One Year on Rock RMS

Switching people management systems was a huge pivot. If you want the full story of that change, read "Not Just Code: The Hidden Realities of Overhauling Church Tech." For now, I just wanted to celebrate everything we’ve accomplished with our church. I recorded a quick video about the wins and posted it on our Rock homepage. I can’t give you access to our Rock instance, but you can see the video below.

Three things stand out looking back.

1. Momentum beats caution.

It is crazy what you can accomplish in 12 months when everyone is aligned and motivated. It is also why I do not believe in slowly adopting a people management system. Just dive in. If the old system is still sitting there as a safety net, people will revert to it. We cut the cord, so our staff and volunteers had to jump into the deep end. I have watched churches take years to embrace their system. We sped that up, and we are better for it.

2. We were already builders.

One of the many blessings of our church is a long history of building things. So when we rightsized our tech stack, we had a deep knowledge base to build from. Rock RMS just worked, and it was straightforward to fit into our ecosystem. Short version: we have an amazing group of devs. I am grateful for their heart for the church and for chasing whatever wild idea I bring them.

3. Our leaders made it real.

This transition only happened because of the leaders at our church. I spent every bit of relational currency I had in the bank, and our pastoral leadership stepped up. They met with other churches to hear how they used Rock. They gave us a clear picture of what they wanted out of it. A codebase is just zeros and ones. It only matters when team leaders actually find it helpful and it moves the objectives forward. That was not me. That was them. Grateful for our staff teams.

There is still so much to do, and I love that tension. I love what is possible now. We have a strong foundation and we get to build some cool things on top of it. Thank you to every church that answered my random questions this year, and to our staff and volunteers for their patience.

Can't wait for the next 12 months.

It is fun getting to build things for the kingdom. I’m pretty spoiled.