What are Groups?
Groups are spaces in your church’s mobile app where members can see a list of church groups, join when allowed, and follow what’s happening. Your church adds Groups as a tab bar item in the App Editor. After Groups is added and your church has Groups activated and configured, members can open that tab to browse, join, and stay up to date. Each group has its own detail screen with messages, events, and (for leaders) tools to manage members and join requests when you use request-to-join settings.
In the app, Groups are organized so people can quickly see what’s relevant: a My Groups view for the groups they already belong to, and a Discover view for groups that are available to find and join.
Announcements and group chat
Every group supports messages. How they work depends on the messaging policy your church sets for that group:
- Leaders only — Leaders and church admins post announcements; members read updates in a clean, focused feed.
- All active members — Members who belong to the group can participate in a shared conversation (chat-style), so small groups can coordinate between Sundays.
If your church chooses “All members,” the experience feels like a simple group chat. If you choose “Leaders only,” it stays more like a clean announcements feed.
Who Groups are for
Groups work well for Bible studies, volunteer teams, student ministries, recovery groups, and any community that needs a private place to meet inside your church app. Visibility and membership rules (open discover, invite-only, or request to join) help leaders keep groups appropriate for your culture.
Join rules that match real life
Not every group should work the same way. Some groups are open for anyone to join. Some are “request to join” so leaders can approve before someone is added. And some are invite-only for teams where you need tighter control.
In the app, “Request to join” can include an optional note to leaders, and members can cancel a pending request if they tapped it by accident. Invite-only groups clearly show that a leader needs to add you.
For churches managing discoverability: hidden groups are meant to be accessed by invitation, while discoverable groups can be open or request-to-join.
Events inside the group
Groups aren’t only for messages. Each group can also have events tied to it, so the people who need the details actually see them. Leaders can add events from the admin tools, and members see upcoming group events in the group screen.
Staying in the loop
Members can control announcement notifications per group (on or off), so important updates don’t get lost and people don’t feel spammed. Leaders can also review and act on join requests when a group uses request-to-join.
Helpful tools
Explore the product areas these posts connect to:
Ready to try it?
If your church already uses myChelper, ask your admin to add Groups in the App Editor (as a tab bar item) and enable Groups for your church. Once that’s in place, open the app and tap the Groups tab to explore. Church admins and group leaders can create and configure groups from the tools you already use.