The Group Finder widget displays groups that are available online and currently accepting new participants through sign-ups or inquiries. Groups are sorted alphabetically by group name, and the widget only displays the first 100 groups that are not full. Check out the Group Finder at Widget Church to explore the possibilities!

• Groups must meet certain criteria to display in the Group Finder widget.
• You can pre-filter the Group Finder widget by search criteria when it is embedded in a page. Available group filters include:
  • Congregation or parish
  • Keyword
  • Neighborhood
    Note: Groups must meet all of the following criteria to display for this filter:

    • Be assigned as a parent group of another group, not only classified by group type.
    • Have Available Online set to Yes.
    • The end date is blank or in the future.
  • City or postal code
  • Group focus
  • Life stage
  • Meeting day
  • Meeting time
  • Meets online
• The Group Finder widget uses the COMMON, GlobalCongregationID configuration setting, so you can set up a church-wide congregation to share groups between campuses or parishes.
• Keyword search looks for a match in the group name, group description, program name, and/or ministry name.
• You can pre-filter the widget URL by specific search criteria. For example, you only want to show groups that meet on Tuesday or have a certain group type.
• If the group has a target size, congregants can see the capacity for the group in the widget.
• If there is an image attached to the group record, it displays in the widget. If not, a stock image is used. See more information about in Configuring Group Finder.
• People who are logged in can suggest a group. Just set the Show Suggest A Group Button option to Yes when configuring the widget. By default, the Suggest a Group button does not display.

Sections

Name

The name of the group.

Location

The group's congregation or parish (if selected) or the city or state of the group's offsite meeting address.

Day/Time

The day and time the group meets.

Capacity

The number of current group participants compared to the group's target size. For example, "Capacity: 7 of 10" means that there are seven claimed spots and three available spots left for that group.

Note: Pending inquiries are not included in the group's current size unless your configuration code includes you set the countgroupinquiries attribute to true. If the target size is blank on the group record, this row does not display in the Group Finder widget.

Starts

If the group's start date is in the future, the date displays. If it has passed, the group shows as Already Meeting.

Note: You can change the text that displays by editing the "alreadyMeeting" Application Labels.

Description

Some additional information about the group.

Actions

See Details

This launches the Group Detail widget, where there is additional information and both sign-up and inquiry forms.

Suggest a Group

This displays only to those who are logged in and only if you select to display the button in the finder configuration settings. If someone doesn't find a group based on their interests, they can suggest that your church start a group. When they click the button, a form displays where they can enter a suggested group name, description, and campus, plus an optional group focus, life stage, meeting day, and meeting time. Once they submit the information, a new group is created for approval, and someone at your church is notified through the Group Suggested default process.

Setup

Want the Group Finder widget for your website? See Configuring Group Finder for details.