Streams Church

Using a Modern Collaboration App to Carry Out a Timeless Mission

Industry
Non-Profit
Hq
Glendale, AZ
Year founded
2004
Employees
N/A
Streams Church logo
Industry
Non-Profit
Hq
Glendale, AZ
Year founded
2004
Employees
N/A
All of us, even some of our volunteers who aren’t so comfortable with new technologies, love using the RingCentral app.
Allen Keys
Executive Pastor, Streams Church
100%
Calls viewed and analyzed
50%
 Increase in support team capacity
From day one, Streams Church has found creative ways to carry out its mission of building a relationship-based faith community. When the organization was founded in 2004, the team conducted services in a local Phoenix-area high school. When it outgrew that space, Streams Church began renting a movie theater for Sunday services, which had to end as soon as the late-morning matinees started showing.
And when Streams Church was able to buy its own location, the team of pastors, administrative staff, and volunteers eventually grew large enough that email and texting were no longer efficient tools for collaboration and communication. So the Streams Church team again had to find a creative and affordable alternative.
A growing team doing most of their work from home—and coffee shops—was finding that email and text messaging was no longer working
When the Streams Church organization consisted of just three pastors working mostly out of their homes, the team was able to get by using email. But as the team grew, adding part-time administrative staff and church volunteers, they needed a simpler and more centralized platform to stay connected, coordinate programs and events, and get their work done.
“When you’re planning a church event and you’ve got half a dozen people working on it together, all operating out of different locations, it’s easy for an email communication to get missed or for someone to be left off of that thread who really needed to see it,” says Allen Keys, Executive Pastor for Streams Church.
“When our team began growing and different teams began forming to manage our various missions, outreach programs, and events, we realized we needed a better system for collaborating and working together,” Allen explains. “Simple, centralized communication for all of our various church projects was especially important for us because none of us have office space at the church itself, so we’re all working remotely.”
A search for a better collaboration and communication tool leads the team to the RingCentral app
The pastors at Streams Church are quite tech savvy and researching online collaboration platforms was actually a fun experience for them.
“We signed up for every app we could find,” says Allen. “Some had features we liked but lacked other features we needed. And some looked good but were expensive. Eventually we found the RingCentral app, and that ended our search. It was great for collaborating, for messaging one-on-one or with a team, and it integrated easily with the other tools we were all using, like Box and Google Drive.”
I love the fact that I can be in a coffee shop, pop open my RingCentral app, and in one place get all of the updates I need on any projects we have in progress or share my own updates with the appropriate teams.
Allen Keys
Executive Pastor, Streams Church
The team has found another modern tool to help them carry out their timeless mission
Streams Church has always used whatever tools were available to help deliver its message and grow its community. So it’s no surprise that the organization uses technology—hosting a podcast, creating YouTube videos—to deepen connections with its members.
And when the organization began outgrowing email and texting, it turned again to a cutting-edge online platform to help its internal teams stay organized, collaborate in real-time, and keep the church’s many programs and events on track.
“I love the fact that I can be in a coffee shop, pop open my RingCentral app, and in one place get all of the updates I need on any projects we have in progress or share my own updates with the appropriate teams,” Allen says. “The best part is that no matter how much larger we grow, the RingCentral app will always be able to scale up with us to help the entire Streams Church team communicate and work together in real time.”
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