Leaders' Guide: Groups
As a group leader, you keep your roster current, answer requests to join, and get the lists you need for the people you lead. Stay connected, communicate, and grow together in the faith.
While your staff uses Connect App church management software to handle behind-the-scenes administration, the Connect Appis designed to be a simpler tool for volunteers and members to use to engage with each other through events, communication, small group or volunteer serving teams.
An administrator creates the group and adds you as its leader. Once a group is created, leaders like you are added to it so you can focus on leading people rather than managing setup.This guide is a quick overview of common leader tasks.
Where to Start
If you've not already done so, bookmark your site's URL in your computer's web browser and download the Connect App to your mobile device and sign in. Your church or parish can provide the URL. It's also in the invite you received. This makes it convenient to access your groups from any location. Your sign in stays the same from browser to mobile app.
On your iPhone or Android device, go to http://onelink.to/connectapp.
Once signed in, go to Community, then click Groups. Your groups are listed under Your Groups. Click a group's name to open it, then use the tabs to work with it:
- Participants — the roster. Add, edit, or remove people here, and print or export the list.
- Info — the group's details, meeting time, and leaders.
- Events — the group's scheduled gatherings.
Managing Your Roster
When someone finds your group and asks to join, the request comes to you.
- Accept or Decline a Pending Group Join Request
- Add or Edit Group Participants
- Add or Edit Group Participants
- Remove Group Participants
People can't take themselves off a group, so a request to leave comes to you too. Remove the person from the roster the same way you'd remove anyone else. If you'd rather they saw the steps themselves, send them Leave a Group.
Printing and Exporting Your Roster
View a Map of All Participants Based on Address
Sometimes a map showing the geographic boundaries of a group can be helpful for planning events or selecting meeting locations. For any of your groups, click the Participants tab, then click the View Map button.
Communicating With Your Group
Newsfeed posts, inbox messages, texts, and chat work the same way for a group and for a serving team, so those steps are written once for all leaders. See Communication for Leaders.
What an Administrator Controls
Some things stay with your church rather than with you:
- Creating, renaming, deactivating, and deleting groups.
- Which ministry area a group belongs to, and its group type.
- How much leaders are allowed to change — including whether you can add, edit, and remove participants at all.
- Which communication tools are available to your group.
If you don't see an option described here, ask an administrator at your church whether it's turned on for your group.