New features for small groups: Group Finder & Request to Join!

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Small groups are the lifeblood for many churches. As people gather together in homes, coffee shops, or church classrooms, relationships grow stronger and community engagement thrives. These interactions are vital for creating a sense of belonging and aiding discipleship, and as your small groups flourish, so does your church.

Many churches spend a lot of time and effort in developing their small groups. Yet, despite all of the announcements, phone calls, and reminders, their people have a hard time finding and registering for the right small groups.

Some pastors turn to third-party software in order to overcome these obstacles. However, these services are often complicated and have steep learning curves. Others still lack features such as group size limits, being able to pre-screen new registrants, or offering private or invitation-only groups. So what’s the solution?

Introducing Group Finder & Request to Join

Subsplash is excited to announce the release of Group Finder & Request to Join! These new features make finding, joining, and managing small groups simpler than ever.

Churches using Subsplash One and Subsplash Messaging can now promote all public-facing small groups on their custom mobile app and website—without the use of third-party services!

Group Finder—Benefits & features

Anyone can browse and see details about your church’s small groups before they create a user account. With Group Finder, they can search by group title, description, type, and even share the Group webpage with friends and family.

Once they find their preferred small group, it’s quick and easy to register on their smartphone, tablet, or computer. Once registered, they can join the group conversation with Subsplash Messaging, allowing them to have meaningful conversations, ask questions, and get to know the other members even before they attend.

It’s important to note that some groups aren’t meant to be public facing. Church leaders can hide certain groups from the public Group Finder page. For example, a small group made up of volunteers may want to only invite current volunteers to join the group and be able to participate in group messages.

Request to Join—benefits & features

The new Request to Join feature allows administrators to have more control over who is able to join a group. There are a variety of registration options to choose from when creating public or private small groups, including:

• Open small groups: Groups that are open to anyone, and users can invite others.
• Request to join small groups: Some small group leaders may prefer to vet group members before they’re allowed to officially join a group and access information like group location and meeting time. Group Managers can pre screen all registrations before allowing people to join their group and participate in group chats.
• Closed small groups—Only people invited by Group Managers can join.

Your congregation will love being able to easily find, sign up, and communicate with your church’s small groups. And your leadership team will appreciate having better insights into who is attending each small group, being able to keep some groups private, and having the option to screen new members before they can join certain groups.

How to start using Group Finder & Request to Join

The new Group Finder and Request to Join features are now available to churches using Subsplash One or Subsplash Messaging. You can get started by clicking here, or for help using or setting up these features, please contact your Client Success Manager.

If your church would like to join the more than 16,000 churches and organizations already using Subsplash, or if you have questions about how these tools can help your church, please fill out the form below to schedule your free demo today!