In 2025, Paul Franklin took over the technology work at Belmont Baptist Church in Gainesville, Georgia. Each week brought the same jobs, including three PowerPoints to build by hand. So he started automating with a custom Windows application. The app fully automated the generation of two of those PowerPoints, then grew to include other features – such as to upload sermons to the church’s WordPress website with a single click and to use AI for image generation.
As the program grew, it became clear that other churches could use it too. That led to a change of direction, from a tool for one church to a product. Everything specific to Belmont, such as keys and settings, was moved out of the code and into setup files, so any church could install it and make it its own.
In the fall of 2026, work sped up dramatically. With Grok Bot and Cursor, Paul found he could get about a hundred times more done. The product got its name, ServeWay™, along with a website and its legal documents. Paul researched the top 25 church management systems to see where ServeWay™ fit. The code was documented with Doxygen comments. A tool was built to capture all application screens (well over one hundred) automatically, and the user manual and software reference manual are now generated automatically.
Today ServeWay™ ties the church WordPress website and the app together through the church’s database. Churches choose where the database lives: on their own PC or server, online or offline, or with a hosting provider, including Hosted by ServeWay™.
Paul D. Franklin earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1982, specializing in computer design and programming. While in school, he was a research assistant at the Center for Electromechanics at UT Austin, and during his last two years he worked as an intern at Texas Instruments in Austin, Texas.
After graduation, he began his career at IBM and worked there for over 12 years, rising to the rank of advisory engineer. Since then he has worked for companies large and small across many areas of industry, including computer software, control systems, and the gaming industry. He has worked on military projects and held a security clearance for Lockheed. In the early 2000s he founded Residential Technology Incorporated.
Recently, Paul has worked as a consultant with RadSource NDT, serving clients across a range of industries. He brings deep experience in workflow and machinery automation.
Paul has been active in the church for most of his adult life. He is a Christian, saved by grace and baptized in the Southern Baptist tradition. He serves as a deacon and head of technology at Belmont Baptist Church in Gainesville, Georgia.
Paul currently resides in Northeast Georgia with his wife Barbara and their dog Spurgeon. Paul and Barbara have four adult children and five grandchildren, with a sixth on the way.