How to Use ChurchReserve

Using ChurchReserve to help manage your capacity and social distancing can seem overwhelming. You have to learn another online tool and figure out how to use ChurchReserve to make your Sunday mornings go smoothly. 

That’s why we’re writing this series – How to Use ChurchReserve. It’s our goal that these articles will help you find a great way to use ChurchReserve and make your services and events as stress-free as possible!

Do you have a long-term plan?

You might be wondering how ChurchReserve will be helpful to you. You are probably using a form to register your attendees or you might have your sanctuary already setup to be social distant. Maybe you’re doing first-come, first-serve – and that’s working for you. There are many ways to solve the problems of social distancing and capacity limits brought on by COVID-19. 

But let me ask you one question. 

“Is what you’re doing now a good long-term plan?”

We all hoped that this pandemic would be a passing fad. That it was going to fade into history and we’d all be able to return to our jobs and churches without too much of an interruption.

COVID isn’t going anywhere

Unfortunately, this is not the outlook for coronavirus and COVID-19. It seems every time we see light at the end of the tunnel, a new outbreak flares up. Businesses close and states impose tighter restrictions. It would seem that COVID-19 isn’t not going anywhere in the near future and neither are the restrictions that go along with it. 

A long term plan for COVID-19 restrictions is something that all churches should be talking about. It’s vitally important that churches can focus on helping their local communities and have a great strategy for holding services, whether it’s in person or digitally. 

With ChurchReserve you begin to develop your long-term strategy around a tool that is flexible enough to meet your style of in-person services and keep your guests safe. With the help of ChurchReserve, you will also have more time to focus on your congregation and community. How can it do that, you ask? Let’s talk about it.

Creating a seat numbering system

Now, having an online system that automatically socially distances your guests is one thing, but how does that help on Sunday morning when your church doesn’t have a numbering system for your seats? When a guest looks at the seats in their confirmation email, how do they know where to sit?

One way is to create a grid system or seat numbering system.

You can use floor stands like these with the row and seat numbers to help direct guests where to go for their seats. But that could get very expensive and all those floor stands could get hard to store. 

You could also use clip-on sign holders positioned on the back of your seats. You would only want to clip them on the isle adjacent seats so that they wouldn’t block people’s view, though. This is a much more affordable and storage-friendly option! It’s also flexible enough to allow you to change up the layout of your sanctuary without too much extra work.

However helpful they are, adding physical signs to your sanctuary could be distracting and difficult to upkeep. If physical signs aren’t the direction you’d like to go, there’s another option!

Just like how a lot of restaurants are having people order form digital menus instead of using physical menus. You could do a similar thing by adding your ChurchReserve numbered seating map to your website and directing guests to view it with a link or QR code. You could also show your seating map on the screens in your sanctuary so that guests have an easy way to view where they should be sitting.

Getting started with ChurchReserve

These are just a couple of the options that we’ve discovered as we’re working with churches. The most important thing is that your church has a long-term plan that you’re committed to. Unfortunately, it looks like COVID-19 isn’t going away any time soon, so if you’re looking for a flexible solution that will give you more time to focus on your guests and community, let’s talk! 

Our mission is to help socially conscious churches use their facilities to operate in the “new normal” and keep their guests safe. If this sounds like you, schedule a demo so we can begin to talk about how ChurchReserve can help you.

Want to see ChurchReserve in action? Check out the demo here!