For the ninety-nine, and for the one

Most church technology is built for the ninety-nine.

Meaning, the tools are often for the people you already know. Your recurring givers. The volunteers who consistently serve on Sundays. The families you can count on to participate in small groups. They’re engaged, checked in, and woven into the life of your church.

And make no mistake, your technology should absolutely help you serve them well. They carry so much of your mission.

But here’s a question I keep coming back to: Does your technology help you find the one?

The first-time guest who worked up the courage to walk through your doors, then got lost in the rush of a Sunday morning. The family who came twice, never quite found their people, and quietly stopped coming. The volunteer who served faithfully for years, until one day their name just stopped showing up on the schedule.

In Matthew 18, Jesus asks: “If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?”

That’s more than a parable. It’s a picture of the responsibility entrusted to the Church. And I believe it’s the standard we should hold our technology to at Pushpay. 

We will always build for the ninety-nine. But we will also never stop building for the one.

Seen and known

The Church should be a place of deep connection. But even with the best intentions and the most dedicated church staff and leaders, people slip through the cracks. We know that less than 1 in 5 first-time visitors will return to a future service.

You’ve seen it happen. Someone finally works up the courage to show up for their first worship service. They slide into the back row. They don’t fill out a card. They don’t talk to anyone. When the service ends, they’re one of the first ones out the door.

Nobody on your team did anything wrong. You simply never had the chance to know they were there. 

That’s the part that stays with me. It’s rarely a failure of heart. It’s a failure of sight. And helping you see is exactly where technology should step in.

Our purpose at Pushpay is to create innovative technology that helps people connect with people. It’s literally written on the walls of our office, right alongside this line: “We are the technology that helps people be known.”

Those words aren’t decoration. They’re a promise. Our technology has to relentlessly help you go after the one, so that every person who steps out in faith and walks through your doors feels seen and known.

Innovating with heart, and with urgency

This year, our team has already delivered more updates than any year in recent memory. Each one of these tools, including the new capabilities we’re bringing to churches through Nurture, is driven by people who love the Church and are committed to serving its mission.

In June, we made a promise: we’d set public deadlines and let you hold us to them. I’m proud to say we’re keeping it. We’ve released a refreshed Groups experience, and earlier this month we introduced AI Profile Summaries, our first native AI intelligence feature built for the Church. New Workflows, replacing the legacy Process Queues, are making it easier than ever to turn insight into action. And our AI capabilities are rapidly advancing, designed to support—not replace—the human connection at the heart of shepherding your flock.

Since becoming CEO last year, I’ve had the privilege of meeting face to face with around 500 of our customers, hearing firsthand both your heart for ministry and what you need from us to support it. Those conversations are shaping what we build next, because no one understands what this moment calls for better than the leaders who have dedicated their lives to serving the Church.

Here’s what I’ve heard from you: You need tools to confidently shepherd the ninety-nine. And you need help finding the one.

That second part is harder. As a technology company, we can measure a great deal about the people already engaged. But the one is different. Their absence barely changes the numbers. The shepherd doesn’t treat that person as a rounding error. Neither can we.

Jesus ends the parable this way: “And when the shepherd finds it, Jesus says, ‘he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.”

I think about you, looking up one Sunday to see that face in the doorway again.

We do this for the one.