A 95-attendance Baptist church in a small town
A 95-attendance Baptist church in a small town runs Breeze, Tithely, Google Sheets, and 2 more. Staff: 1 full-time, 1 part-time. Compare this under 150 attendance mix before you buy another subscription.
What kind of church is this?
A 95-attendance Baptist church in a small Southeast town. One full-time pastor and one part-time administrator. Everyone wears more than one hat. Software has to survive when the pastor is at the hospital.
Why does this mix exist?
Breeze holds people, tags, giving history, and the volunteer roster in one login the part-time admin can manage. Tithely covers online and text giving. A Google Sheet is the six-week Sunday grid. GroupMe sends one Saturday reminder. Google Forms catch volunteer interest and background-check requests.
How the week actually runs
Monday, Tithely batches import into Breeze so giving history stays in one place. The admin fills the Sheet from Breeze tags, not from memory. Wednesday locks the coming Sunday. Saturday at 9am, one GroupMe reminder goes out. After service, no-shows get a private Breeze note, not a public shame list. Monday, Tithely batches import into Breeze so giving history stays in one place. The admin fills the volunteer Sheet from Breeze tags before Wednesday. Background-check dates live on tags, not in a folder under the counter.
What breaks if you copy this blindly
Using Facebook to recruit Sunday roles. Letting volunteers keep admin rights “just in case.” Skipping background-check dates on kids tags. Using Facebook to recruit Sunday roles as the primary path. Letting volunteers keep admin rights “just in case.” Skipping background-check dates until a crisis.
What they would change next
Put background-check dates on Breeze tags from day one. Train a backup typist before vacation weeks. Print one booth copy of the Sheet when the building Wi-Fi dies. Put background-check dates on Breeze tags from day one. Train a backup typist before vacation weeks. Print one booth copy of the give URL for the fair week.
How should you use this page?
If you are under 150 with one office computer, keep one ChMS, one give tool, and a boring schedule sheet. Drop public social posts for staffing.
Field note after a Facebook-only cancel
A storm Sunday relied on a Facebook post. Half the older members never saw it. They added a Clearstream voice call after pastoral approval and kept Facebook as backup. Reach is not the same as the channel your people actually answer.
Field note after fair-week Wi-Fi death
The county fair week killed building Wi-Fi during Sunday check-in. Tithely still worked on phones with cellular data, but the booth QR failed for guests without signal. A printed give URL on a laminated card kept first gifts moving. Rural stacks need a paper failover, not another SaaS login.
Field note after a backup-typist gap
The only Breeze typist took vacation during fair week. Cards stacked. They trained a backup before the next fair and printed the give URL for booth Sundays.
Who owns admin
On a team sized like 1 full-time, 1 part-time, one named staff lead should hold master admin for the people database and any tool that can export households or send church-wide texts. Ministry directors get limited views for their rosters. Greeters and foyer volunteers should search and check in, not download the full list.
Write a backup admin before vacation weeks. Role changes get a five-minute access checklist the same week: remove logins, remove export rights, confirm the backup still works. Leftover volunteer IT access is how old Sheets and pastoral notes leak into personal inboxes.
If engineers or “techy” members help, they still need a staff owner. Unpaid IT without an owner becomes a single point of failure when that member moves.
What this stack costs
Software lines from this page (confirm the week you brief elders):
- Breeze: $50/mo
- Tithely: 2.9% + $0.30 per gift
- Google Sheets: $0
- GroupMe: $0
- Google Forms: $0
Add card processing fees beside any giving tool. December volume can dwarf the SaaS stickers. Put weekly admin hours beside each line on the board packet. A cheap tool with unpaid heroics is not cheap.
Attendance bracket on this page: under-150. Staff shape: 1 full-time, 1 part-time. Region context: US Southeast. Copy the ownership pattern before you copy every logo.
Copy this if
Copy this mix when your church is near under-150 attendance (Baptist), you can staff the Monday jobs these tools assume, and you will name owners for guest follow-up, scheduling, and giving reconcile. Steal the weekly rhythm and the permission habits first. Steal the logo list second.
Good signs you are ready: cards leave the building with a named enterer, texts leave a church-owned number or watched inbox, and one person can explain each tool in one sentence.
What breaks first
What usually breaks first when churches copy A 95-attendance Baptist church in a small town without the staffing: guest cards sit until Wednesday, personal phones become the cancel channel again, dual databases appear “for transition,” or export rights stay with former volunteers. The tools (Breeze, Tithely, Google Sheets, GroupMe, Google Forms) only work when the Monday owners are real.
Refuse a second people list. Refuse automations nobody watches. Refuse measuring success by open rates while replies sit unread. If your staff hours are thinner than 1 full-time, 1 part-time, shrink the stack before you expand it.
Board packet checklist
- Name master admin and backup for the ChMS (church management system).
- List monthly software fees and estimated processing fees on one page.
- Write the weekly job each tool serves in one sentence.
- Schedule a ninety-day pre-renewal review with actual hours beside each fee.
- Confirm vendor quotes the same week elders vote.
Keep churchRef and slug stable when you link workflows to this stack. This page is a field pattern, not a mandate to buy everything at once.
What software does this church run?
Church database (ChMS)
- Breeze
People records, tags, giving history, and the volunteer roster. The pastor and the part-time admin both have admin access; nobody else does.
$50/mo
Giving
- Tithely
Online and text-to-give. Batches are imported into Breeze on Monday so giving history lives in one place.
2.9% + $0.30 per gift
Forms
- Google Forms
New volunteer interest and the annual kids-ministry background-check request.
$0
Spreadsheets
- Google Sheets
The six-week volunteer grid. Breeze is the roster; the sheet is the schedule. One tab per Sunday.
$0
Communication
- GroupMe
One group for weekend volunteers. Saturday reminder only: not a chat.
$0
Which workflows come from this church?
- Church attendance tracking spreadsheet
Record weekly worship attendance in one shared spreadsheet the door team can finish before leaving Sunday.
- Church volunteer schedule template
Publish a six-week weekend volunteer grid with named roles, reminders, and a Friday gap check.
- Weekend volunteer scheduling
Fill every Sunday role six weeks out, with one Saturday reminder and no Facebook posts.
Common questions
Which Monday jobs drive the tool mix for this Southeast rural church?
Weather cancels older members will answer, simple online giving, and a single paid people database. Facebook alone misses too many households on a storm Sunday.
What should a board budget if they copy this under-150 Southeast rural mix?
Software examples start around $50/mo class tools plus processing and texting. Confirm quotes the week you brief elders. Fund a voice cancel path, not only a social post.
Who should hold admin rights in this Southeast rural church?
On a 1 full-time, 1 part-time team, one pastor or office lead keeps master admin. Volunteer treasurers get giving views only. Greeters should not export the whole people list.
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