The apostle Paul, in his letters to the Corinthians and Romans (chapter 12 in both cases), explains that the church, like our physical body, needs members with different functions to operate properly as a whole. He states that God gives us gifts and we are to use those gifts to serve Him and His church.

The need for the gifts of preaching and teaching are obvious; whereas, others, like serving and administration, may not seem as obvious. However, Paul reminds us that, like our physical body, the church requires different functions to operate smoothly and effectively.

One serving/administrative function provided by the Lake Union Conference is computer software development and support for the financial record-keeping and administrative needs of churches, schools, and administrative offices where alternatives are uneconomical or do not fit the church's needs. LUCIS Software (Lake Union Conference Information Systems) is the most widely used financial software by conferences in the North American Division (NAD). Sales and fees charged to organizations outside the Lake Union territory help provide funds for continued development.

A new advanced version of our general ledger was released in 2004 after several years of development. Pilot distribution occurred in mid-year 2004; general distribution followed in November (coincidently a month after the decision by the NAD to disassociate itself from the General Conference SunPlus general ledger software project). Within three months, most conferences and academies in the Lake and Columbia Union territories had installed and were using the new LUCIS Software. Conferences and academies in Canada, the Atlantic Union, and elsewhere followed in 2005. New sites are continuing to join the LUCIS Software group, while others wait to see the results of the NAD's effort to develop an independent software package.

The new LUCIS Software is much more powerful and user-friendly, with many new query and reporting features. It proved to be as fast for entry and report generation as previous versions, is easier to use, and is compatible with the new global reporting standard being adopted by the General Conference for all Adventist organizations world-wide. Our long-standing partnership with the General Conference Auditing Service has been further strengthened with their use of the new software, which has a number of features to assist with auditing. Significant savings in auditing costs continue as a result of this partnership.

Recognizing that the Adventist Church is made up of organizations of varying size with different levels of expertise and needs, LUCIS Software is provided in five editions. The different editions allow us to accommodate small, medium, and large churches, schools, and conference offices (local and union) while keeping the interface appropriate to the level of expertise and needs of the different organizations.

Uncertainty, as a result of the General Conference and NAD software development efforts, caused us to remain in a minimal staffing mode for the last several years. Though this has not impacted our ability to support those using the software, it has seriously slowed new development. We are presently in the process of expanding staffing to assist with software upgrades needed by churches and other LUCIS Software applications.

Visit our website, www.luc.adventist.org/lucis, to learn more about the department and the opportunity we offer for qualified, dedicated Christians who feel God's call to serve the church in a financial software development-support capacity. You may also contact us at lucis@luc.adventist.org for more information.

Harvey P. Kilsby is the Lake Union Conference information systems director.