E-Note from Pastor Abi

 

Greetings Church,

 

Beginning on Monday, April 3, 2023, we will invite the entire congregation to begin using our online church database, Realm. If you remember, this initiative was one of the outstanding items in our strategic priorities for Administration & Infrastructure: “Ongoing maintenance of the membership database (Realm) to include making an online, password-protected directory available to all leaders and members.”

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We have been conducting a test pilot phase with our staff and key leaders over the past few months. They have already been using this tool and have found it easy to do so.

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We are aware that many churches in our community are already using an on-line directory to better support their members.  We believe this online resource will enhance ministry and ensure more timely updates to your individual profiles. Please continue reading to learn more about this new way to communicate with other church members and keep your own church profile up-to-date! 

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Realm primarily serves the administrative needs of our church, but it also offers some exciting opportunities to support the way you are involved at St Thomas. Not only will this improve work life for our ministry staff, it will make it easier for our church family to connect with each other, keep up with what is going on, and grow as a connected community of Christ followers.

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There are three things you should know before we highlight what you can do with Realm:

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1. We’re updating the administrative tools our staff uses to run the daily operations of the church.

2. We’re adding more ways to communicate and connect as a church while leaving current methods in place.

3. You determine how much you want to make this part of your experience with our church, but we encourage you to participate.

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With Realm you can do the following:

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•    Update Your Profile

Everyone in our church gets a unique profile. Your profile contains everything you want people in our church to know about you. Your profile also enables you to track your giving, update your contact information, change family details, add family photos and so much more. By keeping your information current, you are helping our staff, small group and ministry leaders and church community.

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•    Track Your Giving

Review your giving history, check your pledge progress and print your giving statement. Access to your giving is always available and kept secure in an easy to use online environment. (IMPORTANT: Other Realm users cannot see your giving – this information is only available to you)

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A Note About Privacy

 

Your Information is Your Information.

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• You have complete control over who can see your contact and personal information.

• Contact information is never public or searchable on the internet. Any information you elect to make visible to our church family is always protected behind a login.

• Authorized staff will always have access to your profile information.

• You and certain authorized staff may update your profile information.

• For safety reasons, sharing contact and personal information for children under 18 is limited. Parents determine whether to display their child’s name in the church directory or not.

• Children under 13 may not participate and will not be able to sign in.

 

What People May See

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By default, the viewing of your contact and personal information is limited to members of groups you are in, group leaders, and staff members. In an effort to connect with our church members and utilize Realm as a church directory, we encourage you to make your information visible to the entire church. When selecting your privacy settings we’d like to invite you to select the “Anyone In the Church” option; however, we understand if you’d like more privacy. To customize what can be seen by other Realm users of our church, you may select the “Custom Privacy” option.

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You can access Realm by following the link in the invitation email that will be sent out directly from Realm on Monday, April 3. We also invite you to download the Realm Connect app on your phone, available in your phone’s app store. 

An instruction guide about how to access your Realm profile and update your privacy settings is available on our website: https://www.stthomasumc.org/forms. If you need any help or have any questions or concerns. Samantha Bouquet, our Administrative Director is available at church, Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm.

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To God be the glory!

Pastor Abi

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