ChurchSpring Goups: How to Create Groups Management in your ChurchSpring Website

If you have been looking for a way to organize and communicate with the different groups in your ministry, then you are going to love the Groups feature on your ChurchSpring Flourish Plan website!

Your ministry is full of different groups that need great communication tools in order to thrive...from Bible study groups to your leadership teams! When you create a public or private group within your ChurchSpring website, you have just opened a new avenue of communication with current group members and engagement with possible new members.

With this feature, you will be able to create an area in your website that will clearly identify different ministry groups within your church, and any members who belong to a group. There are two main areas to create and manage create your groups - the "Groups" button in the Admin menu and the Groups page style for the website view.

Let's get started with the Admin Groups Area...

1. After you log in to your website, hover your cursor on the left navigation panel of the site. Click on "Groups" to open the Admin management area.

2. Once you are in the Group list view, you will add a group by clicking on the "New Group" button on the right-hand side. The image below shows what a full group listing will look like with the leader(s) of each group shown in the circle of the group block image.

The form for setting up your group will look like this:

 3. Complete the group information in each of the cells:

• Group Name
• Meeting Schedule of the Group 
  • This is the date and time that your group meets.
  • Note the "Custom" option under "Repeats" - you can edit the custom option by clicking on the pencil located on the right side of the word.
  • Do not add an End Date if your group meetings will recur indefinitely.
• Meeting Location
  • If the group meets at the church, you don't have to include the address since that information is already displayed on the website.
  • You can list the fellowship hall, educational center, church room number, etc.
• Group Tags
  • Creating a general tag (such as "ladies," "men," "teens," or "volunteers") will allow you to tailor your front-view Groups page. Take a look at this article for more information!
• Visibility 
  •  You have the flexibility to decide how your group is going to be viewed - public or private (unlisted). If you choose the "unlisted" option, only the logged-in Admins and group members will be able to see the group page. A "public" group can be seen by all who visit your site.
• Display
  • If you chose "unlisted," there will not be an option to have the meeting time create an Event listing.
  • If you chose "public," you can select if the meeting will also be displayed in the Events listing on your website.
• Group Photo
  • Uploading an image that represents your group will also create the background header image for your group's page.
• Assign a Leader
  • Clicking the plus sign under the image will allow you to add a leader who is already located in your People list. Please note that you can add anywhere from 1-5 leaders for each group. For more detailed information, please read our article on Groups: Leader Accessibility.

4. Be sure to click on "Save Group" to complete this part of the setup.

5. The next step is adding members to the group page. You will want to make sure that all of your members are listed in the People area of your site before adding them to any group.

Then you will add the members to your Group by opening the actual group page. You can do this in the Admin view of Groups by clicking in the center of your group image:


Next, you will click the black "Add Member" button to place a person from your People list into the group.

You can also add members through the public page on your website. Either way, click the "Add a Member"  button on the right side of the screen and a small window will pop up.

• When you start to enter the name of the member, a list of names will drop down for you to choose from.

• To assign additional leaders, hover your mouse over the member, and the word "Make Leader" will appear on the photo. Simply click to assign a leadership role. You can also hover and click to remove the leader status. Note that there is a maximum of 5 leaders per group.

Now that your group is set up, let's add a <public> Group to the website!

1. Start by Adding a Page - it can be a new page in the drop-down menu, or create a nested (or hidden) page. Once you enter your page title and select the Groups page style, click Save & Continue.

2. The Groups page style template will automatically populate all of the "public" groups on the page. In order to have only the groups you want to be displayed on the page, you will need to choose tags in the Page Settings.

3. Tags - Under the page title, click the Page Settings>Page Content tab. Add the tags for the groups that you want to be displayed on your page. (Tags are created in Groups>Settings.)

4. Once your Groups page contains the groups you want to publicly display, click on each group to open the page and edit the placeholder text to reflect information about that specific group.

Use this space to share your vision for the group and the goals that the group is working toward. Note: Your group leaders will be able to edit the page information, but other members will only be able to view the content.

5. At the bottom of your Groups page (under the member listing) you will have the option to add a block for more information, PDFs, announcements, etc.