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Church Membership Process

There are business rules set up in BVCMS regarding church membership. This means that when you make a change on the Member Profile tab of a person’s record, certain other fields will get updated automatically. The exception is if you choose to have us turn off the business rules for your church database.

Here is how it is designed to work:

A person in the database will have a Member Status of Not Member until they make a decision to become a church member. Once a person makes a decision, the Membership Coordinator will record that decision. NOTE: All of the changes mentioned below are recorded on the Membership tab of the person's record and you must click Edit in order to record a change. You can also upload documents to access from the person's Membership Summary tab. Read more about Membership Documents.

We should address the issue of Contribution Statement Options and Envelope Options at this point. Every record will by default have both of these options set as Not Specified. Because these are on the Membership Tab, they require the person with Membership role to make any changes. Therefore, when you are recording a Decision, that is a great time to set these options. Read more about the various options.

There is a link on the Membership>Summary tab for Membership Docs. Read more about how to upload documents accessible on this tab.

How to Record a Decision:

  • Select the Decision type from the list in the dropdown menu.
  • Enter the date of the Decision – either select it using the calendar or type in the date in this format – m/d/yy. We consider the Decision Date to be the date the person speaks with a counselor/pastor and completes a Decision Information Form.
  • Press Save Changes

The Decision Types are as follows (with the business rules below that):

  • POF for membership – joining the church by Profession of Faith
  • POF NOT for Membership – Profession of Faith, but not joining the church
  • Letter – joining by Letter from a church of the same denomination
  • Statement – joining from a church of a different denomination, having had believer’s baptism
  • Statement requiring Baptism – joining from a church of a difference denomination and never having had believer’s baptism
  • Cancelled – per request (this is used to document that a previous decision is being cancelled)
  • Unknown – used only for old decisions during data conversion for which the Decision Type is not known or if you are manually setting a person’s Member Status to Member, but do not know the Decision Type

Here are the business rules (automatic changes) for the various Decision Types:

POF for Membership

This Decision Type has two requirements before the membership is complete: Baptism and New Member Class attendance. Select POF as the Decision Type and select the Decision Date. The following changes will occur once you Save Changes:

  • Member Status = Pending Member
  • Baptism Type = Original or Biological (see Misc.Notes for definitions)
  • Baptism Status = Not Specified
  • New Member Class Status = Pending
  • Join Type remains Unknown until completion of all requirements

POF not for Membership

This Decision Type has only one requirement as the person is not requesting church membership: Baptism. Select POF not for Membership as the Decision Type, select the Decision Date. The following changes will occur once you Save Changes:

  • Baptism Type = Non-Member
  • Baptism Status = Not Specified
  • Member Status remains Not Member
  • New Member Class Status remains Not Specified
  • Join Type remains Unknown

Letter

This Decision Type has only one requirement: New Member Class. Select Letter as the Decision Type, select the Decision Date. The following changes will occur once you Save Changes:

  • Member Status = Pending Member
  • New Member Class Status = Pending
  • Baptism Type remains Not Specified
  • Baptism Status = Not Specified
  • Join Type remains Unknown until completion of all requirements

Statement

This Decision Type has only one requirement: New Member Class. Select Statement as the Decision Type, select the Decision Date. The following changes will occur once you Save Changes:

  • Member Status = Pending Member
  • New Member Class Status = Pending
  • Baptism Type remains Not Specified
  • Baptism Status = Not Specified
  • Join Type remains Unknown until completion of all requirements

Statement Requiring Baptism

This Decision Type has two requirements before the membership is complete: Baptism and New Member Class attendance. Select Statement Requiring Baptism as the Decision Type and select the Decision Date. The following changes will occur once you Save Changes:

  • Member Status = Pending Member
  • Baptism Type = Required
  • Baptism Status = Not Scheduled
  • New Member Class Status = Pending
  • Join Type remains Unknown until completion of all requirements

Cancelled

This Decision Type is used if you have already posted a Decision and the person requests that you cancel it. Select <>as the Decision Type, select the Decision Date. This will remove all the Pending states.

Unknown

You should only use this if you know a person is a Member, but do not know how they joined. You will need to manually set all the other settings.

Completing the Membership Process

After you have recorded the Decision, the next step is to schedule and mark complete any requirements - Baptism and/or New Member Class. Once these requirements have been recorded as completed, the system will make the appropriate changes to the person's Member Status, Join Type and Join Date. See below for how to Schedule and Complete Baptisms and New Member Class .

Baptisms

To Schedule a Baptism:
  • Change the Baptism Status to Scheduled
  • Select the Scheduled Date(NOTE: Be sure to select the Scheduled Date and not the other Date Field. That one is to be used for the date they are actually baptized.)
  • Click Save Changes
  • This will not change anything else on the Membership tab.
To Record a Baptism as completed:
  • Change the Baptism Status to Completed
  • Select the Date the person was actually baptized
  • Remove the Scheduled date (you no longer need this once they have been baptized)
  • Click Save Changes

New Member Class

To Record New Member Class as Completed:

There are several ways to record a New Member Class as Completed - i.e. recording a status that the system will recognize as having fulfilled the requirement. Those are: Attended (for those who actually attend the class; Admin Approval (for those who have been given approval by the leadership as not needing to attend - perhaps Previous Members); or Child Exempt (this would be for children who might go through a series of classes instead of one specific class).

  • Change the New Member Class Status to either Attended, Admin Approval or Child Exempt
  • Select the Date (for those who are Admin Approval or Child Exempt, you can use the Decision Date as the date)
  • Click Save Changes

Note: You can create an Organization for the New Member Class in order to track attendance. You can set it up as an on-line registration if you want. Once people actually attend, you can use the roll sheet to record their attendance on the Member Profile.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can I have the business rules for membership turned off for my church's database?
    • Yes. Just have the System Admin for your BVCMS database request this using support@bvcms.com.
  • Can I have the business rules for membership customized for my church's database?
    • Yes. However, there will be a fee for customization.
  • Can I change the options for the various dropdown menus on the Membership Profile…example: can I add an option for Scheduled for the New Member Class?
    • Yes. These are located under the Admin Menu - Lookups. There are some fields that are required. It will be best to email Support before you make any changes to the lookups for membership. Let us know what you plan to do, so that we can advise you.
  • What if I make a mistake? Can I make corrections?
    • Yes. Just click Edit and make the changes. Realize that you may have to update other fields as well depending on what you are correcting.  Just remember to verify everything on the Member Profile after you Save Changes when you have made corrections.
  • What about members who leave our church? How do I handle that?
    • You drop their membership, so that they will then have a Member Status of Previous Member.  Do not delete the record as that would remove any attendance that they may have had as well as change your membership statistics historically. See the article on Dropping Members.
  • What do I do when a church member dies?
    • You will enter a Deceased Date on their basic tab and the system will handle the other changes (see the article regarding Deceased Members). You use this same procedure for non-members as well.