Drive Engagement with Church Community Builder and Pushpay

Dan Lehning, finance director at Victory Church, recently told us about their decision to accelerate their digital giving strategy with Pushpay. The church has used a variety of giving alternatives in the past (offline and online), but they were looking for a more cohesive solution to promote deeper engagement with their congregation. That’s why they went with Pushpay.

About Victory Church

Victory Church is an engagement-minded, multi-site church centered in Lancaster, PA.

Founded in 2000 in a living room, it now has a regular weekly attendance of 2,000. They state on their website: “Everything we do is centered on helping people take their NEXT STEP in their journey of faith.”

Finding the Problem

Lead Pastor Curt Seaburg is always looking for the next steps his church can take in the way they leverage technology. After returning from a church conference, he asked Dan to look into what it would take to start using text giving at Victory Church.

Victory Church uses Church Community Builder as their church management Software, so Dan reached out to the team there to find out what his options for text giving were. Church Community Builder recently released two-way integration with Pushpay, so they made the introduction to open the conversation between Pushpay and Victory Church.

At first, Dan’s only question was about text-to-give. However, it became apparent that the issue was far broader. More than just needing to provide a new way for people to give, they needed to change their approach to engaging their givers. Victory Church needed a new platform and a new strategy, not just a new feature.

The next step for their church seemed obvious.

Investing in Digital Giving

Once Dan realized they needed to significantly upgrade their approach to handling giving, it became a question of timing. The prospect of transitioning their congregation and recurring giving to a new platform was a daunting one that has kept many a bookkeeper up late at night. Fortunately, Pushpay’s support team was there the whole way, never taking longer than an hour to get back to him and working with the staff of Victory Church to set up giving the way it made sense for their church.

Victory Church has also found the Pushpay App to be a game-changer with its ability to quickly create and edit funds for different missions. Now their congregation can give from their phones to any of the four campuses or missions funds—anytime, anywhere. “There are a lot of opportunities to utilize this giving tool in new ways,” says Dan. “We’re still learning about it, but I’m excited about the possibilities.”

When it comes to the migration process, Dan has some simple advice for churches: “Follow Pushpay’s plan. It will work better than yours.” They learned this the hard way.

Growing Spontaneous Generosity

Dan was most excited about Pushpay’s drive to mobile. “Being able to capture that spontaneity is going to be key in moving people to generosity,” he says. “[Because of Pushpay’s two-way integration with Church Community Builder], we can [use] forms and instant giving through all access points and through the same provider.”

While the process of moving recurring giving can be an intimidating one, Dan knew it would be a necessary step in upgrading their digital giving long term. But with Pushpay’s expertise in transitioning giving and ongoing support, they guided Victory Church through the process.

Advice for Other Churches

“Don’t be afraid of it,” advises Dan. “People are used to things switching in their tech world. It’s not as intimidating as you think. I appreciate the support Pushpay gives through the process. I wish we had completed the switch sooner. It would have made a big difference in some projects this past year!”