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Custom Fields

Custom fields are used when people are searching for a group to join from the InFellowship web application. By default, Groups already provide you with the ability to configure the group so that people looking to get connected can find groups based on gender preference, marital preference, age range preference and childcare. However, there may be times when you need to create other custom fields for searching purposes.

What about the search options custom to your church? Things like language preference, life stages, specialty groups and so on can be entered as custom fields. For example, if you create a custom field to track topic/specialty, you could name the custom field Specialty and options for the custom field could include things like Bible Study, Interest Group, Finance Group, Care Group and so on.

Making custom fields work requires three steps:

1. Define the custom fields and attach them to the appropriate group types.
2. Ensure that each group created has selected the appropriate custom field.
3. Create search categories specifically to pull back groups that have been marked with a custom field.

ACTION: Create a chart and begin planning some of the custom fields you might need for your church. Determine which fields will allow multiple selections and which should be a specific single option.

Case Study: Group Purpose

A common way to use custom fields is to allow each group to define it's purpose or specialty. Is it a spiritual development group? Is it a hobby/interest group? Is it a group focused on financial or parenting topics? These options are all defined using custom fields.

Following is the basics of how this custom field will work:

• The first step is to create a custom field called Purpose. In the user choices, you will create all of the possible purposes of a group such as Bible Study, Crown Financial (or Financial Peace), Prayer, Hobby/Interest, Parenting, and so on.
• Next, this custom field must be associated with the correct group types. Any group type that will use this mechanism must be edited and the custom field must be applied.
• Next, search categories must be created to allow people to search for groups by a particular specialty.
• Finally, every time a group is created, you must select the Purpose custom field and select the correct option.

Case Study: Coach/Mentor (or Area/Region)

If your church assigns mentors or coaches to your small groups, you need a way to capture the coach/mentor of each group. This is also true of Area/Region; if your groups are divided into areas or regions you will need a way to indicate the area or region to which a group belongs.

Tip! If you have multiple layers of group leaders and coaches, there is no need to account for layers of hierarchy in custom fields. Make sure you check out Span of Care for directions on creating spans of care for your highest level leaders. Your goal is to create custom fields for your first layer of coaches/mentors or area/regions.

Following are the basic steps for using coach/mentor (or area/region):

• Create a custom field called Coach/Mentor or Area/Region. In the user choices, you will create all the possible coaches/mentors (or areas/regions). For example, John Smith, Jack and Beth Simpson, 75038, North, South, etc.
• Next, the custom field must be associated with the correct group types. Any group type where you want to track coaches/mentors or area/regions, must be edited and the custom field must be applied.
• Every time a group is created, you must select the Coach/Mentor or the Area/Region.
• Finally, consider creating spans of care for higher level leaders (coaches of coaches) or those that oversee multiple areas/regions.

Case Study: Life Stage

If your groups cater to people by life stage, you may want to create a custom field for life stage. The obvious thing you will notice when you create groups is that there is a Marital Status option already configured as a standard field. This option may apply to the bulk of your groups, but what about the following life stages:

• Divorce/Separation
• Widowed
• Empty Nester
• College/Career

You can create a custom field called Life Stage to apply to these kinds of groups.

Following is how this works:

• The first step is to create a custom field called Life Stage. Under that, you will create all the possible life stages you support through groups (such as Separation/Divorce, Widowed, Empty Nesters, and so on).
• Next, this custom field must be associated with all group types that will have groups that support life stages.
• Next, search categories must be created to allow people to search for groups by a particular life stage.
• Finally, every time a group is created, you must select the correct life stage for the group.