Groups
Small communities for study, prayer, and fellowship — with real leaders and real privacy controls.
Finding a group
- Groups lists public groups — search by name, topic, or category, and filter by category pills.
- Each card shows the group's leader, member count, and badges (Youth, Adults only, Men/Women only, By approval).
- Some groups are unlisted and reachable only by a shared link. Others are invite-only — a leader adds you.
Joining
- Open groups — Join and you're in immediately.
- Approval groups — “Request to join” puts you in the leaders' queue until they approve or decline.
- Invite-only groups — you get a notification when a leader invites you; accept or decline on the group page.
- Removed members can request to rejoin — they go through approval again, never straight back in.
Creating a group
Start a group — you automatically become its leader. Creation options:
Visibility
- Listed — appears in the directory and search.
- Unlisted — hidden from the directory, but anyone with the link can view and join.
- Invite only — invisible to non-members; people join only through leader invites.
Join approval
“Require leader approval” works with any visibility — a listed group can vet newcomers, an unlisted one can stay link-joinable. Youth groups always require approval.
Who it's for
- Gender — everyone, men only, or women only. Uses the private gender field in your profile settings; the group's creator must fit the audience too.
- Adults only — minors can't join.
- Youth group — marks it minor-friendly and forces leader approval on every join.
- Linked church — optional; you can only link a church you belong to.
Audience rules are enforced by the database when someone joins — and existing members are grandfathered if you change them later (leaders can remove anyone who no longer fits).
Leading a group
- The creator is the owner and can appoint one assistant leader from the member list.
- Leaders approve/decline join requests, remove members, invite people by name, delete and pin posts, and delete replies.
- Assistant leaders can also toggle the join-approval setting.
- The owner edits full settings (name, privacy, audience, church) under Group settings, and can delete the group.
- To hand over leadership, use Make leader on a member — ownership transfers and you become a regular member. Owners can't simply leave and orphan the group.
Inside a group
- Posts — up to 2000 characters, with threaded replies. Authors can edit their own posts (shows “edited”). Leaders can pin important posts to the top.
- Prayer requests — every group has a private prayer section for members only.
- Scripture references in posts and replies link automatically.
Minors in groups
A minor's participation follows their parent's Family permissions: join freely, needs-parent-approval, or off. Parent approval doesn't skip leader approval for approval-required groups — both gates apply.