Deacon Lane
Every family cared for. Nothing falling through the cracks.
Organize, share and split congregation care across your deacon board. Each family has a deacon, every call and visit is written down, and needs reach exactly the people who should help.
One sign-in works for Deacon Lane and Missionary Lane.
One shared place instead of a spreadsheet, a text thread and memory.
In most churches the family list is a spreadsheet split across the deacons. Updates live in text messages, and who called whom lives in someone's head. When a deacon is away or a need comes up late on a Saturday, it is hard to know who has been in touch and who still needs a call.
Deacon Lane keeps the list, the care notes and the needs together, so the whole board works from the same page.
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The spreadsheet split across deaconsSeveral copies, each a little out of date.
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Group textsUpdates scroll away, and new deacons never see them.
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Memory"I think someone called them last month."
- One board the whole care team can see, each person seeing only what they should.
What your deacon board gets.
Everything a care team does in a month, in one place that works on a phone.
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Every family has a deacon
Assign each household a deacon, and a backup if you like. Split the families across the board in a few minutes. Families due for contact show at the top of each deacon's page.
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A care log in one sentence
Calls, visits, texts, cards and Sunday conversations are written down in a sentence. Anyone who picks up a family later can see who has been in touch, and when.
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Sign-ups for meals, rides and visits
Turn a need into dates and slots people can take: meals for a family after surgery, rides to appointments, hospital visits. Everyone sees what is still open.
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Needs raised once, shared only as wide as needed
A need is raised once, with an urgency and a privacy level. The person who owns it can widen it later, for example from the care team to the whole church when a family needs meals.
- Pastors onlyConfidential matters
- Assigned deaconsThe family's own deacons, the chair and pastors
- Care teamDeacons, deaconesses and care volunteers
- Whole churchEvery signed-in member
When a need is shared with the whole church, the family's name appears only if they have agreed.
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Team messages
Talk about a need right on the need, or message the whole team. The conversation stays with the care record instead of in someone's phone.
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A job center for the whole church
Members post job openings or say they are looking for work. Your deacon chair or a pastor approves each post before the church sees it, and posts come down after 60 days unless renewed.
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Bring in your families
Import households from Planning Center People or from your spreadsheet. Import again whenever you like: new families are added, and anything you changed by hand in Deacon Lane is never overwritten.
How care works in Deacon Lane.
The same seven steps most deacon boards already follow, written down so nothing depends on one person remembering.
- Every family has a deaconEach household gets a primary deacon and, if you like, a backup. The deacon chair splits the families across the board.
- Regular contactEach deacon is in touch with each family at least every 30 days, or whatever your church chooses. Families past due rise to the top of the deacon's page.
- Needs are raised onceAnyone on the care team raises a need, from meals and hospital visits to a new baby or a job search, with a privacy level and urgency. Members who notice something tell a deacon.
- Someone owns itThe chair or the family's deacon takes each new need, handles it, or shares it wider with sign-up slots.
- Work it in one placeSign-ups, messages and status stay on the need, from new to met to closed. Closing it records what happened.
- Job centerMembers post openings and "looking for work". Each post is approved before the church sees it.
- Monthly board reviewThe home page shows open needs, families past due and families without a deacon, ready for the deacons' meeting.
Care records stay with the people who care.
Care notes can hold health, family and money matters. Deacon Lane is built so each person sees only what their role needs, and nobody outside your church sees any of it.
- Two-step sign-in with an authenticator app for everyone on the care team.
- Each church's information is kept apart from every other church's.
- Missionary Lane staff can't see your care records. Only the people your church adds to its own team can.
- Confidential notes are for pastors. They are seen only by pastors and the person who wrote them.
Deacon Lane is part of the Missionary Lane LLC family, alongside Missionary Lane, the gallery of the missionaries your church supports. Missions abroad, care at home.
Start with your deacon board.
Questions, or want help getting your families in? Write to richard@missionarylane.org.