Securing Children with Confidence
Fellowship Dallas keeps kids safe with computerized check-in 

by Lauren Hunter

FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH IN Dallas, Texas is not your typical suburban neighborhood church. For one, its home is a former 120,000-square-foot United Artist movie theater – located in the center of a retail strip mall. Just a few blocks away sits Vickery Meadows, a five-square-mile section of high-density apartments that house 9,000 refugees from countries including Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia and Syria.

The location of the church was no accident. Throughout its history, the church has made decisions to encourage attendance from people of all economic and social backgrounds, and its members have embraced a true calling to serve the immigrant and refugee populations.

“We believe that God has called us to be bridge-builders, not only between socioeconomic groups, but also between God and man,” explains Senior Pastor Gary Brandenburg. “We see ourselves as ‘ministers of reconciliation’ drawing all people to Christ.”

This mission is central to the church’s philosophy and overall goals; however, it posed some unique challenges when it came to securing children within the facility during church services.

Keeping children secure was a top priority for the entire organization. They all knew that if parents weren’t comfortable putting their children into childcare and Sunday school, they would never learn and grow from the worship time.

“The main reason many of them have fled their countries was to attempt to keep their children safe, secure, and to provide a better life for them,” Brandenburg says.

When Brandenburg came to the church nearly three years ago, he only agreed to pastor the church if leadership would consider moving from the renovated office building they called home. Brandenburg felt the location wasn’t well-suited to keeping children secure or encouraging young families to attend – both of which were important for church growth.

“Our previous facility was renovated from three office buildings, and wasn’t really designed for large groups of people,” explains Children’s Ministry Pastor Mike Cloud. “With long, narrow halls – and doors everywhere – security was a real challenge for us.

“We now have a secure area for parents to check children in,” Cloud adds. “And, because of the physical setup, there’s no way for parents to enter the child area – only authorized volunteers and workers are allowed. The move has really helped us in that area. We designed an isolated area that’s completely separate and is 100 percent secure.”

Leaders at Fellowship Dallas knew that a more secure building would offer the congregation lasting benefits, and they kept this in mind during the planning stages of their new facility. Well before moving in, the church implemented a computerized system to prepare for the safety of the impending influx of children at the future site.

“We want parents to know that their children are safe and secure at all times,” Cloud says. “Obviously, one of our values includes health and welfare of each child during the service. Parents are entrusting their children to us, and we take this very seriously.”

After the move last March, church leaders realized that their need for managing attendance would become even greater, and the check-in system they initially selected wasn’t enough. The administrative staff wished for a tool that would allow them to flow attendance information into their ACS church management software to gather all the information in one place – an integrated approach for all ministries. They also regularly experienced slowdowns in retrieving and uploading data, which was frustrating.

Fellowship Dallas staff had been a long-time ACS user, so when they started taking a look at what ACS Technologies was offering with its child security product, ACS Checkpoint, they realized that it provided the same as their previous vendor. It also communicated with all the other ACS church-management modules that helped run their church efficiently. With the program, they could flow attendance and administrative information directly into ACS, making the management of critical data more streamlined.

“One of the biggest advantages – other than the extremely high value of security we’re able to provide – is on the administrative side,” Cloud explains. “Because of the detailed check-in process, we automatically have attendance numbers for every child. Our staff can come in Monday and print out attendance reports, which help them so much.

“One of our overall desires was to move towards a system like ACS that worked together to provide one source for all information,” he adds. “Whether it’s managing financial information for the church, keeping track of volunteers or keeping our children safe, technology keeps us running smoothly.”

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer and public relations consultant dedicated to the faith-based technology market. Contact her by e-mail at lauren@laurenhunter.net.