As a pastor, you carry out God’s work in a myriad of ways. Apart from conducting services and interpreting God’s word to your congregation, you’re also responsible for providing compassionate advice to those facing challenging situations and overseeing weddings and funerals.
Additionally, you must contribute to financial decisions and the recruitment of church personnel to ensure that the ministry runs smoothly. With so many responsibilities to juggle each week, it can be daunting to manage everything effectively. Thankfully, in today’s world, numerous mobile apps and tools for pastors are available.
Time Management Tools for Pastors
Effective time management is crucial to the success of a pastor. With countless responsibilities to the church community — including meetings with parishioners, wedding rehearsals, and interviews with potential staff members — keeping track of everything is vital. That’s why we highly recommend Google Calendar as the top choice for managing your time.
Google Calendar Advantages
- With Google Calendar on your phone, adding new meetings or appointments while on the go is a breeze. Simply tap a few buttons and you’re set!
- Stay on top of your schedule by syncing your calendar across devices. If a new appointment is added on the church receptionist’s computer, you’ll see it instantly on your phone.
- Color-code your entries to identify your special events and counseling sessions with parishioners easily. Quickly glance at your calendar to see what’s on the horizon.
- Never miss an appointment again by setting up notifications on your phone and email. Customize your alerts to receive reminders an hour or thirty minutes before your scheduled meeting.
We recommend Unroll.me as our second choice for time management, as it helps pastors manage their emails more efficiently.
With Unroll.me, you can set up filters to prioritize high-priority emails, and the tool sends you a daily summary of your inbox. This helps you save time by focusing only on the most important emails, ensuring that you promptly respond to crucial communications. By cutting down on time spent sorting through emails, you can dedicate more time to serving your church community.
Tools That Assist With Writing Sermons
When finding helpful tools for pastors, resources that help with sermon writing are critical for a task that requires dedicated attention. Although no tool can replace the importance of a pastor’s writing, several tools can assist in streamlining the process.
Our recommended sermon writing tool is Evernote, available on both web and mobile platforms.
Evernote primarily serves as a note-taking application, but it also offers several useful features for sermon preparation. With Evernote, pastors can easily organize their thoughts and ideas for sermons and quickly access them from any device. Additionally, pastors can use the tool’s voice recording feature to capture sermon ideas while on the go.
What Can Evernote Do?
- Evernote’s note-taking function works like a word processor, making it easy to type an outline or write your entire sermon in the app. Alternatively, you can use voice dictation if you prefer.
- The Evernote web clipper is a browser extension that seamlessly integrates with the app. This tool allows you to save any content you find online to your Evernote app for easy reference while writing your sermon.
- Sermon organization is made easy with Evernote’s notebook feature, which functions like folders on a computer. You can create multiple notebooks and organize your sermons, notes, and other materials accordingly.
- Collaboration is simplified through Evernote’s sharing feature. You can grant access to relevant individuals for feedback on your sermon or for the inclusion of an excerpt in a church newsletter.
You might also find Trello to be a significant and useful tool for pastors.
Trello is a digital organizational tool designed to replace the traditional note card system. With Trello, you can create lists and add cards to each list. For instance, while planning your sermon, you can create a list for each theme and attach a card for each relevant point.
Additionally, Trello provides several useful associated features, including the ability to assign a due date or a color code to each card. You can also filter cards by color or add a checklist to a card to help you keep track of important tasks.
Tools for Financial Management
When researching tools for pastors, you’ll eventually find resources that focus on financial management. Collecting tithes, managing expenses, and generating financial reports are vital tasks that require attention to ensure the smooth functioning of the church and the delivery of valuable programs to congregants.
Tithe.ly is our top pick for financial management tools for pastors. This mobile app simplifies the process of collecting tithes, allowing parishioners to donate to the church anytime and anywhere.
Advantages of Tithe.ly
- You can personalize your Tithe.ly page by adding a church logo or photos of your church.
- Parishioners can donate using various payment methods — including credit/debit card or wire transfers within the app.
- A text-to-give option can also be set up for users to donate via text message to a five-digit number.
- A mobile kiosk can be set up for users to give without having to create an account on the app.
- The app generates monthly financial reports for you, providing an overview of how much your church receives through tithes.
Encouraging giving and ensuring that parishioners donate from the heart — rather than giving because of peer pressure — is important. This is where our recommended app comes in, as it allows users to give at their convenience without worrying about carrying cash on Sunday mornings.
In addition to this app, another tool for managing church finances is Quickbooks.
With Quickbooks, you can sync the app with church bank accounts to automatically capture transactions, categorize them, and generate expense vs. revenue and other financial reports. It’s an excellent tool for keeping track of church finances.
What the Best Tools for Pastors Can Do For You
As a pastor, you have significant responsibilities, but fortunately, various tools can assist you in making them more manageable. We would appreciate your feedback on how these tools work for you. If there is another tool that you find helpful, feel free to share it with us.
In the meantime, keep in mind that these tools for pastors are just the tip of the iceberg. However, even getting started with just these can do tremendous things for your ministry. You would also significantly benefit from the use of DonorWerx.
Our donor engagement tools can help you keep parishioners excited about giving. Schedule a Discovery Call with our giving experts today. We’ll show you how to increase revenue exponentially in your ministry.
