Arena

What is Arena?

Arena is the online church reporting system where GNJ churches are able to easily complete their church conference forms. Arena stores the forms you completed last year and allows you to annually update the information in the forms instead of having to complete each form from the beginning.

Who Has Access?

Different church leadership roles grant access to different reports depending on the report you are responsible for completing (e.g., only SPRC chairs can access the Clergy Appraisal). Accessing Arena requires a username and password which is unique to each person.

Log Into Arena

GNJ’s insurance company is requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) for our websites to increase GNJ’s cyber security against potential hacking. All Arena users will now be required to create login credentials with MinistryID. This will act as a secondary verification for your Arena account. Please follow these steps below to log into Arena.

Log into Arena here: http://member.gnjumc.org/.

Who in my church will receive a login for Arena?

Who in my church will receive a login for Arena?

The following leaders were sent an email directly from Arena on August 2nd with their personal login information: all appointed pastors, church council chairs, trustees presidents, lay leaders, SPRC chairs, treasurers, lay servants, certified lay ministers, and church administrators/secretaries. Please check your spam or junk folders if you don’t see the email.

  • Church leaders receive a personal login for the Arena website. It will be emailed directly to the church council chair, trustees president, lay leader, treasurer, and church administrator/secretary. These logins will give you access to complete the following reports: Report of the Trustees, Parsonage Evaluation, and Congregational Appraisal. See below for instructions on completing the Directory of Officials report.
  • The SPRC chair will receive a personal login for the Arena website. This will be emailed directly to the SPRC chair. This login will give access to the Church Profile/Advisory for Appointment Making report as well as the Report of the Trustees, Parsonage Evaluation, and Congregational Appraisal.
  • All appointed pastors will use their personal login as they have in previous years. Your pastor login will grant you access to all reports (including both pastoral and church reports) with the exception of the Church Profile, Directory of Officials (see below for instructions), and Lay Servant/Certified Lay Minister reports.
  • Lay Servants and Certified Lay Ministers receive a personal login for the Arena website. These logins will grant access to only the Lay Servant and/or Certified Lay Minister reports. If you also hold another leadership position in the church (i.e. church council chair), then your personal login will also grant you access to the church’s reports.
  • Important Info for Directory of Officials: None of the personal login credentials mentioned above will give you access to the Directory of Officials report. You must instead log in with the church’s login for that one report. This is the only way to access and complete the Directory of Officials. For everything else, please continue to use your personal login. This is the church login format for all churches:

Which internet browser works best with Arena?

Arena works best with Chrome and also with Safari and Internet Explorer. Please do not use Firefox as it is often not compatible with Arena.

How do I submit the forms on Arena?

At the bottom of each report, you will see a checkbox marked “Check here to verify that this form has been updated for 2022.” When the form has been reviewed, updated, and you are ready to submit it, check this box and click the “Save/Submit” button. This will let us know that you have completed the form for this year.

How do I print the forms from Arena?

A print button has been added this year. This can be found on the page that lists all of the forms to which you have access.  To the far right of each form listed you will see a button with a little printer icon.  Click on that button and a print screen will pop up.  You can also use this function to save a form as a PDF.  Click on the print button and when the print screen comes up select “Print to PDF” or “Save as PDF” in the printer options dropdown box.

How do I upload documents to the Report of the Trustees?

The Report of the Trustees asks you to upload copies of the documents listed below if you have not recently provided these to the regional office. Under each question requesting a document you will see the word “Change” written in blue. Click “Change” and a dialogue box will appear. Follow the instructions to drag and drop or to browse for the file.

  • Church incorporation documents
  • GNJAC Certified Safe Sanctuary Policy
  • List of income producing and permanent funds (if not listed on the Fund Balance Report)

Does the church have access to the reports of its Certified Lay Servants/Speakers and Certified Lay Ministers?

No. Due to our new login system churches no longer have direct access to Certified Lay Servant/Speaker reports or Certified Lay Minister reports. Lay servants and CLMs should save a copy of their report and email it to whomever is gathering the reports for your church.