Christian software company Ministry Brands announced today it has acquired ACTIVE Network's faith division, including the Fellowship One software product. Fellowship One provides a suite of programs to integrate church administrative functions. By acquiring ACTIVE’s faith division, Ministry Brands adds more than 4,500 churches to its portfolio.

The acquisition represents strategic decisions by both companies. For Ministry Brands, the acquisition is part of a larger strategy to serve churches with streamlined, comprehensive technology, allowing pastors, other church leaders and administrators to focus on ministry.  For ACTIVE, the divestiture will allow ACTIVE to focus on core competencies and customers in the sports, communities and outdoors markets.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed, but Brad Hill, Ministry Brands’ executive vice president, commented on the acquisition.

"Ministry Brands strives to reduce the friction between technology and the church by unifying the church's most important software programs," Hill said.  "The mission of ACTIVE's faith division and the Fellowship One product is right in line with our goal to create holistic, impactful technology that helps build Christ-centered communities in the 21st century.  We look forward to adding their passion and expertise to our growing family.”

Darko Dejanovic, CEO of ACTIVE Network, said the sale would help ACTIVE.

"The sale of ACTIVE's faith division to Ministry Brands is a strategic decision for ACTIVE," Dejanovic said. "This decision allows ACTIVE to have a concentrated focus on our core divisions and markets, and we will deepen our investment in our industry-leading, cloud technology solutions and data insights for our sports, communities and outdoors customers."

The Fellowship One product offers church management software (ChMS) for churches of all sizes. Fellowship One helps to unify ministry data in a single-source, cloud-hosted database that provides a complete view of members' involvement, needs and contact information to ministers and lay leaders anywhere with Internet access.

Ministry Brands also announced that Rick Chatham, co-founder of Fellowship Technologies, the company that became Fellowship One, will return as general manager.

"I think Ministry Brands is deeply committed to the church community, and it is a real privilege to pick up this mantle that is dear to my heart," Chatham said.

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