Success Story

Small Church, Big ImpactHow St. Francis Lutheran Church Transformed Their Care Ministry

Discover how Pastor Bea helped St. Francis Lutheran Church organize their pastoral care effectively with a small but committed team, ensuring confidentiality and sustainability while empowering caregivers.

Time Saved

Eliminated coordination meetings

Team Size

4-6

Scalable care team

Communication

💬

Asynchronous updates

Security

🔐

Fine-grained permissions

The Challenge

St. Francis Lutheran Church, a small but committed faith community, struggled with organizing pastoral care effectively. Their care team of four (possibly expanding to six) found it difficult to coordinate care visits, track follow-ups, and hold efficient team meetings. Zoom meetings were time-consuming, and care notes were not centrally recorded or easily shared. Pastor Bea also needed a solution that could ensure confidentiality, support transitions in leadership, and distinguish between sensitive and general care updates.

Core Obstacles

Time-Consuming Meetings

Zoom meetings required synchronous participation from all team members, creating scheduling challenges.

Disorganized Notes

Care notes were not centrally recorded or easily shared among team members.

Confidentiality Concerns

Need to distinguish between sensitive information and general care updates.

Leadership Transitions

Lack of system to support smooth transitions when team leadership changes.

Scheduling Challenges

Difficulty in organizing and tracking care visits and follow-ups.

Limited Flexibility

Need for a system that could adapt to a small team with potential for growth.

The Solution

Pastor Bea adopted CareNote to bring structure, security, and flexibility to their care ministry. CareNote's comprehensive platform allowed the small team at St. Francis Lutheran Church to organize their pastoral care efforts efficiently while maintaining the highest standards of confidentiality.

With CareNote, the team could coordinate care asynchronously, eliminating the need for time-consuming Zoom meetings. The platform's role-based access controls ensured that sensitive information remained protected while still allowing team members to collaborate effectively.

The care groups feature enabled any team member to pick up care tasks without needing a meeting, while the scheduling tools helped maintain continuity of care for long-term assignments. This structure also supported the team's potential growth from four to six members.

Role-Based Access

  • Admin, Manager, and User roles
  • Fine-grained permissions
  • Customizable visibility settings
  • Secure information sharing

Care Coordination

  • Care groups assignment
  • Quarterly visitation schedules
  • Long-term assignments
  • Continuity of care

Security & Flexibility

  • Tagged notes for visibility control
  • Session timeout customization
  • Volunteer integration
  • External form integration

The Impact

Time Saved

Care team no longer needs to coordinate live Zoom meetings to delegate tasks.

💬

Improved Communication

Updates are shared asynchronously, freeing the pastor to focus on training and pastoral conversations.

🔐

Confidentiality Maintained

Fine-grained permissions protect sensitive information while enabling collaboration.

🌱

Scalable Structure

They can start with a small team and expand gradually, promoting sustainability.

🙌

Increased Empowerment

Pastor Bea is freed from administrative burdens and can focus on mentoring caregivers.

"This is going to be a game changer for us."

We are a very small congregation, and we are so stretched—everyone is doing a million things. We used to spend our care team meetings just trying to find a time that worked for everyone, and then by the time we checked in on all the care needs, the whole hour was gone and it felt like we hadn't really accomplished much.

With CareNote, I feel like if we don't have to find a common Zoom time and everyone can check in on their own, we could be so much more productive. We can finally focus our meetings on what matters most—training our caregivers, strengthening their care conversations, and supporting them through the trickier parts of pastoral care.

The logistics—assignments, follow-ups, reminders—an app can do that. So I can thank you only from the bottom of my heart.

— Pastor Bea, St. Francis Lutheran Church

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