Groups
Groups organize your people into collections with a shared purpose. Terminology varies by engine — Churches see "Small Groups", Foundations see "Boards", Ministries see "Teams" — but the feature works identically across all engines.
What Groups Do
Groups connect people to a purpose. Every group has a leader, optional co-leaders, a list of members, and metadata about when and where it meets. Groups appear in the Relationship Graph as edges between people, showing community connectivity.
Creating a Group
- In the sidebar, click Groups (or your engine's equivalent: Committees, Boards, Teams)
- Click + Add Group
- Fill in the group form:
Required fields:
- Name — descriptive name for the group
Recommended fields:
- Group Type — categorizes the group (Small Group, Class, Serve Team, Ministry Team, etc.)
- Leader — search for and assign a staff member or member as the group leader
- Status — Active or Inactive
Optional fields:
- Description — purpose and details of the group
- Capacity — maximum number of members. When a group is full, new additions are blocked.
- Meeting Day — day of the week the group meets
- Meeting Time — time the group meets
- Location — where the group meets (address or room name)
- Is Public — whether the group is visible in public directories
- Click Save
Managing Group Members
Adding Members
- Open a group record
- Click + Add Member
- Search for the person by name or email
- Select their Role (Member, Co-Leader, Leader)
- Click Add
Removing Members
Click the remove button next to a member's name in the group roster. This removes them from the group but does not delete their person record.
Changing Roles
To promote a member to Co-Leader or Leader, remove them and re-add with the new role.
Group Roles
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Leader | Primary leader of the group. Typically the point of contact for communications and scheduling. |
| Co-Leader | Assistant leader. Can help manage the group. |
| Member | Regular participant. |
Group leader assignment affects the Relationship Graph — group leaders appear as a distinct node type with a special visual marker, and leadership connections are a dedicated edge type.
Group Capacity
When a capacity is set, Mission tracks member_count against it. Attempts to add members beyond capacity are blocked. There is no waitlist at the group level — use Event registrations for capacity-limited events with waitlists.
Viewing Group Membership
From the group record, you can see:
- Full member roster with names, emails, roles, and join dates
- Member count vs. capacity
- Meeting schedule
From a person's record, you can see all groups they belong to.
Group Types
Group types help categorize and filter your groups. Common examples by engine:
Church:
- Sunday School Class
- Small Group / Life Group
- Serve Team
- Youth Group
- Women's Ministry
- Men's Ministry
- Choir / Worship Team
Nonprofit:
- Committee
- Advisory Board
- Volunteer Team
- Program Group
Foundation:
- Board of Directors
- Investment Committee
- Grants Committee
Ministry:
- Mission Team
- Prayer Team
- Field Team
- Support Team
Group types are free-form text — define whatever categories make sense for your organization.
Group Communications
From a group record, you can initiate a communication to all group members. This creates a communication record in the Communications module with the group's membership as the recipient list.
Groups in Reports
The dashboard "Active Groups" stat counts all groups with Active status. Groups also appear in the Relationship Graph, where edges between a person and other group members are drawn based on shared group membership.
Deactivating a Group
Set a group's status to Inactive. Inactive groups remain in the system with their full membership history, but do not appear in active group counts or the main groups list. This is preferable to deletion when a group concludes (e.g., a short-term study or completed mission trip team).