Case Study
Realm Makes Creating Community Easier
Center Grove Baptist Church
Location:
Denomination:
Weekly Attendance:
Staff Members:
Campuses:
38
Small Groups
History
From its humble beginnings more than 100 years ago, Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons, NC, has always focused on the importance of community in worshipping God. A small group of cotton and tobacco farmers came together in the spring of 1914, pooled their resources and built their first chapel by hand. During the last 25 years, Center Grove has exploded in attendance, with about 1200 people worshipping together every Sunday. Long having outgrown that first small worship center, Center Grove built a larger church down the road. Since 2006, the church has had a deliberate outward focus to “become a church that the community could not ignore and could not imagine being without because … [they] … made such a positive difference in the lives of people in the name of Jesus.”
Challenge
Even though Center Grove Baptist Church is a thriving church more than 100 years old, effective communication, authentic connection, and meaningful community among members and staff have been strained. Having relied on Facebook as a primary means of communication and a manual spreadsheet for tracking visitor engagement and new member assimilation, church leaders needed a more streamlined, efficient, centralized, and accessible tool that would ultimately create increased member involvement and retention. Since COVID, the efforts to restructure and reestablish community are more urgent now than ever.
“ACS Realm is just going to take us so much further in building our membership, our communities, our small groups. The whole staff fell in love with it.”
Solution
Through Realm’s Pathways, new members at Center Grove Baptist Church are now intentionally shepherded through a process to become integrated into the congregation. Fewer people fall through the cracks as they get plugged into small groups and connected with others through fellowship and discipleship. Realm makes tasks easier, efficient, and accessible for staff and volunteers, which leads to membership growth and retention.
Leaders are using the Groups management feature in Realm to breathe new life into their small group ministry as they move forward with plans for expansion and reorganization, bringing more opportunities for community to their members.
