Have a Gathering of More Than 3? Use Realm Groups to Get Through the New Normal

If you are a church worker, you would probably agree that keeping up with every single person in your church yourself is not only unrealistic but almost impossible. Fortunately for all of us, ACS Technologies™ designed a beautiful feature within Realm® called “Groups”. Groups was created to help ease the workload of making sure no one in your church falls through the cracks, especially during a pandemic or the transition out of a pandemic. We all have the same desire to maintain relationships, and good ones at that, with our congregants, but sometimes that can be difficult when there are more of them and less of us (the staff). 

In Realm’s Group feature, you can simply create groups for any ministry area of your church and add leaders and congregants to those groups. By utilizing this feature, you have access to all of the following: simple email communication to each member of your group or to the group as a whole, the ability to create events for your group, the ability to mark attendance, and even invite newcomers into your group.

Here are 4 features in the Groups tab within Realm that will make your life so much easier:

1. Communication
   • There are so many forms of communication in our world right now, especially digital communication, but Realm has made it extremely easy to send groupwide or individual emails to members of your group. Do you want to send some encouragement, remind your group about an important event, follow up with the members of the group, or even find out how you can pray for one another? Select the “Participants” tab within your group and then click “Send Email”. Now you have the ability to communicate with your group and ensure they are up-to-date and informed with just the click of a button. Fast, easy, and efficient. 
2. Events
   • Although events may look extremely different for each of us right now, there’s one event we can all continue to attend during these transitions of life, and that is building relationships. Whether it be the scheduling of a Zoom call or Facetime with your group’s members or an outdoor event once we transition back to a new “normal”, the event tab will help you plan accordingly for it all. 
3. Attendance.
   • Attendance may also look very different than what we are all used to right now, but it can still be counted as we are in the transition back to “normal”. There are going to be people within your congregation that are excited and ready to get back into the church building, but there will also be those in whom will continue to socially distance for health-related or age-related reasons. Both are ok, but we want to make sure during this time of transition and beyond we are able to stay in touch with all of our group members within our circle as well as meet their needs. Marking attendance can ensure we do these things in an efficient way.
4. Invite Newcomers.
   • Although COVID-19 has put a stop to how we meet in person for an extended period of time, it has not put a stop on the work God is doing in and through our congregants. People are still longing for a place to gather with other believers, even if it is online. This is also a great opportunity to get those who are not involved with a church but might be watching your online services, connected to a small group, or a serving team. Realm Groups make it very easy to send a group invitation to someone and even reminders when they haven’t responded to the initial invite. 

Don’t forget that this transition can be difficult for us all, but as a body of believers, we are in this together. Check out Realm Groups today to see how you can help get others connected and plugged into your church family. The Groups option might just help make your life a little more simple. 

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