Overall, the software is so powerful and the staff at Ministry Platform are GREAT.

We love how customizable the software is. It has a ton of available integrations, as well as an open API, which makes it great to integrate with other platforms, when needed. Also, it seems like we can always & endlessly customize/create the Platform to our needs. We love how PocketPlatform is directly integrated with Ministry Platform so we can tailor the user experience perfectly to what we know about them in regards to how they are engaged with our church.

I don't know that I would necessarily mark this is a con, especially since the Next Gen platform is out, but MP is so powerful, that sometimes the power of the system overshadows the need for a really easy user experience. It can be a bit tough or cumbersome to navigate/use without training...we do try to tailor the user roles so they don't see more than necessary. The only other thing would be event registration. There have been many improvements to this software in the event space, but would love it to function more like the ease (& overall aesthetic) of Planning Center Registrations.

We used to have another Church Management System, and after decades of use our actual utilization stayed pretty much stagnant (to the point where our business manager who had much experience with it strongly believed that ChMSs were glorified address books). Since moving to Ministry Platform we have been continuously integrating systems moving our staff away from data entry to ministry. We are a church of around 1,000 and have no dedicated or volunteer computer programmer. Your story with Ministry Platform could be more glowing than ours if you do. If you are in the same boat as us, as long as you have someone interested in expanding your use and can run with it you can be greatly successful.

There are several things that are pros about this software, and in most regards superior to other packages on the market: 1. Customization: This software is almost entirely customizable to the needs of your church. This is a major selling point for Ministry Platform. If you can dream it, you can pretty much do it. 2. Integrations: This software has many out of the box integrations with other packages from mail services, to background check systems, and has a full REST API for custom integrations that many have done or are doing (a few I've seen or used are digital signage, church app integrations with several app companies and authentication for Church Online Platform). 4. Community and Staff: The community is great. The community is good with other software packages, but ThinkMinistry attempts to foster a lot of inter-church communication and collaboration and it shows. We were a church that has used Shelby software for many decades and our experience with community under thinkministry has been superior. The staff are very very friendly and will do whatever they can to fulfill you needs in the situation you church finds you in. Sometimes they cant, but if they can they usually do. A++. 5. "The Grid." Being able to view all related data in a birds eye view without have to run reports saves you time. It isn't always pretty, but the power behind it is immense. 6. Full Access to "Your Data." I'll leave a quote from an employee friend of another ChMS... "We'd never do that."

There are probably a few more pros, but I ran out of space... There are a couple things I wish were better about Ministry Platform: 1. I do miss the integration Shelby has between their Membership programs and their finance programs. Because ThinkMinistry does not have their own Financials software they have to integrate as best they can with what's available. That being said, they have done a great job and work to build most anything your church needs to accomplish your work. 2. Some effects of being extremely customizable software: Some Church Management Systems have better out-of-the-box reports and views. If you are a smaller church with no staff that have a basic understanding of a computer language in their past it may present some difficulties in customizing views and SQL queries. However, this can be overcome by interacting with their Professional Services department who can build pretty much anything you need, and the community interacts at a level that much can be done just in that.

Our Children's team uses it for check-in so this keeps our attendance records for us. On a regular basis we will look up addresses for families, attendance for a child or run a report on who was in a room on a specific Sunday.

There are a few pros that I've come across. 1. You can track giving with Ministry Platform as well as it being a people management tool. So all your churches information can be in one place. 2. There is a way to keep notes on people in the files. This allows team members to see what actions have been taken with different people and any follow up that may need to happen with a person/family.

The biggest con for me is that it requires a lot of training to know how to run reports or even how to look up specific information. And when you do finally figure it out or get trained on how to run a report you have to keep extensive notes to remember how to do it again. This is not a user-friendly or intuitive program to use.

From what I said above, in addition they have an extensive Knowledge Base that is regularly updated and tons of coaching videos and webinars. They support from Ministry Platform is nothing like I have experienced anywhere. They have really come up with what I think is a brilliant plan to do support by assigning each organization 3 single points of contact and those SPoC's are able to do chat support or support tickets and get almost immediate responses. You can also request one on one coaching, we have also hired a coach to physically come to us and meet face to face. They allow the organizations to give feedback and post on an idea board with dreams of upgrading the software and they read EVERY SINGLE ONE and allow other org's to vote on the ideas. I may change my mind and say that their staff and support system are my favorites. They also offer a once a year User Conference that is above and beyond and I always leave so excited for what is coming and also empowered to do my job better - or sometimes even do parts of my job at all that I thought I couldn't figure out with my level of expertise.

I love that it is easy to learn almost everything about Ministry Platform. I say "almost" because I do not know how to write SQL and that has been a lot harder for me to learn but the database is designed with my kind of user in mind. There are short cuts and "easy buttons" for those of us who need to do more complicated tasks but don't know that depth of technology.

That there are no group registration products yet - to make events such as conferences easier to reserve seats. But really that is probably my biggest struggle.