☀️ Summer Lovin’, Church Data Strugglin’? Time to Clean It Up!

Ah, summer. The season of barbecues, mission trips, and asking "Where is everybody?" every Sunday morning.

While half your congregation is at the beach and the other half is at Grandma’s, you’ve suddenly got a little breathing room. No Christmas pageants to plan. No Easter lilies to keep alive. 

You know what that means?

It’s the perfect time to finally—yes, finally—update your church database.

Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.

• Sister Mildred is still listed as a "Young Adult."

• There are 17 people named “John” with no last name.

• And we’re 95% sure that "Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Possibly Joined in 2016?" is not a real household.

The Summer Data Cleanse: More Refreshing than an icecream social

Whether you use Chums from ChurchApps (free and open-source for anyone on a budget), Breeze (simple and friendly), or Planning Center (powerful and organized—like your worship leader’s color-coded binder of setlists), now is the time to:

✅ Merge duplicates
✅ Delete former staff members who moved to Idaho in 2019
✅ Get kids out of the nursery and into the right grade
✅ Actually put addresses in the “address” field, not the “notes” section

But Why Summer?

Because you’re not knee-deep in Christmas rehearsal schedules.
Because your youth pastor is at camp and won’t distract you with Nerf gun battles.
Because the church calendar finally has more white space than a Chick-fil-A napkin.

And let’s be honest—you already spent 2 hours this morning trying to fix the church copier. You deserve to sit in the office A/C with a nice spreadsheet and a tall glass of "wow-we-really-never-had-this-person’s-email."

Tools to Help You on Your Righteous Mission

🟢 Chums from ChurchApps – It’s free, open-source, and perfect for churches that want full control without paying full price. It’s like giving your church database a budget miracle.

🔵 Breeze – Easy to use, even if your tech team consists entirely of people who still say “the Facebook.”

🟣 Planning Center – If you’ve got volunteers, services, and schedules flying around, Planning Center brings order to the chaos with heavenly precision.

How to Start

1. Bribe a few church teens with pizza to help clean up member profiles.

2. If you are still using spread sheets investigate Church management options. If money is an issue consider Chums, free and open source.  

3. Have your admin team pray over your spreadsheets. (Or at least over the Wi-Fi.)

4. Pick your tool and start small—delete just one “Unknown Visitor” at a time.

Final Word

Don’t let another year go by with a database that thinks Bob and Barbara moved to Canada, and are also still teaching Sunday school.

This summer, give your church the gift of data salvation.
Because nothing says “we care” like finally spelling Deacon Wyznewski’s name right.

Ready to clean house?
Check out Chums for a cost-free, guilt-free way to get your church info in order.

🌞 Happy Data Cleansing, and may your fields never be blank again.