iKnow is a tool to assist the whole church but whether you're new to iKnow or been using the system for a while, you may have overlooked some of the ways that it can specifically help those involved in the church's communications.
Coherent and relevant communications are essential in today’s church, so we have put together some tips below to help you use iKnow to get your messages across to the right people:
Quick Find
You will find the Quick Find feature along the top bar in the People Module. This is an excellent way to perform quick search queries when you need to find specific groups of people within the church.
For example, you may want to host an impromptu prayer meeting with all those who are currently married, or perhaps you have a rare heat wave this weekend and would like to host a BBQ but it is too late to advertise - Quick Find is a great tool for ad hoc searches such as these. Enter in the details of the groups of people you want to contact and within seconds, iKnow will bring up a list for you to contact, which you can do so easily by clicking on the orange ‘Contact This Group’ button.
Finder
Quick Find is useful for on-the-fly searches but these search queries are not saved, if you need to save a search so as to use it again, or create more detailed searches, then the Finder Module is perfect for this.
Finder is a powerful search engine that utilises various modules within the iKnow system for its data, so you can create as many customised searches as you would like. All saved searches from the Finder Module will be listed within the People Module under either ‘My Searches’, or ‘Global Searches’ and they are automatically updated every time you need to use it.
Creating a ‘Global Search’ will allow anyone with access to the People Module to use the search, queries such as ‘Those with a Birthday in January’ for example. ‘My Searches’ are searches that only you, as the creator of the query will see, so if you are responsible for pastoral care of new Christians then you may want to find all those who have been attending church for a number of months, have asked to join a team but who have not yet been baptised.
Processes
Processes can be found in the Settings Module. It was created as a way to make sure everyone is integrated into church life, without the need of having to trace down all the different people responsible for the various areas on each given Sunday. This module has many pastoral care aspects but it is a powerful communication tool too.
The best communications are those that are relevant and timely and by using Processes, you can make sure that you are communicating with the right people at the right time, rather than sharing one message with everyone in the hopes that you may just catch the right person.
Whether you are communicating to new visitors or those who have been in the church for a long time, Processes will automate the process of finding those you wish to speak with. For example, you may want to communicate the benefits of an Alpha course to new visitors - this will require you to find out who those people are from the person responsible for the Welcome Area each given Sunday and tasks like this are rarely a simple process in church.
Processes will help you to create a system whereby the relevant people will be alerted to changes within church, such as ‘a new visitor has attended church and left their details’. From here you can choose whether you want these people to be automatically added to the list of people to invite to an Alpha course. There are numerous automated processes like this that you can create within Processes to help you better aim your communications, this is just one example.
If you need help with any of the areas covered in this articles or would like further advice and suggestions on how iKnow can help the church to foster a place of deep engagement, then our team are here to help.
Give us a call on 0121 651 1125 or you can email us on hello@iknowchurch.co.uk
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