Email Lists 2.0

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Brian Ford

We’ve just made some big updates to Email Lists!

New name

They’ve been “Mailing Lists” until now because they included an option to create postal labels for people without email addresses. However, everybody has switched to a better option that’s available in Person Labels, so we removed the “postal” option and updated the name. Not only does this make Email Lists easier to use, it also makes them significantly faster!

Followers

Visitors and members of other churches can now join your list when you add them as Followers. Later this year, we’ll add an option that will allow them to add themselves from your church’s web page.

More file options

You’ve been able to send a variety of file types as attachments in messages but mail provides – like Gmail – block many of them as security risks. To ensure that your messages and files reach your audience, we now save the files on eAdventist and insert links to them in your message. Now you can send file types that are often blocked (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint), knowing that all of your audience will receive them.

Updated editor & layout

The updated toolbar makes it easier to personalize your messages. Click the new “Merge fields” button to insert a placeholder for “First name” or “Last name”. The layout and fonts have been updated to ensure that your messages look their best in any mail software and any device.

Add photos and images to your message and resize them, if necessary. To ensure that your message is not blocked, each image file is stored on eAdventist and your message contains a link to it.

Here are some articles to help you get started:

Starting an Email List

Creating a Message

We’re on YouTube (finally)

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Brian Ford

A lot of people have asked if there are any videos for learning eAdventist. One resourceful conference created a set of 6 several years ago, but eAdventist has changed a lot since then. Our team has wanted to help fill this need for quite a while, to supplement the vast array of articles in eAdventist’s knowledge base. Everything finally came together and our first eAdventist video is available on our shiny, new “eAdventist” YouTube channel.

The “Finding Duplicates” video is mainly for conference clerks, since the Duplicate Search feature isn’t included in “Church Clerk” or “Pastor” roles – it has limited value for a single church. Not to worry, though. You’re welcome to watch it, if you want, and we’ll be adding other videos for Church Clerks and Pastors soon. The description of each video will let you know which group/s it’s intended for.

If you’re a visual learner, or just like watching YouTube, the eAdventist channel is finally here. Grab some popcorn.

Reclaimed: Welcome Back (Updated)

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Brian Ford

NOTE: In April 2017, we added a new “Reclaimed” option to eAdventist, as requested by @GCArchives. However, the NAD Secretaries Council discovered that “Reclaimed” would not be counted as membership increase, so this process has been updated to ensure that your membership is reflected accurately.

tl;dr – The only change is that you add these members by “Baptism” instead of “Reclaimed”. eAdventist can still identify these members because of the “Start Reclaim” entry.

Below is the updated version of the article we published in April.

It’s a great day when a former member decides to rejoin the church family. When someone who has been “Removed” from membership decides to rejoin, click the “Change Status” button and choose “Start Reclaim”.

The person’s “Status” will be changed to “Nonmember”. If the person is rejoining a different church, you can the use “Change” button (next to the Church) to move them to the appropriate church.

The History and Statistics screens will now show this initial change.

Next, click the “Change Status” button and choose “Baptism”.

This will change the person’s “Status” to “Member” and will indicate that they rejoined “by Baptism”.

Both the History and Statistics screens will now show these 2 steps. Any “Reclaimed” entered between April and December of 2017 will look like the entries circled in red.

Naturally, eAdventist allows you to undo “Start Reclaim” and “Baptism” statistics in case you ever need to correct a mistaken entry.

The “Reclaimed” column that was added to eAdventist’s statistical reports has been taken out. Any “Reclaimed” entered between April and December of 2017 will be counted in the “Baptism” column.

Let us know if you have any other questions about these changes. You can find more information about “Reclaiming” in this knowledge base article.

Look what else you got!

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Brian Ford

We added a bunch of new things to eAdventist in December but wanted to keep them wrapped until we were sure they were “keepers”. They all are, so you can go ahead and open them now!

1. Duplicate alert

You’ve always had the Duplicate Search, but now eAdventist checks for other families with the same address every time you open a Person’s record. Any duplicates are displayed as an alert, so you can decide whether they need fixing or not.

2. Grab a nonmember

eAdventist has made transfers so easy that it feels inconvenient having to ask other clerks for nonmember children to be moved. Now you’ll see a “grab” icon that lets you move them yourself. Easy peasy!

3. Transfers – icons & help

The Transfers page packs a lot of information, so we’ve introduced some new icons.

When you hover over an icon, your cursor will change to a “?”. That means you can click on the icon for help.

: Green “light”

: Yellow “light”

: Comments

: Offsystem

: Offline

: Printing

4. Email address warning

If eAdventist sends an email message to you that “bounces”, it won’t send any further messages until the problem is fixed. If this happens to your account, eAdventist will show a warning when you sign in.

To see the error message, click on “more information”.

5. Multi-select for Occupations

Need to let your medical professionals know about a mission trip? Or let your construction pros know about a service opportunity? The “Occupation” field in Person Labels now lets you select multiple occupations. It also searches the list as you type.

6. Include images in Mailing List messages

Add photos, graphs or banners to the messages you send with Mailing Lists. An article with more information on this coming soon.

7. Hi-res photos for Organizations

When you add a photo of your church or school, eAdventist now saves it in 2 sizes – “original” (up to 1024×768) and “thumbnail” (160×120).

8. Community forum

Ever wanted to ask other clerks or pastors a question? Or share a great idea with them? Now you can in the new Community forum – community.eadventist.net. It’s connected to your eAdventist account, so you use the same email and password to sign in. You can download the Discourse app from the App Store or Google Play Store to access the Community from your phone or tablet. More information about the Community coming soon.

Happy New Year from our team!

Email Addresses – Some Examples

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Brian Ford

Are there officers in your church or conference that use a “work” or “officer” email address as well as their “personal” or “home” email address? eAdventist provides a simple but powerful way to track both addresses and always know that you’re using the right one.

Pastor with a Work Email Address

A typical example is a Pastor Fred who uses “pastorfred@meadowglade.org” for work mail and “fred@bedrock.com” for personal mail. Enter the personal/home email address on the Person page. This address will be used by Person Labels and Mailing List that are for members (“by organization”).

Then enter the work address in the “Other” field on the Officer page. This address will be used by Officer Labels and Mailing Lists that are for officers (“by office”).

Both email addresses are now displayed on the Person page.

Treasurer with an Officer Email Address

This also works well for a church treasurer who uses an email address like “treasurer@firstchurch.org” that is provided by the conference or church. Enter her personal email (“maria@gmail.com”) on her Person page, then enter the officer email (“treasurer@firstchurch.org”) on the Officer page as “Other”.

Member with Several Personal Email Addresses

Occasionally, you may have a member that wants to provide more than one personal email address. You can enter them in the “Email” field on the Person page, separated by semi-colons. All of the addresses will be used for reports, like the Church Directory or Member List. However, eAdventist will only use the first address for Person Labels and Mailing Lists.

The combination of “personal” and “officer” email addresses in eAdventist provide a simple but powerful way to handle multiple email addresses for a member.

Reclaimed: Welcome Back

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Brian Ford

NOTE: The process for recording “Reclaimed” in eAdventist has been updated beginning in 2018. See Reclaimed: Welcome Back (Updated) for the details.

It’s a great day when a former member decides to rejoin the church family. We’re making a change to eAdventist help you track these events. Until now, clerks have recorded both new and former members rejoining as a “Baptisms”. Now, the former members will be recorded as “Reclaimed”.

When someone who has been “Removed” from membership decides to rejoin, click the “Change Status” button and choose “Start Reclaim”.

The History and Statistics screens will now show this initial change.

Next, click the “Change Status” button and choose “Reclaim” (instead of “Baptism”).

This will change the person’s “Status” to “Member” (just like “Baptism” would) but will indicate that they rejoined “by Reclaim”.

Both the History and Statistics screens will now show these 2 steps.

Naturally, eAdventist allows you to undo “Start Reclaim” and “Reclaimed” statistics in case you ever need to correct a mistaken entry.

We are currently updating all of the statistical reports to include a new “Reclaimed” column. If you run these reports for any quarter earlier than 2nd Quarter, 2017 the “Reclaimed” column will always be zero because they are included in the “Baptism” column. From 2nd Quarter, 2017 on, the “Reclaimed” column will show them separate from the “Baptism” column.

Let us know if you have any other questions about the new “Reclaimed” statistic. You can find more information about “Reclaiming” in this knowledge base article.

Good News for Endangered Adventists

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Brian Ford

The Adventist Review recently published Endangered Adventism, painting a very bleak outlook for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.

According to research by Dr. David Trim and the office of Archives, Statistics & Research (ASTR) at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the median age of an Adventist around the world is 32. In the U.S and Canada, that number is 51.

18.46%. That’s the percentage of Adventist members in North America that are under the age of 40. The percentage under the age of 25—4.55%.

There is no doubt that there is serious competition for the hearts and minds of young people in North America, but are they truly that close to disappearing from our churches?

Exactly where did these numbers come from?

GC Survey

In 2013, the General Conference conducted an online survey of the North American Division. Email invitations were sent to a selection of churches and 300 of them signed up to participate. 12% of the members in these churches actually filled out the survey – 1,495 people. The report indicates that this is a fairly typical response for online surveys. Of these 1,495 people, 4.55% were 25 or younger and 18.46% were 40 or younger.

It’s clear that this survey was carefully prepared by a meticulous team. The question is, are these 1,495 members a representative sample of 1 million+ members in North America? Is this the best data we have?

eAdventist

eAdventist is North America’s membership records and currently contains over 1.15 million members. More than 780,000 of these members have provided their birth dates.

1,495 vs 780,00

2016 members by 10-year groups (eAdventist)

Query those 780,000 people like it’s 2013 and a very different picture emerges.

Median age of members = 46
Members 25 and under = 16.8%
Members 40 and under = 40.0%

If you exclude people under 10, the median age of the United States (2010 Census) is 42 and Canada (2011 Census) is about 44. Even more encouraging, the median age of members joining by baptism or profession of faith in the last 8 years is 32.

Baptisms by age (eAdventist)

Most young adults are making major life changes – launching careers, deciding on relationships or marriage and evaluating their commitment to God and church. Let’s encourage and welcome them whether they attend regularly or occasionally. Thankfully, it appears that the reports of their extinction “have been greatly exaggerated“.

eAdventist News

Keeping you informed about changes in eAdventist