# Church Management Reviews **Vendor:** Ministry Brands Holding **Category:** [Church Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/church-management) **Average Rating:** 2.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About Church Management Solutions for Church Management, Online Giving, Church Accounting, Church Websites, and Church Mobile Apps to help streamline your operations. ## Church Management Reviews ### 1. Shelby - adequate but clumsy **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kenton S. | D, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 12, 2022 **What do you like best about Church Management?** Inexpensive and easy to get customer service. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** Reporting is clumsy and limited. The interface is old-fashioned. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used it for accounting and church management. ### 2. Oversold - spent over year trying to implement and pulled the plug **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2022 **What do you like best about Church Management?** it was supposed to have membership, giving, and financials **What do you dislike about Church Management?** as a small church back-office, made almost entirely of volunteers, a much larger support team was needed to even attempt getting items in. None of the different sides of the system (membership, giving, accounting) passed info automatically. You neede to push between the modules (at time of implementation) and you needed error checking/reconciliation to make sure all info was captured. We came from v5 so hoping it would be stronger, but it was worse then using spreadsheets/paper. **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** see what changes Ministry Brands made to improve the shortfalls. Don't be oversold. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** no problems were solved and no benefits were realized ### 3. Behind in technology -arena **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2022 **What do you like best about Church Management?** The amount of things it could possibly be capable of **What do you dislike about Church Management?** That you have to be a computer programmer to be able to use special features **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's a great way to keep track of our large directory. We have very specific criteria so creating custom lists has become a bit of a hurdle. It did help the admins keep all the information updated for eachother but it's not user friendly enough for any directors to use. ### 4. Shelby Systems Slip From Relevancy **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jacque P. | Administrative Assistant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 05, 2021 **What do you like best about Church Management?** Shelby Systems has integrated modules that work together-database module works with financial module. Shelby gives you the ability to run reports in the database based on whatever items you choose (such as running a report based on where people live, age, gender, etc.) which is very helpful. Our organization used this platform for 20 years and it was a solid platform. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** The user interface seemed old compared with most cloud-based software that is more user friendly. Shelby Systems platform became antiquated as they did not continue to update the software as they should have. It was not cloud-based and was not able to continue to do what we needed it to over time. Our organization tried to upgrade to a new Shelby Systems version, but the transition didn't work well and in the end, we had to go looking for something different. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were using Shelby for it's database capabilities-such as running reports as stated above, using it to print envelopes for mailings, and generally to keep track of the contact information of our church members and attenders. It also enabled us to track the involvement of each member and also births, deaths, anniversaries, and baptisms. ### 5. Excellent System for church and community coordination **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Cory U. | Customer Success Manager, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2020 **What do you like best about Church Management?** The ability to have personal logs for all community members, including contact information, and relationship to other members. We can see exactly which members are related to each other, and how, and which members live together under one roof. We are also able to track attendance, financial giving (online or in person), special interests, and even comments made via online portals. All of this helps us to make sure all of our church members are able to stay plugged into our community, no matter what is going on in their lives. During the Covid pandemic and subsequent quarantine, this software has been instrumental in staying in touch with our people of all ages. We have even been able to contact long-since-seen individuals and catch up with them. We also can make lists of contacts to be able to group them together based on age, interest, experience, or anything else, making it easy to get people together who may not know each other, but have things in common. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** In the past, it has seemed outdated, but they have updated the system over the last few years to resolve these issues. The user interface has been cleaned up and made much easier to navigate, allowing a user to more easily find and understand the features that this software uses. It can be daunting to log on and try to make sense of everything that it can do, but the ability to have in depth training from an employee of Shelby Systems makes it much more worth it than other systems. **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** They will send someone to your office, though it may not be an in-person event now, to do comprehensive training to make sure all of your employees are well adept at using the software. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** During the Covid pandemic and subsequent quarantine, this software has been instrumental in staying in touch with our people of all ages. We have even been able to contact long-since-seen individuals and catch up with them. We also can make lists of contacts to be able to group them together based on age, interest, experience, or anything else, making it easy to get people together who may not know each other, but have things in common. ### 6. Outdated company **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2021 **What do you like best about Church Management?** Shelby is very simple to use. The team at shelby provides great customer service. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** I disliked the way the shelby team was not interested in the future - they are not changing with what a CFO needs for financial preparation and reporting. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** We decided to move away from Shelby. ### 7. Not a great system to scale **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeremy H. | Business Administration Pastor, Religious Institutions, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** Shelby Systems does well at maintaining data for your organization. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** Shelby support is not always great. There are many customizations that you will need but support does not help if something goes wrong with updates. **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** Look at Rock RMS, our Planning Center depending on your needs. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** This works as our Content Management system, check-in, event registrations, and authors our website. ### 8. Tries to put it all together **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jason P. | Associate Pastor of Administration, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** It is a one stop place where everything in theory is put together. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** It can be cumbersome and confusing to enter data at times. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Synergy of membership, giving and calendaring. ### 9. Shelby does it all, but be prepared to be a lifelong learner **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** Shelby can handle any data you throw at it, in any format, in any size church. It is capable of just about anything. It is the superhero of church management software! **What do you dislike about Church Management?** It’s relatively easy to get data in. It’s a little tougher getting data out in a way that is truly useful and organized. That’s where the lifelong learner part comes in...you have to be ready to get outside your comfort zone and learn at a fairly technical level in order for Shelby to really be useful. **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** Having someone with technical knowledge in database management, especially someone skilled in knowing how to design and extract reports, would be highly beneficial. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication to, and organization of, our membership rolls; financial management, budget management, and forecasting of future expenses. Making sure we’re in touch with at-risk members. Providing useful data to our “family elders” so they can properly care for those in their flock. ### 10. Great program for church directory, and more **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** It keeps records of the church member, their attendance and more. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** Nothing really. It's a good program. It could be updated a little more often. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping track of all church members information and updating it continuously. ### 11. Financial monitoring **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lt. B. | Pastor, Non-Profit Organization Management, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 20, 2017 **What do you like best about Church Management?** We use Shelby to monitor our finances. It is a relatively clear system, with easily used coding for sorting finances into departments. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** It can be confusing to find what is needed at times and I also have had issues with the excel sheet interface. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Monitoring and documenting Finances, Used to create different financial spreadsheets and look up documented information. ### 12. Shelby has both positive and negative aspects to it. **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 14, 2017 **What do you like best about Church Management?** The versatility in running reports and the ability to profile code people. It was easy to set up classes. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** There is no way to use it to communicate with you members. No social media connection. I could usually figure out my tech problems before I could get someone on the phone to help me. The end of year promotion of members was not user friendly. **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** Make sure you are well trained in the software. System can do a lot more than you think it can, but you have to learn how to get around things. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Take class attendance. End of year and month statistics. Tracking members. ### 13. Some good stuff **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** Comprehensive data base and financial tracking of donors **What do you dislike about Church Management?** Not super user friendly. Challenging the lean each module **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** Be sure you use the internet based system. Your rep is key! **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data base and financials for donors ### 14. It looks great but is very slow **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** I love how it looks. It's nice how to purchase/check request can come over through AP. **What do you dislike about Church Management?** It's very slow, the system is still new and has some glitches and it makes me frustrated. **Recommendations to others considering Church Management:** Yes because its a great upgrade from V5. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have a great communication with them and are willing to help us in every area that we need help. ### 15. Useful **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Church Management?** I use this mostly as an advanced address book and database for membership **What do you dislike about Church Management?** Can be slow or hard to find some info, but improved recently in design. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Nice for printing mass postage labels ### 16. Shelby Review **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Church Management?** I liked the ability to search for people/families **What do you dislike about Church Management?** At the time of use, Shelby was not web based, made it difficult for users to look up information on the go. **What problems is Church Management solving and how is that benefiting you?** Tracking information on people including contact information is very helpful for the users. ## Church Management Discussions - [What is Shelby Systems used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-shelby-systems-used-for) - [View Church Management pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/ministry-brands-holding-llc-church-management/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-30+19%3A45%3A00+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=867d30ce-853f-4780-8717-7976c47f48fd&secure%5Btoken%5D=e278372ed7d5000ecb7ac1e49eb7cc8e0fcd52c0cc8a1b0aff0f58f739ef69bd&format=llm_user) ## Church Management Features **Platform Basics** - Membership Tracking - Donation Management - Congregation Communication - Worship Management - Event Planning - Church Accounting **Platform Additional Functionality** - People Management Specific Tools - Event Management Specific Tools **Agentic AI - Church Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance ## Top Church Management Alternatives - [Realm](https://www.g2.com/products/realm/reviews) - 4.1/5.0 (30 reviews) - [Text-Em-All](https://www.g2.com/products/text-em-all/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (815 reviews) - [DialMyCalls](https://www.g2.com/products/dialmycalls/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (966 reviews)