Podcast Episode 129: Episode 102: Rock Mobile

Description

Join Jon, Nick and Emily as talk about the release of Rock Mobile.

Transcribed Content

This episode of Rockcast is brought to you by Rock partner Triumph Tech, a full service specialist partner. Rock partners provide crucial support for Spark Development Network and important services for the Rock community. Connect with Triumph Tech today at rockrms.com/partners. Welcome to Rockcast. This is the podcast where we tell you all about what's going on with Rock. I'm Emily Forman. I have John Edmundston and Nick Airdo here, and we are excited to get you up to speed. It's been a few weeks since we last connected on a podcast, and we have been moving at a very fast pace. Nick, where are we at right now with our updates? We are about to launch 12 dot one into, alpha. So we are packaging it up today and tomorrow. And by the time maybe by the time they hear this, maybe Monday. Again, depends on when this goes out. So, it will be in alpha. So we're gonna do a quick as quick an alpha test as we can, get through that, then move to beta, and then as quickly as possible. We're trying to shoot for the twenty fifth at the latest to have it into release of February. Great. So that is real, live, and raw right there. Exactly what we're in the middle of as our dates move around and we aim to complete. Yeah. And I should probably add there's about eleven, , fixes in there at the moment. Nine improvements and 11 additional things that we've snuck in, little micro features. One of the big areas of improvement that got a lot of work was the check-in manager. So if you're interested in that, I'd encourage you next week to get in the alpha and check it out on the pre alpha site. I think what's interesting too is, , when we release a major release, 12 o, usually twelve one would come almost immediately. Right. Sometimes it does come immediately. And I think the fact that we didn't have to do that shows that we had a lot higher quality in 12 o, a lot more testing, and then and we just didn't find anything, , major. That was a showstopper. So I think that's that's kinda cool. And to talk kinda what Nick says, I mean, really 12.1 is a almost more of a feature update than it is a bug update. It has, you said, a few bugs, but I pushed to call it v 13 at one point, and we said, no, we can't do that. V 13 has to have x. Okay, let's not. Yeah. It also has some improvements to the communication wizard, which I think it's really the polish on that is really nice. And just know that in version 13, the real version 13, there is a performance improvement on sending large emails that I think is going be very exciting. We've already seen one church running a pre alpha see dramatic exponential difference in the sending of large communications to tens of thousands of people. So excited about that. We did not put it in twelve one because we really feel this needs a bit more, , battle testing in our environment on on a few other select churches running pre alpha. So it was just a little too nervous to do that. I do think though that we are looking at how we do our versioning and trying to we've always said, make more smaller versions. The majors be more major releases, but smaller major releases, and we're still considering that. I think one of the hardest things we have is just the communication of our roadmap. People want two things in a roadmap. They want a solid, trustworthy, and accurate roadmap, and then they want also features tomorrow that they just jumped up today. And those things are are in a % conflict. And and we would rather be more responsive and quicker and faster moving, which means that the roadmap can be somewhat chaotic. And I think it's this time to embrace that, that we are gonna be responsive, innovative. And then also because of our funding situation, we do have to be responsive. If someone's willing to pay for a feature, that might get priority some cases. Now the feature has to be something we'd want in core. Would never ever, , take money to put a feature that shouldn't be in core in core. But a lot of these churches are bringing very good ideas. We're working on one that's gonna be in 13 that is amazing. I can't wait for people to see this feature. It is truly awesome. But because that one comes with funding, it's gonna trump and get ahead of other features that don't. And based on all the different things that we have, all the puzzle pieces that we've been given, that's the best puzzle we can build, is that model. So I know that's at the expense of a reliable and stable roadmap, but honestly, most innovative companies don't tell you what's coming in their releases until the release is here, and I kinda know why now. And I think we wanna be that. We don't wanna be the slow moving, okay. Yeah. This feature will be here next year. We could hit that mark. That's easy. But we're trying to be a higher bar than that. And that's what the community wants. I mean, when they review the things they're excited about, it's the fact that we are so responsive and that features do come out quickly and there are exciting surprises that come out in the feature sets. Yes. I I would I'd step out on a on a on a limb and say, think some people in the community want both. And and it's just not possible. , you can't have both. I get why we want both. I I really truly understand some of the hardships of not having that road map because maybe there's a feature on that road map you really want or someone in your ministry really wants, and they keep asking about it. I get that. , I feel your pain on that, but there's just so many other pain points that we have to try to adjust, and that's one that we're gonna have to just all live with, I guess. I think it made sense back in the day too when we were very young and new and not quite feature compatible with what people needed. They needed to know when a major feature set for compatibility was coming out, but we're not still living in that world. Right. So speaking of new features, , Rock Mobile has been a huge discussion over the last probably year. , we've been working on it for about a year and a half, but really the last year has been, , a major thing that people have been talking about and wanting, and it's ready. So with 12, we said it would go out, and we're ready to now do that. However, there's a few changes of how we're gonna release this. If we look back into 2020, it was a great year. We had a lot of things, a lot of positive things happened, a lot of great features, a lot of momentum. What we didn't see momentum in is, however, donations. Donations slowed. Growth of Rock was good, but donation growth was not so good. Now we could say, well, that's probably COVID related. And honestly, not so much. Mean, there's a little bit, but a lot of it is just churches not getting the messaging or some apathy about our model. Now that said, there's a lot of you guys who are just so generous and we appreciate you. We couldn't do it without you, but there is some apathy out there too. And one of the final board meetings that we had with our Spark board, which is a growing board and exciting, they they kinda challenged us on that a little bit and said, hey. , things if you don't change things, things are gonna stay the same. You have to change something. Otherwise, you you already are hamstrung by your vision is bigger than than you're resourcing, and you've gotta fix that. You gotta solve that. So we took that to heart. We don't have the big answer, but we have a couple small answers. And one small answer is just we see that Rock Mobile is a great tool, powerful tool, but it is an add on tool. And so this is gonna be a tool that we're gonna make kind of optional. And what that means is that it'll be a hosted shell. So you'll go to a hosted shell concept where you pay to have the shell hosted for you, and then you build your app. You can do that for free. Don't have to pay to do that. There's partners you can work with to get that app made, but the shell component of it, the part that lives in the app store, is going to be hosted with a cost. We're trying to keep that cost low, but 30% of that cost is gonna go to help pay for the creation of the shell by Spark Development Network. So that's a change, and I'm sure that's a surprise to some, and trust us, it's a surprise to us. We didn't want this. This wasn't the model we wanted. I think the bigger surprise is that donations aren't where they need to be. And the impact of that is that then the shell has to be an optional thing. Now, in the end of the day, this probably isn't as big of a deal as it sounds because the hosting of the shell, the getting the shell into the store is truly a very difficult, technical, and hard thing, something that 99 percent of churches probably couldn't do on their own. The compiling of that for both iOS and Android, the getting the packaging all right, all that is very, very difficult. You're probably going to want to pay someone to do it anyways. So at the end of day, it's probably not that big of a change, but it is a model change in terms of how we fund this. And I don't want you to think that this checks the box and fixes the funding problem. It doesn't. This is a very, very small change. It's not even going to fully fund the shell creation. It's just we have to do something different. And we're gonna have to keep looking at how we do this. And our messaging has to change. , we need to continue to keep pushing and striving to get people to donate. But something that we're gonna be really looking at over 2021 and having more talks with the board to make sure that we create something that is sustainable. That's something you guys really need. Need to be able to rely on continued innovation in the community. And so we have to make sure that it's funded right. Absolutely. One of the other things we're going to be communicating better about this year as it relates to funding and as it relates to the community is really looking at who it is that you're partnering with inside the Rock ecosystem. So Rock is made up of churches that use Rock as their tool. It's made up of the core development team, and it's made up of Rock partners, which are vendors in the space that can that know Rock, that know Ministry, and can help you put the two together in a way that meets your unique Ministry needs. That said, there are some vendors that choose to be Rock Partners and some that do not. So we wanna just point out what the difference is between those vendors, a vendor versus a partner, and why it's important to you. And then we wanna ask that you go take a look at those you're working within the Rock community and just make sure that they are doing their part to help contribute to the ongoing success of Rock because that is important to your organization. So the those in the space that are have chosen to be Rock partners have also made a commitment to donate back a percentage of what they make in the Rock community to help keep Rock moving forward. And that is an absolutely huge commitment that has, made a big difference in the funding level of Rock. If it weren't for Rock Partners, there would be a significant difference in the funding of what we're doing. We value our Rock Partners very much. We love the work that they're doing, and and they honestly, they care so much about the churches that they're working with. We meet with our partners on a regular basis and keep them up to date and kinda give them a heads up on things that are going on, and and we just really see the heart that they have and what they're doing. So we wanna encourage you to look at those you're working with. Are you working with partners that are investing in the success of Rock and ultimately your success that are funding it? Or are you working with vendors? And if you're working with vendors who are not in partnership, just realize that the funding that should be coming in to keep Rock moving forward is not. It's going instead that additional potential support is going into a coffer or a pocket somewhere, and there's no harm in doing that in general. But do realize your investment in a partnership is an investment in the Rock community. Really taking advantage of something that you all built. Exactly. Together, we all built this through donations and funding. We created something that's really great, and they see that, and they want to come be a part of that, but they don't wanna give into that. Yep. Have to take a profit, you said, which is fine, but you should also give back your share to make sure that it's sustainable. Right. And so we just wanna be super clear about that. We haven't necessarily always talked about it, but this year in particular, we're gonna be saying, hey, work with a Rock partner. They're committed to your success. They're investing in your success. And that's who you should be investing in as well. Yeah. Because some of these partners that we work with, they've been in the community for a while. They're growing. And the amount of contribution they give back is big. It is. And we want to also honor that and say, you deserve, , more recognition and more just knowledge that you're out there doing this. And that's a choice they've consciously made. Right. And they, , they know what they're doing. They know what they're supporting, and they believe in it too. And it's just very critical. And I think also the more success you see with the Rock community, and success is gonna be gauged in numbers, quantity of churches using Rock. It's gonna be gauged in things the way the community interacts and supports each other. I mean, when someone pops into that Rock community for the first time, it's astounding. There is a definite measure of success in engaging there and and seeing what's going on. So So there are lots of ways to slice and dice the success of the of Rock in general. But the more successful it looks, the more it's going to be a magnet to those who are looking for another revenue source. And if they aren't coming in aimed at how do we continue the sustainability, what's the my goal here, , we might have a a little bit of confusion upfront at first. But in the end, if someone opts out of partnership, they're really telling you about their heart stamps and about what they believe in and about why they're engaging in the community. And when you have success that, I mean, you have your phone ringing off the hook on people who sees things. And it's very you can within, , ten seconds of a call, where the person's heart is. There's some people who are , hey. I love what you guys are doing. , we wanna be part of it. We wanna help, , support that. And and they're they're in it together. And there's some it's hyenas, , circling that you It's true. They're just , take, take, take. And when that what they're taking is something that the church built through donations and effort and hard work, it just feels icky to me. It doesn't feel right to ignore. Right. And I and I think it's yet there's there's people in the community who do who use them, I think it's just because they don't see that they don't understand that. And I think the answer is just education. , it's not that they're bad. People doing that, they the vendors who aren't partners, they just don't understand. We just need everybody in the community to kind of ask the question , oh, how do you partner? How do you give back to this ecosystem? And I think that's an amazing question. If they keep getting it, they're going to understand it. And I think in the most cases, they're going , become a partner. Mhmm. I think that's true. Everyone has to engage at some point. Right? But it's important that all of us are working together to help get that into alignment. So the first place to start is to go to the partners page on our Rock site and see if your partner is listed. And if they're not, the second step is to have that conversation with them and connect them with us, and we can help walk them into that partnership. We're always having new conversations with new people who are interested in helping churches for all the right reasons, and we're really thrilled to be able to do that. So, work with a Rock partner is going to be a theme you'll hear coming up more and more. And we'll do our part, you do your part, and I think that will be excellent help as we work toward the big goals of really funding what we're doing here. We have just completed today, in this post, it will be tomorrow, our first sequel for Rock Class. So that is very exciting. We talk about features. We talk about community and partnerships, but the classes that are developed, people have been asking for a long time for more. It takes so much work to develop that kind of curriculum then to package it up right and get everything set up for it. So this last year, we rolled out the Rock 100 series, which took a higher level, more intro survey perspective of Rock. And then this class right now is the first sequel for Rock Class, which is taking things into a deeper angle, specifically related to Sequel. And it's exciting. We've been getting some feedback from people in the class. I've gotten a few Rocket Chats. We've gotten a little bit of information. It sounds it's something that people have been really enjoying. So I would encourage you if you haven't yet, if you've put off attending any classes, this is the time to do it. So we have three classes right now that are available in the community. We have the 100 series. Again, that's high level, super high level. It's kind of a guided tour of Rock features with videos that are already available on our site, but it has that great accountability feature of watch these videos on this day. And then the nice part of connect with a Rock instructor in the afternoon to get all your questions answered. So that's a great option. It's a couple of weeks long, and our next one starts on March 8. So there's plenty of time to get registered for that. It will be online. We also have the master class. This is great for the Rock admins. This is great for ministry leaders who are really deep into what they're doing. So that's not every ministry leader, but it is some. We've seen a lot of success with people drilling down into that. It is a week long course. It goes deeper than the 100 series, and it gives access to a lot of incredible information. And even more than that, great community bond we've seen between classmates that have taken that. If you haven't taken that class yet, you really should. Or if you have new people that join your Rock team, this is a great way to get them kind of up to speed quickly. That next class is actually starting next week, and we have another one in April as well. Next week is online. We're not really sure what the status will be of the April class, if it will be online or in person. You can stay tuned on our site to see. And then finally, the next class 100 series starts March 1. So plenty of options. Make sure you're considering that and getting all of your team across the board up to speed on Rock makes it a little easier on your end as well. Yeah. One story I heard just last night about the SQL classes that Colin, the instructor, was telling me that after the first day, someone came to him and said, Hey, , this is only after one day of class, said, Hey, my pastor came to me with a report he needed, and I was able to write it in SQL. And they had zero experience with SQL before taking the class. And I think the coolest part about that for me was not only the knowledge that they got, but the confidence that they can do that. To me, I think that is a hundred times more important than even the knowledge is just the fact that, hey, I know how to do this now, and I can do this. And I thought that was a really cool story after even just one day of a three day class to be able to do that. That is really incredible. And you're right about the confidence. We hear the same thing from the masterclass too. People will come and say, I didn't realize I actually knew as much as I did. I picked up little tidbits, but I also gained the confidence to feel I could use the skill set I've been developing, and that's great. And I think the master class is an amazing class, but I think one of the best parts of it is just the interaction between other churches and the questions they ask about, well, how would you do it in this type of ministry? Mhmm. And it it makes you dynamically hear how you can stretch and bend Rock just because everybody brings, , concepts that. So I think you almost learn as much from the cohort of other students there and the ministry, , differences as you do with just the content that is presented. Yes. That's it's a little microcosm of the community, but you have time to hear how things are constructed and what the unique angles are on things. Yeah. And as an instructor, previous instructor that Michael does it now, it's a really fun but difficult class to teach because you gotta be on your toes. , you got new ideas coming at you right and left, and it's fun, but it's it's definitely more than just here's the the content. You're really solving, , ministry ideas right right in live. Super exciting. Well, you so much for joining us today. We have a lot going on. We're happy to share it with you. Love connecting with you. Have a great day. Do a church that loves the idea of using Rock but hasn't taken that leap yet? With managed hosting, churches of any size can get access to Rock's amazing technology, hassle free. With just one click, Rock's managed hosting removes the roadblocks that might stop a church from switching to Rock by making the process simple. Churches get the ease of a SaaS church management system without losing any of Rock's powerful features. Are you ready to take the next step or share with another local church? 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