Does your Database Feel Like This?
Follow our Tips to Organize Your Groups and Streamline Ministry Management.
Groups are the fundamental tool for segmenting individuals in your ChMS database. They are collections of individuals who have something in common, such as their relationship to the church or their participation in a service cohort.
Groups are vital to an organized database. They serve as sources for creating reports, taking attendance, and mass communication, to name only three.
So, what are the most useful categories of Groups to set up in your database?
Here are a few recommendations based on years of best-practice experience by our Success Coaches, including some examples of good naming conventions to help organize your Groups list.
Status - Describes the relationship of an individual to the church.
- Status-Member
- Status-Regular Attendee
- Status-Visitor
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Status-Contributor-Only
Pro-Tip: Use UNIQUE and CONSISTENT naming conventions for EVERY "Group Type" to make finding and reporting on groups easy.
Ex: Type "Status" in the Group Search to see groups with "Status" in their name.
Ministry Team - Groups of people who serve together with a focus on a particular ministry. These could be staff, volunteers, or a combination of the two.
- MT-Offering Counters
- MT-Office Support
- MT-Children’s Ministry
- MT-Elders
Pro-Tip: We often recommend using abbreviations to keep your group names concise. Ex: Ministry Team = "MT"
Small Groups - These are usually groups of adults or teens that focus on spiritual growth in a relational, nurturing setting. They are usually long-lived groups, with people moving in and out of membership. Small groups are known by many different names, such as Small Groups, Life Groups, Care Groups, and so on.
- SG-Allen (SG = Small Group)
- CG-Smith (CG = Care Group)
- LG-Jones (LG = Life Group)
Pro-Tip: You're not locked into a pre-defined set of names!
Customize your naming conventions using your Ministry's unique vernacular!
Class—Classes are groups of people usually meeting for a defined period of time with a specific purpose, such as topical Bible study, life skills, membership, etc.
- Class-Journey
- Class-Insights into Genesis
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Class-Contagious Christianity
Event—A Collection of people who, for example, came to an event last year and to whom we want to promote the event this year.
- Event-Global Leadership Summit
- Event-VBS
-
Event-Anytown Ministerial Association
Mailing List—The previously mentioned Groups are often used for mailing lists. However, creating specific mailing lists can sometimes have advantages.
- ML-Newsletter
-
ML-Area Church Leaders
Attendance – Very important Groups used to capture attendance data for individuals or group totals (HeadCount).
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The specific type of attendance is determined in Group Settings
- Check “Track Individual Attendance” for detailed attendance by person
- Uncheck “Track Individual Attendance” to record HeadCount attendance
YES, EVERYONE :) Here's Why...
- It's much easier to track ministry growth AND how people are progressing along your ministry's discipleship process.
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You can easily search for people NOT in a "Status" group so you can...
- Ensure People (and ministry opportunities) aren't missed.
- Find new people records created by Giving, Forms, or Check-in that might be duplicates - keeping your data clean.
- Status Groups make it more manageable to keep your people records up-to-date.
Finally, take advantage of Group Properties and Group Views.
Group Properties allow you to 'tag' your groups by age, campus, purpose, etc. These tags allow you to quickly filter to just the groups you'd like to view or report on.
Group Views are saved lists of groups, personal or shared, that streamline reporting, mass communication, visitor and volunteer processes, and more.
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