Groups don't exist without people! The best way to add people to your groups is through Church Center, but administrators, group type managers, and leaders can also add or manage individual group membership requests in Groups.
Tip
Use bulk actions to add multiple people to a group at once!
Administrators and group type managers can quickly add people to a group by searching the People database and selecting existing profiles by name. These members are instantly added to the group, without requiring leader approval.
Group leaders can only add people by name if an administrator or group type manager has checked the Security setting in their group's Settingstab. This is not recommended because the setting allows leaders to view all profiles in your database when searching for names.
If you choose not to check the Security setting, group leaders can follow these steps to add a member and send an invitation by email:
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On the main Groups page, select the My Groups tab.
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Select the group you're managing.
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On the Members tab, select Add member.
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In the Add member popup, enter the new member's email address and a welcome message.
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When you're ready, select Send email.
To ensure that leaders and prospective members are both active participants in making this connection, the invitation email includes a prompt for the person to join the group using the Church Center app or web pages. If the person chooses to join and confirms, the group leader must then approve the membership request, which immediately grants the new member access to their group.
Whether a person has requested to join your group from the invitation email or the public group page, you must approve their request to officially add them to your group so they can view chat conversations, member contact info (if shown), and resources.
Tip
Administrators and group type managers can also access all membership requests for their managed groups by going to the main Groups page, selecting the ⚙️ settings icon, and choosing Member requests.
Follow the steps below to manage membership requests:
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Select Groups or My Groups from the top navigation.
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Select the group where you'd like to review membership requests.
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View all requests in the Group Membership Requests section.
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(Optional) If the person included a custom message along with their request, select View message under their contact information to preview it.
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To approve a request, select the Add… button. In the popup, choose whether to add the person as a member or a leader. Once you approve, the system automatically sends an invitation email with a link to view the group in Church Center. If you check the Notify [name] by email box, you can include a custom message in that invitation email.
To reject a request, select the Don't add… button. In the popup, confirm the rejection. The system won't send an automatic email unless you check the Notify [name] by email box and add a personal message explaining the rejection.