Ministries (Departments)
- A Ministry is a department of your church.
- Ministries have certain characteristics:
- They are permanent.
- They generally have a clear leader (often a full-time pastor or director).
- They exist to oversee a significant portion of the church's mission.
- They are church-wide. For example, you'll only have one Children's Ministry even at a multi-campus church.
- Each Ministry should have the following items listed in Sub-Pages:
- At least one Group, which tracks those who serve the church under the direction of that Ministry department.
- At least one Program that tracks the Events directed by that Ministry department.
- Each Ministry may also have the following items listed in Sub-Pages:
- Group Roles, which are jobs or positions that people can do as a part of Groups. If listed under a specific Ministry, the Group Role applies only to this specific Ministry. For example, Children's Teacher may only apply to Children's Ministry.
- Sub-Ministries, which is the list of Ministries where the current Ministry is the Parent Ministry. This provides a hierarchy.
- It is a best practice for all churches to have a "Leadership" Ministry, though the name may vary from one church to the next.
- Ministry examples are Church Leadership, Children's Ministry, Small Groups, and Administration.
Note: Your church may publicly refer to many things as a ministry. What a church calls a ministry in public may be a Program in MinistryPlatform. For example, the Children's Ministry may oversee a Program called AWANA. This program has its own calendar, receives scholarship Donations, records salvation Milestones, and is associated with a list of Groups. Additionally, some of the things your church may call "a ministry" may be a Group in MinistryPlatform. For example, the Deacon's Ministry may be a "Ministry Team" Group set up to track current and past deacons. That team can fall under the "Church Leadership" Ministry. Deacon Meetings can fall under the "Church Leadership Activities" Program.
Ministry Fields
- Ministry Name
- The friendly name for this Ministry for drop-down lists online.
- Nickname
- An optional and internal name of your Ministry Department.
- Description
- A description of this Ministry Department.
- Start Date
- The date this Ministry Department began to operate at your church.
- End Date
- The date this Ministry Department ceased to operate at your church.
- Primary Contact
- The person who would answer questions about this Ministry Department.
- Parent Ministry
- The Ministry Department that oversees this department. For example, "Family Ministries" may oversee both Children's and Student Ministries.
- Available Online
- If set to Yes, this Ministry is an option in online drop-down lists like in the Opportunity Finder.
- Purpose Statement
- An optional and internal field where you can store the purpose statement of the Ministry.
- Priority
- An optional and internal field that can indicate the primary church objective that this department exists to champion.
- Leadership Team
- An optional and internal field that can indicate the primary group or team that oversees this Ministry.
- Home Page URL
- The URL on your church's public website that describes this Ministry. (This field may not display in newer systems.)
- Intacct Department
- The code for the Intacct department that corresponds to this Ministry. (This field may not display in newer systems.)
Create a Ministry Record
- You must have a Security Role with at least Edit rights to the Ministries page to do this.
You create Ministries during your MinistryPlatform implementation before you go live. Because these are permanent church departments, the list is generally small and unchanging.
- Go to .
- Click New Ministry.
- Complete the information.
- Click Save.
Your new Ministry displays on the Ministries page.
Report on Ministries
The following reports are available on the Ministry page:
- 3D Ministry Grid
- 3D Ministry Grid-Selected
- Audit Log Search Selected
- Milestone Summary by Ministry
- Ministry Metrics
- Opportunity Summary