Who is UpperRoom Technologies?

Since the release of the latest version of Groups Interactive, there’s been a growing groundswell of chatter:  great product… who’s UpperRoom?

As someone who spent 15 years climbing the corporate ladder at a multi-national telecom company, and later went into vocational ministry for nine years, I can tell you I’ve never been at a place where the people are so focused on doing what God built them to do.  It’s what Max Lucado called “living in your sweet spot” in his book, Cure for the Common Life.

UpperRoom was started by a group of Christians who said, in essence, we feel called to serve our church by using our technology experience from the workplace to energize small groups ministries.  These were young couples who wanted to get connected, and were willing to bring their professional gifts to bear to serve the body of Christ.

I’m impressed daily with two things:

Missional Focus

First, the focus and passion of the staff and volunteers who unswervingly fulfill their personal rendering of the Great Commission:  to make disciples by connecting and deepening the communities of the Church, to care for each other and impact the world.  This is their mission statement.

Ministry-driven

The second thing is more subtle but just as impressive.  As the latest technological features become more widely available through cloud computing and shared services, it’s easy for the tail to wag the dog.  As someone has said, “The worst reason to do something technologically is because you can.”

The best solution providers know how to make technology serve the church, rather than the other way around.  I’m glad that UpperRoom carefully discerns this boundary, so that each implementation with each church partner is carefully calibrated to match their particular circumstance and need.  It’s all about our common mission.

How cool is it to work in this biosphere?  Very.

Tags: church, community, ministry, missional
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A Dream for Small Groups Pastors

What would happen if you gave a Small Groups or Connections Pastor their very own software development team? What would they dream up?

Today Upper Room Technologies announces their newest version of Groups Interactive, the most robust small groups application available. Churches can now take their community-building to the next level.

All the updates and new features are a result of feedback from our church partners:

• Groups Interactive allows members to receive emails and calendar reminders in their favorite software: Outlook, iCal, Google and Yahoo calendars. Later this year, Facebook and handhelds (iPhones, Blackberrys) will be added. Your members are never out of the loop, even if they don’t login to Groups Interactive every day. You get information the way you’re used to getting it.
• A powerful new group search tool that helps you find groups by neighborhood, zip code, keywords (“Friday” or “women”), or type of group (Adult Bible Fellowship, men’s accountability, etc.) Newly formed groups and groups seeking members are automatically highlighted in the search window. The result: groups become “stickier” because visits lead to more permanent connections.
• It’s almost impossible for anyone to fall through the cracks. Pastors and admins can track group health, attendance, and studies through an impressive array of reports. You can see registered users who haven’t yet found a group, and even see the most popular searches by members looking for one.
• In a much-requested feature, you can now add the role of Group Coach or Area Pastor to the system for churches who need mid-level pastoral oversight. Multi-site churches can also track groups by campus.
• Church-wide calendars can be imported into Groups Interactive through ServiceU, a popular event management system.
• Churches can create and manage a library of book or DVD studies for their groups. You can even create weekly studies and downloads for study guides or discussion questions. This is particularly helpful if your church is doing an integrated study, where all groups are discussing the current sermon series.

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