Congregations or Parishes
These are made up of Households or Families that worship together in the same place, at the same time, under the same pastor.
- For a multi-site church, the Congregation may be the same as the physical location (campus or site).
- For a multi-venue church, the Congregation may be more closely associated with the style of worship or even age demographic.
- For a multi-ethnic church, the Congregation may be more closely associated with language groups.
- For a traditional church, you may temporarily need a separate Congregation to manage the Households that are part of a new church plant sponsored by the church.
From the standpoint of the database, the Congregation/Parish is a parent entity for the following:
- Households/Families: The primary Congregation where the Household/Family worships.
- Groups: Depending on the type of Group, the Group may serve that Congregation, consist primarily of people from that Congregation, or be in the same location as that Congregation. For example, Main Campus 10 AM Hospitality Team.
- Programs: The ongoing ministry efforts overseen by the Ministry Departments that engage this Congregation. For example, Main Campus Worship Service.
- Events: The calendared activities of this Congregation. For example, 10 AM Worship Service Main Campus on June 3rd.
Congregation Fields
Congregation records can be found in the Church Structure folder.
- Congregation Name
- A short and friendly name for the Congregation.
- Description
- An optional text description for this Congregation.
- Start Date
- The approximate date when you formed this Congregation.
- End Date
- The date this Congregation stopped meeting.
- Accounting Company
- The legal entity that controls the bank accounts and other accounting-related information pertinent to the money this Congregation receives.
- Available Online
- Set to Yes to display this Congregation as a filter on various pages of the Public Portal, including Online Giving, Event Calendar, Opportunity Finder, and more.
- Location
- The physical campus and address where the majority of this Congregation's activities take place.
- Contact
- The person who would answer questions about this Congregation and possibly receive tasks from the MinistryPlatform workflow system.
- Pastor
- The pastor responsible for this Congregation.
- Online Sort Order
- An optional field to control the sort order of the Campus drop-down lists the Public Portal.
- Front Desk SMS Phone
- Used by Classroom Manager so you can communicate with the front desk of your specific campus.
- Plan a Visit Template
- The Congregation-specific email template the recipient receives once they plan their visit at this location.
- Plan a Visit User
- The staff person notified at this location when someone plans their visit.
- Time Zone
- Indicates the time zone which corresponds to this Congregation's physical location. Note: This is the time zone set for Events happening at this physical location. If you have Congregations in different time zones, be sure to set them correctly.
Congregation Best Practices
- When you name congregations, avoid using abbreviations or initials.
- Attempt to make congregation names as short as possible.
- All MinistryPlatform churches benefit from at least one "Friends of ..." congregation. You can assign this to companies, missionaries, and others who may not attend your congregations. You would rarely, if ever, use this congregation for things like events, opportunities, groups, and so on.
- Multi-site churches benefit from a "Church-wide Activities" congregation. You can use this for groups and programs that serve all or several congregations. And you can configure widgets so that you can see giving opportunities and events assigned to this congregation under all congregations. Use the COMMON, GlobalCongregationID configuration setting to set the church-wide congregation.
- When a multi-site church launches a new campus, you can copy the basic group and program structure of an existing congregation. To do this, go to the Congregations page and open that Congregation record. From the Actions menu, select Copy. We recommend you modify the names of the copied groups and programs so you can clearly tell they belong to the new campus.
- You can set a default congregation for when you create a new Household record (and the entry point does not otherwise specify or require congregation). To do so, go to , locate the COMMON, defaultCongregationID, and enter the Congregation ID number in the Value field.
Be aware that when you rename a congregation, you must update any custom views that you created that filter using the congregation name.
You must first disassociate all programs from the congregation. To delete a congregation in this situation, first perform a quick search on the Programs page (make sure the All Records View is active) to see which programs are associated with the congregation. Reassign any associated programs to another appropriate congregation. If you accidentally create a duplicate congregation, we recommend you first change the name of the duplicate Congregation record that you need to delete, then perform the search.
Congregation Reporting
The following reports are unique to the Congregations page. For information on some of the other reports available on the Congregations page, see this Alphabetical Listing of Reports.
This report provides a summary of the number of Households, Groups, and Programs by Congregation.
Page: Congregations
This report provides an analysis of giving by Congregation for a range of dates grouped by date, week, month, or year.
Pages: Congregations, Donations, Programs
This report summarizes Ministry involvement by the type or roles participants engage in, as well as by their status regarding that role (past, current, future).
Pages: Congregations, Ministries