How to Leverage Technology for Automating Church Communications with Natalee Butler Ep 2.04

Natalee Butler  0:09  
You can't do all the things all the time. We can't be the savior, but we get the opportunity to introduce them to the Savior. Your job is important, but not to the point that it needs to like totally stress you out, find people find tools to help you do those things that you're not so great at so that you can really thrive in the areas that you do feel comfortable in and that you are really good at.

Jeanette Yates  0:37  
Hello, and welcome to the Tech in Church Podcast where we talk to everyday church communicators who use simple tech tools to go from frazzled to focused. I'm Jeannette Yates, and I'm with my co-host, Nina Hampton. We believe you should spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and in your personal life.

Nina Hampton  0:54  
So today we had the opportunity to have a conversation with Natalee Butler. Natalee has been on staff at Good Samaritan Church and school in Las Vegas, Nevada for nine years. She splits her time as a Youth Director, covering junior and senior high ministries and as the Connections Coordinator, overseeing guests experienced follow-up and new members. Natalee has been married to her husband, Robert for four years. She's a step mom of two boys, Gavin who's 17 and Dominic who's 25 and is a parent, proud parent of two puppies. She enjoys iced coffee, meeting new people great conversation, taking naps, and reading. She also enjoys a good podcast. So definitely send her your recommendations. I love this conversation that we have with her, Jeanette.

Jeanette Yates  1:36  
It was so fun. First of all, we bonded over naps and coffee. 

Nina Hampton  1:41  
Yeah.

Jeanette Yates  1:41  
Something that we all love to do.

Nina Hampton  1:44  
Two things that are very necessary for life.

Jeanette Yates  1:45  
Yes, yes. But more importantly, we talked about how she manages lots of different roles that don't really necessarily have anything to do with each other at all youth ministry. And then like bringing in new members, although you do have new youth members from time to time, but she talks about how she was keeping all of that stuff organized and keeping focused.

Nina Hampton  2:05  
Yeah, one of the things that I love that she personally talked about was how she herself has some weaknesses when it comes to specifically her connections, her connections director position, and she was kind of struggled with some some anxiety and some insecurities there, which I think we can all relate with. But one thing that I thought was beautiful is how she talked about how her use of tech tools, namely Text in Church has not just helped her kind of fill in the gaps of those weaknesses, but really allow them to like grow and expand the kind of outreach that they do for their new members. And it was just cool to hear how they've not just had such success following up with their guests, but they have this whole year long workflow for new members of their church. And I just I've never heard anything like that how she uses it is great. And it was just beautiful to see the way that she's allowed these tools that she's using to really make super actionable change in her ministry. Like I thought it was so dope. 

Jeanette Yates  3:03  
Yeah, I love it when people take an idea and run with it and turn it into something even bigger and better. And so that was really great. And I also loved that she was so willing to share that. It's the tech tools are important, but also the people and the relationships, she builds around that and using the tech tools allows her to have more time to do that. So it was a really great conversation. We know you're gonna love it. Here it is. 

Jeanette Yates  3:32  
Okay, well today we are joined by Natalee Butler, from Las Vegas. Natalee. Hey, how's it going? 

Natalee Butler  3:38  
Hey, things are good. How are you guys?

Jeanette Yates  3:40  
We're good. So we just want to start off by letting you tell us a little bit about who you are. Who is Natalee, and tell us a little bit more about your ministry?

Natalee Butler  3:50  
Yeah, so I am a Las Vegas native and I work at a mid-size mainline church here in town. And I cover to position so I split my time between youth ministry so I oversee our junior and senior high ministry as well as what we call Connections Coordinator. And so I oversee our guest experience, guest follow-up, new members and some like groups.

Jeanette Yates  4:16  
Yeah, so that sounds like, Nina it sounds like she fits right along with all the other multiple hat wearing. I think we should just that may be the podcast season theme. multiple hats.

Nina Hampton  4:28  
Yeah, truly not actually it's not bad.

Natalee Butler  4:30  
I actually I love that title. Yes.

Nina Hampton  4:33  
The multiple-hat club, multiple-hat wears club. So in your splitting of the roles and what you do as far as youth stuff  and with everything that you do with connections, kind of just walk us through like a day in the life of you doing all the things so what does it look like? What is your day-to-day look like?

Natalee Butler  4:52  
I don't know if I really have a day-today to be honest. I probably have more of a week to week. Wednesdays we always have our senior high youth group.

Jeanette Yates  5:00  
So that's how you can tell us that.

Natalee Butler  5:01  
Yeah. So Wednesdays kind of look the same I show up a little bit later in the afternoon, because we have youth group that night. So usually Wednesday is focused around like getting that stuff prepped. Thursday and Friday are kind of my office days. And so that's usually when I'm catching up on emails that people sent me probably the week before, but I haven't looked at it since the previous Friday. So I catch up on all of that. That's also when I tend to input any guests into our Text in Church that we got from Sunday. And so we start our follow up a little bit later in the week. And then Fridays, we have something we call it Good News at Noon. So our church is called Good Sam, and we have good news at noon, where every day, every weekday, one of our staff members goes live at noon with like a little devotion. And I have Fridays. And so I do that on Fridays. And then it's also it's one of my favorite things. We started doing it during the shutdown, but we've just continued it. And then Saturdays is one of my flex days. It's catching up on different things usually work from home. But that's usually like an event day if we have something going on. And then Sunday's, of course, is our Sunday morning. And that's when we have junior high class. And so we have church and junior high and whatnot. And then I'm very protective of my Mondays. My husband and I both have Monday off. So I keep those ones clear, but to stay to staff meeting, and then I just kind of start over.

Jeanette Yates  6:22  
Yeah, I think a lot of people can relate to that. There's really not, I don't know too many church communicators that have like a daily routine that kind of fits. I think it's like, I have to spread things out all week. And some things are only gonna get done once a week, all of those kinds of things. So in your week to week, let's call it not day to day, you are responsible for totally different things. So those hats are really different. And so what do you think the biggest challenge has been in your roles as the connections person and the person in charge of junior and senior high? Which that's how our church does it, too, is like the persons in charge of all of you. And that can be overwhelming. So what has been your biggest challenge do you think?

Natalee Butler  7:06  
So my heart and soul is in junior high and senior high. That youth ministry is how I got started in ministry. The church was very gracious enough to bring me on full-time. And that's when I took the connections role. And at first, it made a lot of sense, because I'm a people person. And I like to meet people and I like to build those connections. And so Connections Coordinator seemed like the perfect way for me to become full time. What I didn't realize was how much organization was going to be needed for that position. There's a lot of... I mean, people are, there's a lot of follow up. There's a lot of keeping track of names and things that people are interested in, and blah, blah, blah, and like the pastor's like, 'Hey, do you have a list of people who such and such?' And it's like, I probably should, but no. So I think my biggest challenge, first and foremost is balancing the two of them in the sense that I don't spend all of my time doing youth ministry, because that's where I know what I'm doing. And I feel very comfortable in that role. But also like focusing on this other position and continuing to get better at it. But also building systems that can help me stay organized, or finding people that can help me stay organized. We just brought on a volunteer who has been amazing. Data entry is like her thing. And so suddenly, I do have those lists of people who are interested in this thing or whatever. And so that's been incredibly helpful. But yes, keeping all of those things in order and being able to track people and kind of know where they are in the system. That's probably one of my biggest challenges.

Jeanette Yates  8:45  
I also like that you mentioned that, like, you want to stay on track with the stuff that you're not so comfortable with, along with the stuff that you do feel like it's in your wheelhouse. I think all of us. I was recently listening to a podcast by Pat Flynn, and he talked about, actually it was a book sorry, it was a book by Pat Flynn. And he was talking about how we want to be specialists, but we should really be generalist. And I think that is very relatable. Because your specialty is youth ministry, but you really need to know about connections and all of that kind of stuff, but also being able to reach out to some people who are specialists, like you mentioned your volunteer that loves data stuff. That's great! But I think that's really a good point. If we don't have some systems in place, we can just focus on the stuff we're really great at and really feel comfortable with and not the stuff that needs to get done.

Nina Hampton  9:37  
Yeah. Especially because like, I'm very I think I'm similar to you, Natalee in the sense that I am not task-oriented. Like if I have a list of something that I have to track and keep control, like keep tabs on and report back, I'm like, I am gonna fail at this. This is not my thing. So I think you already having something that helps you just kind of keep all that in line, like, I know, for me, like, there are multiple tools that I use to not let all the balls drop in my life. And so for you, what are a few tech tools, let's say, three, three tech tools that you use to kind of not do that? To stay organized to not drop all the balls.

Natalee Butler  10:21  
Yeah. So I mean, honestly, Text in Church has been a huge one for me, because we had when it came to the guest follow up, initially, when I took this position, it didn't exist. We built this position, and I happened to be the one that took it. So nobody really knew what it was supposed to look like. So I was getting, we call them 'friendship forms' at the time. Now, we call them connect cards. And I'd get them and I'm like, okay, and I'd send an email or a phone call or something and wouldn't really know like, what to do outside of that. And it was very early on in that ministry that I went to one of the webinars that Text in Church was having, and they were talking about their guests' follow-up and was like, this is brilliant. And first, I tried to build something very similar in Planning Center, that tends to be where a lot of our church, we used to, we use Planning Center and icon for different things. But Planning Center at the time was what I was using. And so I tried to like build a guest follow up in that. And it was okay. But it wasn't ideal. And it was just email based. And it was a lot of useless, not useless information. But if you're not connected to the church already, it wasn't very important. So we went back and ended up joining Text in Church. And that has been amazing. And so the guest follow up portion, that automated workflows obviously changed the game for me. But then what I started doing, too, was building in groups, because now I had like the guest follow up piece covered. And I was like, Okay, this is great. But then like, what happens after that six weeks, like when the automated workflow ends, like now, what do we do? So I started building groups. And right now we have a guest follow up for each of our campuses. So we have two campuses. And the follow up is basically exactly the same. But I changed some of the pastors names, and whatnot. And then we have a new member interest. So when we start talking about our new member class coming up, I say, text joy to our number. And so then they get put in new member interest. And that's the group that I communicate with, when we have we call it Good Sam connects, that's our kind of new member class. And so when that's coming up, once a quarter, we text them, after they've gone through that class, they move into new member follow up. And then I actually have a one year follow up plan for them. At three months, they get a text that's like, Hey, we're still so excited, you're here, if you haven't connected to a group, we'd love to make that happen. And then at six months, I get a reminder, and they get a birthday card in the mail that says Happy, happy birthday, you've been here for six months, at nine months, they get another email and text that's just like, hey, we still love that you're here. If you're not plugged into something, we want to get you plugged into something. And then at a year, they get an anniversary card that said, hey, you've been part of our family for a year, we're glad you're here. So that's been helpful, because I I feel like I'm very good at like, the initial idea. And like, let's get it implemented. But I'm not very good at like long term maintenance, like I'm great with events and things that like, I plan it and then it happens and I've done anything that goes kind of beyond that I really struggle with. And so those groups, and those automated workflows have helped me to keep myself on track. Because I also have the built like I use the reminders tool I have those reminders built in. So I also get a message that says, Hey, your three month message just went out. Be sure to follow up with these people or whatever. So

Nina Hampton  14:01  
Oh, that's great. That's so smart!

Jeanette Yates  14:04  
I was just gonna say, you know, you use the automated workflow to send the message out, but it also especially when it's a long workflow, like a year, it is nice to have a little reminder like, hey, that we're still communicating with this person. This is the message that just went out. I know, we're both. For those of you who are listening, you just have to know that Nina and I, our minds just exploded. 

Nina Hampton  14:25  
No. Yeah, absolutely. I've worked for Text in Church for almost four years, and I've never heard of anyone doing that. That's so smart!

Natalee Butler  14:32  
That is smart. I know that was my favorite part. Because like I said, I forget and so it's like that automated reminder to me that like either this just happened or this needs to happen. And so yeah, I felt that.

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Jeanette Yates  15:50  
So that's pretty amazing, and we will be talking to you more about that a new member follow up that's a year long, because I think a lot of people would love to learn more about that. So if you're listening, just stay tuned.

Nina Hampton  16:04  
Nobody can see it. My dog is on the ground, right? Yes.

Jeanette Yates  16:07  
And check out the show notes. Because if we have any more details about that follow up, we're going to be dropping it in our show notes. So be sure to check that out. So I have so many so many things. First of all, I just want to say Good Samaritan is the name of your church. I know many good samaritan churches. And I think it's like super cool that you call it Good Sam. And I really need a t-shirt or a hat or something. So tell me where I can go buy some swag? Because that's the coolest thing I've ever, like ever heard. So number one, and like, you know, we've already oohhhed and aahhed over the workflow. So I mean, that's just amazing! And like I said, I can't wait to chit-chat with you a little bit more about that. And hopefully,  it's something that we can share with our listeners today. But also, I know that you mentioned that you were using, you're trying to do the workflow in PCO, but then you didn't... but do you find that the the PCO integration? Do you use that with your Text in Church at all?

Natalee Butler  17:01  
We did do move all of the contacts over initially for our members, but I don't really use it outside of that, because instead of inputting guests into PCO, I just use Text in Church exclusively when it comes to guests.

Jeanette Yates  17:16  
Gotcha. 

Natalee Butler  17:17  
We really use Planning Center for like the registrations and the groups and those kinds of things. It's not really like our people database. We use it for the apps.

Jeanette Yates  17:27  
Gotcha. So one more question I was thinking of as you were talking with the multitasking and Nina's like: Are we going to get back on the questions or not? So, but we will, we will. But I just was interested, because I have youth you are talking about you do you use? Do you use Text in Church for your youth communications at all? And how do you find that working? 

Natalee Butler  17:47  
Yes. And it's amazing. In fact, in a lot of the youth pages, whenever somebody's like, I can communicate with your kids. I'm like Text in Church. You get it for your whole church. But I use it all the time. I have several groups, I have Junior High parents, Senior High parents. I have students. I have Senior High students,.I have one for our Wednesday night. So not all of our students attend Wednesday nights, but like right now we're doing a devotion series. So I have a group just for them that I'm texting them daily, the daily devotions for that. But I mean, I use it for them all the time. Primarily, I use it for reminders, 'Hey, this registration is going to be due. Here's the link.' That kind of stuff. But we also... I like it for parents' stuff too. Like sometimes, I'll send out some of the small group questions like, 'Hey, here's some questions to ask about for today,' or whatever, to help them engage their kids and more than Hey, how was church? So yeah, I use Text in Church almost exclusively for my communication with them. I will use my personal number sometimes, especially if it's a smaller group, like the other day, I needed to text a few of my girls about something, so I just use my phone. But for any sort of  mass communication with everybody, I use Text in Church. And I love the scheduling feature, because oftentimes, I want to send them something on a Sunday morning or a Saturday, and I'm not, I mean, I'm working but not doing that. So I love being able to schedule things out. And that's really nice, too.

Nina Hampton  19:15  
I just...I want to point out something. So I feel like it's something that you said a little bit ago, is kind of the exact reason why this podcast exists. So like the fact that you are using... You started using Text in Church for guest follow-up. And then once you started using that, you started using it. 'Okay, well, we can use this for new members too.' And then we can use, you know what I mean, and now I can follow-up with our new members. And now we can follow up with these people and like who are starting, involved in things in this way, and we can let these people know about what's going on over here. I think that's why the importance of tech tools period in your church communications is so important because it builds margin. You know what I mean? For you to be able to better follow up and better reach your people. Using a tech tool makes it, because if I mean, at least for me, because I'm not that task-oriented person. If I didn't have something that I could use to do that follow up for me, I would spend all my time and energy trying to remember every individual guests, and sending out an individual text or an individual email for three weeks. You know what I mean and that's where all of my energy would go. And so just using something to take care of that for you, it allows you to serve your people better.

Natalee Butler  20:21  
Yes, I even built out a guest follow up for our students. Like, I have a student that comes for the first time. It's not six weeks. It's not as detailed as like our regular guests follow up. But I get a reminder to send them on our Youth Connect card. I include like favorite candy. And so I will write them a note and send them a package with a little note and their favorite candy. They get a text. It's like, 'Hey, we're on Instagram. Here's our handle. Or if you have any questions, let me know.' And so I want to say that one's only like two weeks of follow up. But that's still like, I mean, that's more than...

Jeanette Yates  20:55  
That's a lifetime for a teenager. 

Natalee Butler  20:57  
Yeah, exactly. For them. That's a really well, yeah. 

Jeanette Yates  21:01  
Oh, my goodness. Well, we could talk on and on and on about all of the tech and how you use it Text in Church, PCO. You even mentioned just how you coordinate and plan and all of those things, your mail that you get the reminders in your email, all that stuff. But I do want to take a moment and just talk about the 'untech,' the unplugging that we all need to do in our ministry. So tell us how you unplug from all those. How do you take off all those hats is really what I'm asking?

Natalee Butler  21:32  
I'm not great at unplugging completely. I do get the push notifications, I have those setups so that the push notifications from Text in Church come to my phone, and my email always comes through my phone. I do try to utilize the 'Do not Disturb.' Like, at night, my phone definitely goes and I'm not getting any of those notifications. And I try to not look at them as often. But when I do need to unplug completely, I just I have to leave my phone somewhere else, which is very difficult, and not something I'm very good at but just kind of setting it down. And I don't know, binge watching The Office or reading a good book or whatever, playing with the dogs. And so, yeah, I'm not amazing at unplugging. I like to do tech fasts during Lent, because it kind of helps me re-establish healthier boundaries with my technology, because my phone is always in my hands. So it's difficult for me to do.

Jeanette Yates  22:30  
I know that. For me, my kids, I have two teenagers Well, once in college now, he's still technically a teenager. But I know for me, like I'm working on my phone, or I'm on my phone vegging out. And so it's hard for them to tell the difference. So now I'm trying to be more in front of my husband or my kids or whatever, like, or my mom when I'm visiting her, like actually putting it down. Because they don't know the difference. I mean, they do technically, but when they see is like is she working? Or is she just ignoring me or what? So I try to? I try to do that too, right?

Natalee Butler  23:02  
Yes. Because yeah, I do a lot of work on my phone, too. But I know that I'm just like, playing Scrabble or scrolling my Instagram for like, anybody else doesn't necessarily know that.

Nina Hampton  23:14  
So I love that. I am a binger of The Office as well. So I don't think I don't think there's necessarily like obviously, there's more healthy things that we can all do. And there's not a perfect way to do it. You do what works for you, instead of visiting the office. You know what I mean? It's the perfect way to unplug for you then go off. Like that's great. But talking specifically. I think when you do plug back in, what are the things that are in your ministry that keep you going? You know what I mean? What pieces of what you do is part of what you love?

Natalee Butler  23:43  
Oh, gosh, I would say that people first and foremost. I find people fascinating, and I love their stories, and I love connecting with people. And so I think that is initially kind of what got me in this. And students specifically like I love having adult conversations as well. But when I started kind of feeling an interest in youth ministry, a lot of people were shocked. They were like, what? Like, oh, I can't do junior high that was like, Oh, I love Junior High! Maybe this is where I should be.

Jeanette Yates  24:16  
Yes, we need you. We need people that love youth.

Natalee Butler  24:19  
I love junior and senior high for different reasons. Both age groups are wonderful. And so when I kind of had that passion and that drive, I was like, Okay, this is where I need to be because apparently not everybody can do this. I can't like little kids. We have a school on our campus and that cafeteria is overwhelming. I cannot but throw 50 teenagers in there who are probably just as crazy and I don't know, I feel like I'm in more control. So no, I really love the people.

Nina Hampton  24:48  
I totally get you. I've been in youth ministry a long time and people don't understand it. They're like you are more comfortable around high schoolers. And I'm like, actually, yeah, like, if you put me in a room I'm full of 50 adults. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna leave you. You know what I mean? But if you put me in a gym full of majors, I'm good.

Natalee Butler  25:07  
Yeah, exactly. I can do any adults too like they're cool. And with connections obviously I'm working with adults a lot. But yeah, the team. That's what I love.

Jeanette Yates  25:16  
Well, I've been banned from working with teenagers at my church until my all my teens are gone. They're like. Don't come near me. So I actually had.

Natalee Butler  25:27  
So this is way off topic. But we had a camp a few years ago that finally I had to tell my kids I was like a heafty telling your parents that they can't chaperone we can't go. Like I need chaperones. We're gonna have to cancel if you keep telling your parents No, please let your parents chaperone. 

Nina Hampton  25:42  
Oh, that's hilarious.

Jeanette Yates  25:43  
Well, some teens like their parents around and mine are just like I'm yeah, no. So but they do allow me to volunteer in other areas of the church now. So um, cool. Good. Yeah, there's a place for everyone. So, ministry busy. You are already talking about your dogs that you have and everything. So tell us a little bit more about what you do when you're not binging The Office, when you're not in a cafeteria room full of teenagers. What do you love to do in your personal life, that downtime you have?

Natalee Butler  26:13  
I just... I love to hang out with my husband, just whatever. I enjoy spending time together. I know. 2020 was very difficult for a lot of people. We thoroughly enjoyed both being home all the time. It was great. Also spending time with family in general. It usually revolves around food. We love to eat, I love to eat. That's one of my favorite things. And I love going to coffee shops and hanging out with people. Like I love to meet up at a Starbucks or Coffee Bean or whatever, and have my iced coffee and, and have great conversation and catch up with people. I used to like in my head, I'd be like, oh, yeah, I'm meeting with this personnel, it would probably be about an hour or so it's never an hour or so I've learned very much, especially if it's somebody I haven't seen in a while, like, I'm looking at probably two or three hours before we're going to be done because the conversations flowing. So yeah, I guess just just trying to hang out with my people is how I really like to unplug and get away is just being with my sister or my friends.

Jeanette Yates  27:13  
That's what it's all about: connecting with people, ministry, personal life. It's all about connecting with people. So I love that.

Nina Hampton  27:20  
As we've kind of talked about all the things right, and you just sharing about your life and your ministry and kind of what that looks like. I think, as a multiple hatwear, how stressful, how overwhelming sometimes that it can be. So in wrapping up, if there was any encouragement that you could give to the overwhelmed church communicator, who's just stressed out, kind of doesn't know which way is up, disoriented. What would it be? What advice would you give?

Natalee Butler  27:45  
First, I would just say breathe. Like it's okay. Take a deep breath. I had a friend of mine one time, she was like, you can't be the Savior. She was talking about youth ministry, specifically. But I think that applies to even church communication. You can't do all the things all the time. We can't be the Savior, but we get the opportunity to introduce them to the Savior, right? Like, your job is important, but not to the point that it needs to totally stress you out. And then also finding those things that you struggle with and either finding tools or people to fill in those holes. Like, again, I said, I'm not great with that long-term maintenance. But Text in Church helps me stay on track with that, or I'm not good at the people tracking, but I have volunteers who are very good at lists and things and maintaining that. And so find people, find tools to help you do those things that you're not so great at so that you can really thrive in the areas that you do feel comfortable in and that you are really good at.

Jeanette Yates  28:48  
Yeah, that's amazing. And that's a good word. And it's so true. Yes. I remember one time, one of my mentors said, I was frazzled. I was running around. I was in there like, hey, Jesus is still on the throne.

Natalee Butler  29:01  
Yes, yes, exactly.

Jeanette Yates  29:03  
It'll all work out. And I'm like, oh, yeah, so it really doesn't matter if all the ducks are in a row or whatever. So that's a good word, breathe. We aren't the Savior. We've pointed people to the Savior. That's really good. Thank you, Natalee, for your time today. We appreciate you. We appreciate everything that you do for your church and the people in your church. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Natalee Butler  29:24  
Thank you for having me.

Nina Hampton  29:31  
If you want to learn more and see the full list of tech tools, head over to our show notes at podcast.textinchurch.com and remember to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen so that you can spend less time worrying about technology and more time doing what you love in your ministry and in your personal life.