Minister Reporting
The Disciples of Christ regional version of CDM+ Membership includes additional information on the Individual Record to facilitate the tracking of ministers in the region, while maintaining information about standing, professional codes, church of call, work location, and more. CDM+ Regional for Disciples of Christ allows regional staff to submit this information to the minister database in the Office of Christian Vocation at Disciples Home Missions. By communicating changes on a regular basis, regional staff can keep information in the Minister Directory current and avoid the need for annual, large-scale updates.
General and Regional Databases
Each regional office uses a CDM+ database, at a minimum, to interact with the Search and Call system. A handful of Disciples regional offices only use CDM+ Search and Call and do not have access to the CDM+ Membership and Regional programs.
Most regions, however, use the CDM+ Regional and Membership programs alongside the Search and Call program. This provides the additional data and functions for tracking ministers, churches, and submitting changes to the General database.
Differences Between Regional and General
The CDM+ Regional program pairs with the CDM+ Membership program to store and maintain information about people, and regional offices need to maintain information for more people than just ministers. Like churches, regions maintain data on leaders in the region, congregational leaders, donors, contributions, and events. All of these relate to the Address, Individual, and Giving Unit Records in CDM+ Membership.
The general minister database does not require donor management or event registration, and so the general database uses Minister Records to store information about people.
In regional databases, the term Minister Records applies to minister profiles in the Search and Call program. Keep in mind that the general database uses Minister Records to represent people, and the regional database uses Individual Records to represent people. This naming has been confusing from time to time.
Codes for Ministers
The general and regional databases share code values pertaining to ministers and their ministry. These include Professional Classification Codes, Ethnic Codes, and Order of Ministry (previously known as Standing Codes). These code values are established by the General Commission on Ministry (GCOM), coded into the general database, and shared with the regional databases. Regions cannot add, modify, or delete values for these codes.
Professional Code (PCC) is a one- to three-character code that describes the primary ministry in which a minister is engaged.
Ethnic Codes describe one or more ethnic identities for a minister.
Order of Ministry (Standing Code) identifies the source of a minister’s standing: O CC(DOC) identifies ministers ordained by Disciples; O (UCC) identifies ministers ordained by the United Church of Christ who either hold or qualify for Ordained Ministerial Partner standing; and C identifies ministers who are commissioned by a Disciples region. LM-r is deprecated and should no longer be used. Regional staff may also code Order of Ministry as None.