effect on people.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
We saw it in our family through kingdom Builders.
When you're talking about youngfolks going to a local city
together, meeting other families, creating those relationships,
I have a story.
Actually my sister out ofRichmond she did Kingdom
Builders with her kidsestablished a relationship with
a family there.
(18:30):
They became friends and, lo andbehold, it was time they felt
called to start a church and outof that church came the school.
Well, the woman who runs thatschool came right out of that
missions program and those timesthat they spent together in
Kingdom Builders together andthey would have never had that
relationship is one side of it.
(18:53):
And then we often talk about,especially in the missions world
we don't want to be the neonshirts that are painting the
school for the 10th time and youhear all those sorts of John
Crist-like jokes whichabsolutely are part of that
industry.
If you will, what we reallyreally are is getting probably
(19:15):
more from the locations than wepotentially could even give.
Yes, we're there as arepresentation of Christ.
Yes, we're there as a part ofwhat?
Can we now support you overthis time in between events and
(19:37):
seeing continued fundraising forthe event?
Yes, of course we have that$2,200 to $2,500 that we have to
raise per individual or that$25,000, $30,000 per event as a
church.
But how can we take thatministry, partner alongside of
them?
Yes, they know maybe we'recoming twice a year with these
(19:58):
different groups, butestablishing these connections,
that aren't we're here to helpyou and this and that, but we're
here to partner alongside withthis organization and the
impacts that we see statesidebecome those opportunities for
more community and greaterprocess.
And so there's differentarticles that we have in terms
(20:21):
of best ways and best practices.
We even partner with anorganization called Standards of
Excellence, helping you coverall your bases prior to getting
to an event, cover all yourbases prior to getting to an
event.
And then really, the big, thebig, the biggest followup aspect
of that is what are we doingnow that we've returned?
(20:42):
What, what, what spiritualimpact have we had and how can
we insulate community aroundthat?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, how many missions trips do you think you
guys will do this year, like howmany missions will run through
your software?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
A right around between 14 and 15,000 is the
expectation this year, so we'reright on track.
It's a lot.
So the I mean coming out ofCOVID, we were just absolutely I
joke with our business partners.
I now know what it felt like tobe on the stock floor of the
(21:20):
Great Depression.
It was literally that day.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
It never stopped.
Our mission trips all stoppedcompletely.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It stopped for 24 months.
It really really did, and therewas a cultural concern there
where, even as we're starting tokind of peek out of the hole,
the last thing you want is yourfaith-based organization going
to somewhere and creatingpotentially another outbreak or
greater contaminant.
I mean, we were the lastorganizations to start traveling
(21:51):
again, and so we were blessedto have weathered that season.
But that was such a reformationon why do we do what we do One
as a software and as a business,why do we do what we do?
But really, the capital Cchurch of we have been really
put aside and told to stay homefor a 12 to 24-month period.
(22:16):
Now that there's permission andthe ability to do so, that's
really what comes as a result ofhaving our banner year.
There is this pent-upopportunity.
There's this man we haven'tseen you guys in upwards of
three years.
How can we help?
How can we come back?
And so we're seeing increasedcommunication between
missionaries saying, hey, we hadCOVID in our village.
(22:42):
This is ways that you canbetter support us and how you
can guide us, and then, as youcome in, here are some sensitive
and cultural ways that you canreally make an impact that again
we joke about you're paintingthe school.
We want to be more than schoolpainters and we really want to
be able to establishrelationship and be able to take
(23:03):
away more than we, or an equaltakeaway as much as we give.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, love it.
Man.
How do folks get to know moreabout you guys?
Yeah, so let's make sure youguys do 15,000 trips this year.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Oh, that would be incredible and we'll see you
guys.
Definitely we're going to beattending Modern Church Leader
your conference coming up, I'mvery excited.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
If you haven't registered, make sure you
register, y'all.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Get in there, I'll be standing at a booth there.
We've got some promotionsspecifically for Tithely
Churches that we're going to bereleasing at that conference.
Oh cool, we've got just ways tomake sure that you guys
experience what we're talkingabout and get the blessing of
that.
And then you would go toacstcom slash go.
(23:55):
So we had a partnership therewith ACS.
Technologies is an organizationout of South Carolina and they
are kind of our parent companyin this process and so we come
alongside them.
They've been able to increaseour customer service and our
trainings and things of thatnature.
(24:15):
If you're ever on the phonewith someone from ACS, you're
going to hear a sweet Southerndrawl, which is good when you're
talking with churches and doingall the instructions and the
customer service side of things.
And then we're building moreand growing our technology and
you can one see a 30-day trialof that If you go to
acstechnologiescom slash go.
(24:37):
That's just 30 days for you toget a feel for it and then come
October we're going to have somepromotions for you guys.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Love it, man.
Well, thanks for coming on theshow.
Love the product, Love what youguys are doing.
Like 15,000 mission trips,no-transcript.
Yeah, we'll be there.
Awesome man.
Well, thanks for joiningeveryone.
Another great show.
Join us next week on anotherepisode and we'll catch you
(25:12):
later.
Bye-bye.
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