A Legacy of Faith in Cincinnati
For more than 170 years, College Hill Presbyterian Church (CHPC) has served its Cincinnati neighborhood with a commitment to community and connection. Established in 1853, the church continues to grow and adapt while staying true to its mission.
Executive Director, Heather Lethander, oversees operations including facilities, finance, communications, and technology. She says integration has been key to the church’s success.
“I’m responsible for the operations of the church, facilities, finance, technology, communications,” Heather shared. “It keeps me busy and it does have me doing a lot of things with technology and the Ministry Brands suite of products.”
Building a Connected Ministry
Heather says that College Hill Presbysterian Church joined the Ministry Brands family in 2016. Over time, they adopted a suite of connected tools from church management and online giving to accounting and a fully integrated website.
“We really started out with the church management software and then went to online giving,” Heather said. “As different components have been offered, we’ve been looking at those as ways to move in. So we moved into the accounting software, we moved into the website… and we really like the interaction and the interface between everything.”
This connected approach allows CHPC to manage its ministries more efficiently including linking communication, registration, and reporting in one unified platform.
Simplifying Everyday Ministry Tasks
For Heather, one of the most valuable aspects of the software is how it simplifies engagement for both members and ministry leaders.
“We’ve built our website using the software,” she explained. “One of the great things that we use it for is having our events on there, having registrations that are all linked together and they go into the church management software. So somebody can see it on the website, they can follow the link for the event, they can save it to their calendar, they can register for it, they can pay for it.”
The process doesn’t stop there. Once a member registers, automated emails notify ministry leaders, and workflows assign people to the right groups.
“It makes it more connected and it also makes it more accurate because the less times that we have to enter something manually, the less likely that there is going to be a mistake,” Heather added.
Measuring What Matters
The team at CHPC also uses the software’s reporting capabilities to better understand and measure ministry impact.
“We’re really finding new ways to analyze the data that we’re getting,” Heather said. “We can look at it and say, are we getting the information that we want about attendance or about involvement, the giving, you know, all of those sorts of things. Anything that you’re tracking, you’re able to then measure.”
She continued, “As you decide what’s important, you can go back and make sure that you have the right measurement tools in place. And we have found that that works with the system - that we can go in and we can tweak things or change our interactions or our workflows depending on the information that we want to get.”
Focusing on Ministry, Not Administration
At the end of the day, Heather says integrated software helps the church focus more on people and less on paperwork.
“It allows us to focus more time on ministry and less time on administration,” she said. “We want it to be as easy as possible for people to find the information, to register, to pay - any of those different things.”
“I want my ministry leaders to be focused on reaching out to those people as opposed to shuffling papers,” she added. “We have a lot of workflows that happen that will automatically go and give the information that the ministry leader needs.”
Supported by a Responsive Team
Heather also praised her experience working with the Ministry Brands team.
“We’ve had a fast response rate when we have an issue,” she said. “They seem to be welcoming when we give suggestions… they’re open and willing to listen to my ideas or my suggestions or to help me find a workaround if something is not working the way that I want it to.”
With integrated technology and supportive partnerships, College Hill Presbyterian Church continues to thrive in its mission - staying organized, connected, and people-focused.
Ready to Empower Your Ministry?
Is your church’s giving and engagement strategy helping – or holding you back? Are manual tasks pulling you away from people and slowing the impact you could be making? If so, your church might be ready for something better.
Learn more and sign up for your free demo of Ministry Brands Amplify.
With simple, secure tools for online and mobile giving, forms, workflows, and communication, Amplify empowers your church to grow generosity, streamline operations, and stay focused on what matters most: ministry.
