I've been working with a church that just started a prayer campaign where people can sign up to receive daily devotionals for the next 21 days via text message and/or email. They are using a custom form to collect sign-ups. Little did we realize at the outset how many sign-ups there would be, and not only that, how many of the form response records would be assigned to the default contact.
Several of us spent a lot of time reassigning the form response records to "real" contact records, and while on one hand, it seemed like a lot of work, I think it is going to be valuable.
For one, it basically achieved something similar to if they had asked the congregation to update their email address and phone number without having to ask them. Also, there were a ton of sign-ups from people who were not already in MinistryPlatform. Form responses are activity-logged and after all this time when no one has been physically attending, they will be able to see more clearly who is active in the congregation.
This project also revealed areas of the database where they could use some cleanup, which isn't a bad thing.
This project has also enlightened me to how little they are probably using MinistryPlatform in the whole scheme of things, and it got me wondering about other churches. It is a big, powerful tool if you use it.