CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0     Introduction

Church membership registration is the art of signing up for the state of being a member of a church. Church membership registration systems typically assist in the efficient management of membership and registrations, and may also assist in fundraising, events, and report generation. Churches use the system to reduce the cost of operations and track the growth in their congregations. The growth in the church registration/management systems coincides with the growing trend of using computers for religious activity [1].

Church membership registration system normally includes at least the following: storing and editing member’s information in a database; creating, renewing, upgrading and downgrading membership’s information. Membership organizations have diverse needs and structures, and this is reflected in the additional features membership software sometimes includes: organizing and selling tickets to events or series’ of events; publishing and delivering textual or audio-visual content; providing advertising opportunities via listings or targeted placements; facilitating interaction and collaborative file sharing between members; tracking members’ interests and activity to provide relevant services; raising supplementary income from donations.

Membership registration systems often integrate the core features of a content management system, to provide a single coherent interface for members and administrators. They do this by using generic database or spreadsheet software, and adding on external options as they need them; for instance event registration, etc. [2].

1.1     Background of the Study

As the growth of technology continues to be more sophisticated, the traditional approach to church membership registration is gradually being replaced with automated membership registration. The traditional method of Church Membership Registration at Methodist Church Nigeria, Uyo Diocese includes several drawbacks. Some of the drawback includes more time consumption, improper compilation, delays in correspondence, information misplacement, etc. In recent years, a variety of automated church membership registration systems are developed for the churches.

The prospective member attends confirmation classes. The confirmation class is designed to inform prospective member of the church core beliefs, know what it looks like to be a core member, and introduce such to some of the key church members as well. This class is scheduled for three (3) months and the prospective must go through this before being confirmed by the bishop.Church membership registration at Methodist Church of Nigeria, Uyo Diocese is carried out by filling the membership registration forms by the prospective member who has completed the confirmation classes. This is application is returned to the church steward for review and it is further endorsed by the Bishop of the Diocese after due confirmation of membership/communicant by same Bishop who will make necessary recommendations. In addition, the new member is also issued a certificate signifying confirmation. The registered member information are stored in the general file and register and further saved at the Registered Members Cabinet where it is retrieved whenever needed. It however required that the registered members renew membership annually to ensure an up-to-date record of such members.

Currently each member has a file on which vital data or information about a member or management is kept in. Apart from this the member information or record is also written on papers and in booklets which are then stored in shelves. Other documents such as transfer sheet, report forms and registration forms are also kept in files and stored in shelves. Therefore the church has several problems with their record keeping since their records can be destroyed at anytime by natural environmental hazards or conditions which comes from nowhere. It then causes the church to lose a large amount of resources and may require more management staff.

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