Our church is moving to a new kind of church record-keeping solution called Realm®. While it primarily serves the administrative needs of our staff, it also offers some exciting opportunities to support how you are involved in our church. Not only will this improve work life for our ministry staff, but it will also make it easier for our church family to connect with each other, keep up with what’s going on, and grow as a connected community of believers.
Here are three key areas where this change in record-keeping and communications will impact our life together at Our Savior.
1. Updating and improving the administrative tools our staff uses to run the daily operations of our church.
2. Improving communication and connecting as a church.
3. Improving and streamlining giving and event registration.
How to Participate
Get the Mobile App
The easiest way people in your church will access Realm is with their mobile device. Although it’s not required, it certainly is a popular and convenient way to connect. As we roll out our church's use of Realm we will be sending groups invitations to access this new tool through the Connect app. Watch your email for your invitation.
Let’s Connect!
Stay connected to our church wherever you go by downloading the free Connect -‐ Our Church Community app for iPhone and Android devices. Use it to communicate with your groups, RSVP to events, manage your giving, update profile information, and more. It makes it easier for us to connect throughout the week and know what’s happening.
- News—Keeps everyone up-‐to-‐date with the latest posts, photos, and events for your group and for your church as a whole
- Posts—Post messages to your group and comment on posts by others in your group
- Photos—Capture your moments together and share them with your group
- Events—See event details (date, time, location, etc), submit your RSVP, and sign up to bring something
- Files —Access your group’s shared files
- Messages—Send your entire group, or select individuals, a message that starts a conversation
- Participants—See names and basic profile details for the people in your church or group, based on their privacy preferences
- Notification Settings—Manage your preferences for group notifications and emails
Personal Profiles
Everyone in our church gets a unique profile. Your profile contains everything you want people in our church to know about you. Your profile also enables you to join a small group, RSVP to events, track your giving, update your contact information, change family details, set notification preferences, or replace that outdated family photo.
By keeping your information current, you are helping our staff, group leaders, and our church community. Your Profile includes:
- Contact Information (e.g. name, address, email, phone)
- Photo
- Family Members
- Personal information (e.g. marital status, birthday, etc.)
- Connected Social Media accounts
Participation in Groups & Classes
Groups and classes are an important part of our church; now you can connect with the people in them throughout the week. You can keep track of upcoming meetings, who’s bringing what, and what’s going on in each other’s lives.”
Giving
Review your giving history or make new donations online or on your mobile phone. Simply sign in to look over your year-to-date giving, check pledge progress, print a contribution statement, or make a new one-‐time or recurring donation. It’s always available and kept secure in an easy-to-use online environment.
Ways to Give
No matter how you choose to give toward our ministry, you can review all of your giving history online anytime.
- Check or Cash
- Online 6(one-time or recurring)
- Text Giving*
- Pledges
*Requires a unique keyword for our church. Text OSLMGIVING and amount to 73256 on your smartphone.
Register for an Event
View upcoming church events and register for the ones you'd like to attend. If an event’s registration requires payment, you’ll see its cost, any required deposit amount, acceptable forms of payment, and its no-‐refund date, if applicable. You can also manage your ac*ve registrations and see any outstanding balances.
Privacy
Your information is your information.
- You have complete control over who can see your contact and personal information.
- Contact information is never public or searchable on the Internet. Any information you elect to make visible to your church family is always protected behind a login.
- Authorized staff will always have access to your profile information.
- You and certain authorized staff may update your profile information. In some cases, your group leader may update your contact information if you have made it visible to group leaders.
- For safety reasons, sharing contact and personal information for children under 18 is limited. Parents determine whether or not to display their child’s name in the church directory.
- Children under 13 may not participate and will not be able to sign in.
What People May See
By default, the viewing of your contact and personal information is limited to members of groups you are in, group leaders, and staff members. If you choose to, however, you can make your information visible to the entire church. But if you prefer to be more private, you can customize how people see specific information*.
- Contact Information: Name, Address, Phones, and Email.
- Personal information: Marital Status, Family position, Member Status, but you also have the
option of sharing your birthday, gender, allergy information, and skills with people in your church.
*If you are a group leader or host an event, certain contact information may be visible regardless of the settings you choose.
Privacy Settings
- Everyone—Like a church directory lis*ng, everyone in our church will be able to see whatever profile information is marked as visible to everyone.
- My Groups + Group Leaders + Church Staff—This seeing means information will only be shared with the people you are involved with at church. This is the default seeing.
- Group Leaders + Church Staff—You would use this setting if you wanted to keep some profile information hidden from anyone who is not a group leader or on staff.
- Church Staff Only—This seeing effectively removes you from the church directory. Your information will only be available to authorized church staff.**
- Custom Privacy—Choose different privacy levels for specific contact fields and personal information. You can do this in two places: when you edit your profile information or when you manage your privacy settings.***
**While you can hide the majority of your information from most of your church, you should know that, regardless of your settings, contact data will still be visible to certain members of our church staff.
***The Directory page shows all individuals who have a login, along with individuals without a login who have been opted-in to the directory. Currently, individuals with a login cannot opt out of being listed in the directory.
Family Privacy
A family member with a primary position such as "Head" or "Spouse" can change privacy settings for other members of the family and opt family members into the church directory. Birthdays are required for children (as a means to prohibit access), but it’s up to you if you want to share the birth date with your church family.
