Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in Brownsburg, IN, a suburb of Indianapolis, has purposed to live out their mission of becoming “Followers of Jesus with open minds and hearts to serve.” They are a growing community of open-minded and open-hearted Christians who seek to do what Jesus did, love and accept people from all walks of life. Unlike most churches, Good Samaritan Episcopal launched their ministry without a church building and without a church office. Their vision was to meet in places in the community where they could be with their neighbors. Since their first service in September of 2016, they have grown to 75 members in weekly attendance. Their Sunday gatherings as well as other gatherings are held in places in the community like the local alternative high school, Harris Academy as well as a local restaurant, The Green Street Pub and Eatery.
From there, they have discovered areas to serve the community like with the Academy’s food pantry as well as making improvements to their library and media center so it’s more engaging for the students. They’ve also developed a great relationship with the school staff and students and have started a mentorship program to help the graduates stay focused and motivated post-graduation as they transition. Volunteers also help serve at the local women’s shelter and with scout troops. In addition to all the community service, they have their weekly ministry times to plan and prepare for such as music ministry, reading of the Word, altar preparations, as well as children’s ministry. As you might imagine, managing ministry schedules, membership, volunteers, outreach programs and being good stewards of the resources available must be challenging without a church office to work from, but that’s where Realm comes in. Realm, a web-based church management solution, allows staff and volunteers to log in and work from wherever they are on whatever device they are on. When looking for a church management solution, they knew they needed it to be cloud based and accessible from anywhere. They especially needed it to be mobile so it could go where they go and host a platform for community and communication. Realm has been just that.
With Realm, Good Samaritan has been able to truly be a church without walls. Realm has given them the administrative freedom to be out in the community and engaging their neighbors. Lara, the church admin, said “communication and administration is less burdensome and saves time with having everything streamlined and accessible all in Realm.”
