Layman’s database for churches tallies 1,300-plus Internet hits

By Loren Hutchinson (April, 1999)

GRANDVIEW, Mo. (BP)–Back in 1984, when he sat down at his new
computer and began work on a program to track church membership,
layman John Ware wanted his church to have an efficient and
accurate method for communicating with and keeping track of
members.

At the time, the handful of church database software programs on
the brand-new market were quite expensive. Ware, a member of
First Baptist Church, Grandview, Mo., decided to teach himself
how to write programs using DBASE as a language. It was a tool
that would be useful in his business as well as the church.

The result of his effort was a piece of software called CHDB
(Church DataBase).

Over the years, Ware’s CHDB has been expanded and refined with
input from many Baptist churches. Blue River-Kansas City Baptist
Association and many of its churches also have relied on Ware as
a consultant on computer systems since the early 1980s. His work
as a manufacturer’s representative in the electronics industry
has kept him up to date on developments and systems.

Each year, something new has been added to CHDB, usually a
feature suggested by one of the 50-plus churches in the area
using the program.

More than a year ago, the BR-KC staff decided to make Ware’s
program available over the Internet. CHDB, along with a
contributions database called CONCORD and a prospect database
called OUTREACH, were advertised as “free church software”
through the association’s website.

CHDB has been downloaded more than 1,300 times since November
1997. The association currently averages four downloads a day.
Users have registered from 38 states, five provinces of Canada
and 13 other nations.

Churches are welcome to download Ware’s software at the website,
http://www.sky.net/~baptist.

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