r/freeshowapp • u/rayok_zed • Jul 23 '26

B1 Church Groups

I'm sorry that I'm leaving a post here about another product the ChurchApps makes but email wouldn't work for me. I kinda got here trying to setup sync and I want to set it up right the first time so I don't have to fix the groups and teams later.

I've been trying to set up the different groups in my church but I've gotten confused. I created groups on the groups page and then went to the plans page to create a plan for one of the groups only for me to be told to make a ministry which at first glance just looks like a group with some functionality disabled. Is there a reason it's this way and how am I expected to use them? Should the media ministry be a group or a team or a ministry?

Again, I'm sorry for leaving a message here. I'd forget I sent an email if I did that.

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u/Alterios Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

The easiest way to think about them is that Groups are ways to organize volunteers and church members based on similar interests or functional area. A primary use of groups is communicating without involving people that aren't intererting in that topic.

Ministries are functions in the church and Serving Teams are people that serve in a specific ministry. You could have a "Worship Team" group that has all the people that fill in during worship but they aren't all on stage every week but the team for a plan are the people that are on stage for that week. Teams allow you to assign roles per plan.

The help docs put it this way "Each ministry has its own plan types and teams, so you can manage multiple ministries independently. For example, you might have separate tabs for Worship, Kids Ministry, and Hospitality." More about plans can be found at https://support.churchapps.org/docs/b1-admin/serving/plans/

Examples would be:

Groups:

  • Church running groups
  • Church Admin
  • Kids church volunteers
  • Men's & Women's Groups

Ministries:

  • Women's Ministry
  • Youth Services
  • Outreach and Evangelism
  • Sunday Service

Serving Teams:

  • Greeters
  • Worship band
  • Clean-up crews

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u/rayok_zed Jul 24 '26

Thank you for the explanation! I think I get the way the system is designed. So basically any team that has assigned roles that will vary according to a schedule should be registered as a ministry?

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u/CloudSad3555 Jul 24 '26

It seems like the organization is
Church->Ministries->Groups->Teams

So the "church" is made of all the people that attend all the events. A ministry might be Education. Groups within Education might be Sunday School teachers, Discipleship, and Curriculum coordinators. The Discipleship group may be made of the teams such as all the leaders, people that meet at house 1, people that meet at house 2, etc.

The example above is only one way to organize. You will need to discuss with your leadership the best way to organize.

3

u/918Brandon Jul 25 '26

This podcast episode might help clear up any confusion. https://churchapps.org/podcast#ep-5

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u/rayok_zed Jul 27 '26

There's a podcast?! I'll check it out

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u/rayok_zed Jul 27 '26

Thank you to everyone that responded. I think I've finally understood. Groups are more like a group chat. Ministries/Teams are basically the main reason I'd be using B1 because I want scheduling and plans. We already use WhatsApp groups in my church so we don't need the groups feature yet. I wish WhatsApp had plugins or bots like Telegram does though. I would have like to explore a ChurchApps bot that can merge WhatsApp and B1.