Features for members and admins

Last updated: July 2026  ·  Questions? info@churchdirectory.app

A plain-language tour of what’s in Church Directory once your church is set up. Looking for signup eligibility, Planning Center, or billing? See the FAQ.

For members

Sign in at app.churchdirectory.app or the iPhone / Android apps with the email your church has for you in Planning Center. You’ll get a one-time code — no password to remember.

Directory

• Browse your church’s private roster with photos, families, contact info, prayer requests, and interests (when available).
• Search by name, email, phone, or city.
• From a person’s profile: call, text, email, copy details, or open their address in Maps.
• Optional lists (when your church uses them): leadership, supported workers, and children in family records.

Pray

• A personalized daily prayer list you can walk through at your own pace (about 14, 30, or 60 days).
• Optionally include birthdays, family names, supported workers, and your private My Prayer notes on the cards.
• Your church may also show a shared church-wide prayer card.

My Prayer (private notes)

• Write a private prayer note about someone from their Pray card or profile.
• Notes are yours alone — not shown to that person, other members, or church admins as readable text.
• Note text is encrypted on your device before it is stored; the shared database keeps ciphertext, not plain notes.
• Review and edit all of your notes under Settings → My Prayers; export them as Markdown or CSV when you want a backup or printout.
• On the web app, notes need a network connection. On iPhone and Android, notes can stay available offline and sync when you’re back online.

Learn Names

• Practice faces and names with a photo-based game.
• Choose how many people to practice; personal best scores are tracked.
• Tap-to-match on web and phone; voice recognition where your device supports it.
• “New members” practice when join-date data is available.

Your profile

• Update your own contact details, prayer requests, and interests.
• Contact changes sync to Planning Center; prayer requests and interests stay in Church Directory.

Settings you’ll use most

• Prayer & Birthdays — prayer cadence; whether cards include birthdays, family, supported workers, and private notes; upcoming birthdays; optional daily birthday email in your local time zone.
• Directory Tools — leadership, children, and supported-worker lists (when enabled).
• App & Device — light / dark / system theme; install the web app where your browser allows.
• iPhone / Android only — optional daily prayer reminder notification; offline directory snapshot with queued edits when you’re offline.

Contact export (role-based)

• Every member can use call / text / email / copy / Maps from a single profile — you don’t need a bulk export for one person.
• Elders, deacons, and staff can export the whole directory from Settings (web downloads a contacts file; the phone apps can add people to the device contacts app). Exports follow church privacy rules (hidden address / phone / email, substitute pastor/staff phones).

For church admins

Day-to-day church operations live at admin.churchdirectory.app (you can also open it from the member app when you’re signed in as a church admin). Some church-wide editors still appear under Settings → Church Admin in the member apps.

On the admin site

• Church Prayer — edit the prayer card shown to everyone in Pray.
• Church Profile — directory church-card name, office email, phone, and address.
• Church Background — replace the image behind the directory header.
• Church Settings — church admin roster; hide selected members’ address, phone, and/or email; substitute pastor/staff personal phones with a church number; whether the church prayer card appears first.
• Church Leadership — elder, deacon, and staff roles and titles.
• Billing — plan status, invoices, payment method, and cancellation via the Stripe customer portal.
• Sync / Planning Center — connect or reconnect OAuth; choose who appears (membership types or lists); include household children and profile notes; supported-worker lists; preview impact; Sync now; connection health and recent results.
• Activity — recent church-ops changes (settings, profile, leadership, background, sync, and more).
• Invite members — web / iOS / Android links, OTP sign-in steps, and a copyable congregation announcement email.

Still available in the member apps for admins

• Edit church-wide prayer, leadership roles, and the same narrow church-settings console (privacy, prayer order, admin roster).
• Hand off into the admin site for billing, sync, background photo, and the rest of ops.

What members configure themselves

Birthday email, personal prayer pace, and whether prayer cards include birthdays / family / supported workers / private notes are each member’s own preferences — not church-wide admin toggles.