How does a Church Operate? Behind the Scenes Conversation | Trinity Talks Podcast

Well, good morning everyone and welcome today to Trinity Talks.

I'm really excited to have a conversation here today because today we have Natalie Crawford,

our Operations Director here at Trinity Church, Streetsville.

And I must say, I've been meaning to have you on the talk for quite a while now.

So welcome.

Thank you.

So for those of you who don't know, Natalie is the Operations Director here at the church.

And with that comes a lot of responsibilities.

And I know that she has a lot that she can teach us and a lot that we can actually learn

probably today, whether or not we've been here at Trinity for a long time or maybe just

a short time, or maybe just even tapped into a church in general.

There's a lot I know that you have to offer.

So I'm looking forward to our conversation.

And maybe if we have a few minutes at the end of the conversation, maybe we can even

look at our church management tool that we use that you oversee and we can talk through

that as well.

Sound good?

Sounds great.

All right.

So Natalie, can you let us know before we get into the nuts and bolts of what an Operations

Director does, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Sure.

I grew up in Montreal.

I met Bill in high school.

We got married when we were 20.

We moved to Mississauga when we were 22.

I was a grad student at the time studying math.

We then had two daughters, Chelsea and Allora.

I started teaching at a private school here in Mississauga, was teaching math, grew in

that role to include some administration, became the principal at that time, and have

been living in Mississauga ever since.

And then actually we now live in Georgetown.

Okay.

Right.

So that's just a little bit north of here.

That's right.

All right.

Well, that's great.

You've got a wonderful history.

How did you come to Trinity and have you been here for a while?

Yeah.

So we had been really active in our Anglican Church back in Montreal.

And when we came here, we were actually living very close to Trinity.

And so this was the local Anglican Church.

We came to check it out and we have not left ever since.

Well, it's been great.

And I'm sure you've seen a lot of the changes that have occurred over the years here as

well.

All right.

So what led you to sort of transition from teaching and come into this role here at church

at Trinity?

Right.

So after I was at Fribble, I spent actually a few years here at the church running a debt

center with an organization called Christians Against Poverty.

And that was a really worthwhile project that the church was involved in sharing with people

in low income primarily situations and sharing the love of Jesus in a very practical way.

So that was a very fulfilling sort of role that I was involved in for a number of years

here.

And then once the position was...

Heidi was in a somewhat similar position to mine at the time.

When she stepped down, there was a process of sort of developing what the needs of the

church were.

And as that was being developed, I was doing some interim work in that capacity and really

felt like it was a great fit for me.

So I offered myself.

Yeah.

So I would have to say that in my year or so here as working here at Trinity, you do

do a fantastic job.

You are kind of the glue, we would say, that holds a lot of things together.

I have to say that for me, a lot of that comes out of just loving this church a lot.

Right.

Oh, that's great.

Such a good fit.

So for those of us who aren't familiar with what an operations director does, maybe in

a few sentences, could you summarize what your role is?

And then maybe we can look at some of the specifics.

Sure.

Sounds good.

I'd say there are a number of components to it.

And we might sort of group them in terms of finance, facilities, people, project management,

and then probably the church management software.

Okay.

So that's already a lot of things that sort of fall under your umbrella.

Quite a diverse portfolio, but probably makes each and every day unique and exciting and

probably a little challenging as well.

But you mentioned finances.

And I know we have a treasurer.

So I'm wondering, where do you fall into the mix there in terms of finances?

I'd say generally speaking, my role is one that holds intention, kind of the big picture

and then the detail.

And that's certainly an aspect of the job that I really like.

And finance is no different.

So there are a number of people involved for which I'm eternally grateful, including our

wonderful treasurer.

We also have an accounting team.

We've got Liz, who does the stewardship.

We've got people who are assisting with the accounting and the invoicing and all of those

pieces.

And so I think there is a need and it's helpful to have someone who's sort of seeing how those

pieces fit together.

That's me.

I think there is.

Including the budgeting and the staffing.

You know, it just goes on and on.

Yep.

All right.

Well, you do a great job at it.

Thanks.

And then I remember there was another F. So there's finances and then you mentioned facilities.

And this is a big building.

So I know even small buildings have a lot of need a lot of attention.

So this is an even larger facility.

So how do you fit into sort of managing facilities at the church?

So again, lots of people involved, including Bill Schollin, who's terrific at keeping things

working and, you know, maintaining the repairs and also assisting with some of the larger

projects as well.

But we've got a big building, as you said, and we not only have this building, but we've

got the cemetery and we've got a rental property.

So between all of those and managing all the various services and the repairs, the larger

projects we've got some on the go right now.

In fact, our HVACs are being replaced.

So there's a lot going on at any given point in time.

I can imagine.

All right.

What's the HVAC all about?

What's replacing the whole system?

Right.

So our heating and air conditioning system has at one point, you know, our building is

now 25 years old.

When we had our roof replaced a while ago, we also discovered that the HVACs were near

the end of their life lifespan.

There's actually several units, some of whom have already been replaced.

We're now replacing the last ones.

Wow.

All right.

Well, the end is near.

The end is near.

It's here.

On to the next project.

And then when I'm thinking of your umbrella and of all the different roles that fall underneath

your responsibilities, one was people you mentioned.

And I know as a staff member that you're a little bit of my go to in many ways, probably

more ways than one.

But who else sort of falls under your view?

Right.

Well, I'd say that, again, there's maybe some points where of connection.

So there's interacting with staff in terms of staff meetings, both regular ones and larger

ones.

There's the HR component with staff, with the various members of the church.

It's sending out the weekly email that goes out.

It's troubleshooting on a Sunday.

So answering questions that come up and whatever is needed.

That's interacting with the board of directors, with the diocese.

So it's a number of sorts of people.

And of course, people are really important.

That's right.

A church without people is not much of a church.

That's for sure.

And then I love that there was an F and an F, finances and facilities.

And then there were two P's.

This is my little brain memory trick here.

There was people and then you mentioned project management.

So maybe you've been here for several years now.

Can you let us know about some of the projects you've overseen?

Sure.

So one key one at the beginning actually was transferring over to our tool that we use

for our church software and data management.

The one that we've done quite recently would be our VIM project, our viewers into members,

which involved a fairly significant five-year grant from the diocese of which funding for

this project that we're engaged in right now.

That's right.

His response all right.

So thank you VIM and thank you Natalie.

Okay, that's great.

And so any projects upcoming in the future or is that something that we...

Well, more details to follow, but right now we're actually looking at some significant

other capital projects that might need to be coming down the road.

Okay.

So stay tuned everyone.

I'm looking forward to that.

Now we do have some time.

So I would love to sort of expand on that fifth point that you mentioned, which was

our church management software.

And I believe it's called Planning Center.

Yes.

And I know you've got more to say about Planning Center and its complexities and maybe what's

church facing and what's... or internal facing and what's church facing.

So can you tell us what is Planning Center?

What is this beast?

Sure.

Yeah.

Right.

It is a tool that we use quite a lot here.

And I sort of liken it to an iceberg where there's a lot of components down below the

surface and the part that's above that most of the people in the church are seeing is

Church Center, which is the app for the whole congregation to use.

Yeah.

All right.

So Church Center is something that anyone who's connected to Trinity can use and get

connected into.

And I know that it's available via app, like you said, so tablet or any of your devices,

but you can also access it through a desktop computer as well, right?

Yes, absolutely.

So how does someone go about getting Church Center, Natalie?

Okay.

So if they're doing it through the web, then it's just going to the URL for Church Center

and finding us there.

We are happy to provide the link.

Right.

And I think it's on our website.

Terrific.

Yeah.

And if it's through the app, then they can go to their regular app store, find the app

there, Church Center.

And then once you're in it, it will direct you to choose a church.

You want to choose Trinity streets, Phil.

And then follow the prompts.

Okay.

All right.

So I did something ahead of time, Natalie, is I took a quick screenshot of my own personal

Church Center account.

Great.

And I was hoping that we could maybe get it up on the screen in the next minute or so.

And we can talk through a little bit about the sort of the most basic features of Church

Center.

Sounds good.

All right.

So we're going to show you a little Church Center tutorial.

Here it is.

This is my own app here that I had on my phone.

And I think you can notice that there's some buttons on the bottom.

So I've selected the profile button there at the bottom.

What's that all about, Natalie?

Right.

Where here's where you can choose what information you want to share.

You can add your own contact information.

And again, you can see the profile information will allow you to put your picture in and

choose what you want to share with other people.

Yeah.

And it also looks like maybe it tells you a little bit about what you're involved in

as well.

So you're going to be seeing what you are involved in and you can also hear under the

events tab, you can see what things you might want to choose to get involved in in terms

of some of the events that are coming up and choose them.

If you click on any of them, you'll get more details and you can also register for them

right there.

All right.

I love how my quick screenshot here.

This is the give tab, isn't it Natalie?

Absolutely.

So this allows us to do what?

You can make a donation right there.

You can put the amount that you want to.

You can choose the frequency, whether it's just one time or a recurring gift, and you

can choose your payment type right there.

That's easy.

Yep.

That's great.

Right through the app.

All right.

So if you click the three dots, there's some options.

This tab here tells you which groups you're involved in and you can see that I'm involved

in a few groups, but I'm also able to then check out different things like life groups

and volunteer teams as well.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

What's this one here, Natalie?

The directory is great.

And I think that maybe not enough people know how to use it.

And it's a terrific tool to connect with other people in the church.

Lots and lots of people, as you can see, are listed here and people can choose what they

want to share or not share.

And then you can just contact them directly by just clicking on them.

That's fantastic.

Yeah.

So this one here was just a link directly to the Trinity Streetsville website.

So if you ever want to access the website, you can access it directly through the app.

Super.

Right?

Yeah.

All right.

There we are.

That's me.

Just, oh, you can see my phone.

And I think that's Church Center in a nutshell, isn't it?

Absolutely.

There might be a few things we can add to that too.

Oh, my goodness, I feel like I'm out of breath.

Just going through that.

That's right.

And we want it to be as easy as possible for people to use.

So if anybody runs into trouble, to just reach out to us and we're happy to give them a hand.

Oh, excellent.

Now I noticed that on Church Center, there was one button that said check in.

Right.

But I didn't click it because I don't think there were any events to check in.

So it wouldn't have been very effective tool just to show at that moment when I did the

shot.

But what is the check in button all about?

Right.

There's one difference between the app and the desktop version.

So you can't use check ins for the desktop version.

But if you're using the app, you can use it to check in either for online when you're

watching church on a Sunday, or you can use it to pre check in on for other events.

Oh, that's so helpful.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, Natalie, I feel like you have given us all a lot to think about.

And you've definitely told us a lot about what goes on here at the church.

And I mean, for me personally, just a deeper appreciation for all of the inner workings

how the church runs so smoothly.

Thanks.

Well, you're definitely going to be welcome back.

Maybe we can talk about any of the new upcoming projects you have in the next couple of months.

I don't know.

Sounds good.

All right.

Thanks, everyone, for joining us here for Trinity Talks.