I normally write about the technical needs of small churches, but one resource has been hot, hot, hot in Linux and Open Source circles for the last few months is Asterisk PBX. A PXB is a “private branch exchange” — the kind of “dial nine to get out” and voicemail system that almost anyone in an office system knows intuitively. For a scant few hundred dollards (mostly for a specialized card) a small church office can have this power that previously would have been much, much more expensive. Asterisk@Home is a specialized Linux distribution to control the system, and despite its domestic name looks large enough for 90% or more Unitarian Universalist churches (and probably is too big for half of those!)
A how-to article from Linux Journal last year: Creating a Home PBX Using Asterisk and Digium
Dial 9 to get out: a reasonable PBX solution for churches
