Church Directory

The Church Directory block turns your People section into a member directory — households, contact details, birthdays — on a password-protected page.

It reuses the same People records you already use for staff. What separates a staff bio from a directory entry is one field: Visibility.

Visibility: public vs. directory

Every person now has a Visibility setting:

• Public — staff and leadership. Appears on your website, in Staff Embed blocks, and on their own bio page. This is the default, and every person you added before this feature stays public.
• Directory only — church members. Never appears on a public page, never gets a bio page, never enters your sitemap. They show up in one place only: a Church Directory block.

Switching someone to Directory only reveals the Directory Details section: household name, other household members, address, birthday, anniversary, and member since.

Building the directory page

1. Create a new page (e.g. "Member Directory")
2. Add the Church Directory block to the page content
3. Set a Page Password — Studio will not let you publish without one
4. Publish

The block groups people by Household Name, so "The Van Pelt Family" appears once with everyone in it. People without a household name are listed on their own. Leave Group by household off if you'd rather have a flat alphabetical list.

To split the directory into sections — members, elders, small group leaders — use Limit to a Category and add one block per category.

Adding members

1. Go to Structure → People and click +
2. Set Visibility to Directory only
3. Enter their Name and Slug
4. Fill in Email and Phone as needed
5. Open Directory Details and add household information
6. Publish

For a family, give each person the same Household Name — that's what groups them together.

Choosing what the directory shows

You don't have to publish everything you record. Settings → Church Directory controls which fields the directory is allowed to display — emails, phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, and member-since years each have their own switch.

Switching one off removes that information from the page entirely rather than just hiding it visually, and the details stay in Studio for office use. Addresses are switched off by default. See Church Directory Settings.

Please read this part

A directory holds home addresses, phone numbers, and family details for people who trusted you with them. It sits behind a page password, which is a shared door code — one password, no individual logins, no record of who looked. It will be forwarded in emails and it will circulate further than you intend.

Some practical guidance:

• Ask before you publish. Someone leaving an abusive situation, a foster family, a member of law enforcement — for them, a listed address is a genuine safety problem. Get consent per person, not once from the board.
• Consider a neighborhood instead of a street address. "Birchwood neighborhood" helps people connect without publishing where someone sleeps.
• Don't list children. The Other Household Members field is free text for a reason — "Linus and Rerun" is fine, full names and ages are not.
• Change the password periodically. Once a year, and whenever someone leaves the church badly.

If your church uses Planning Center, its Church Center app has a member directory with real per-person logins. That's a stronger fit for sensitive contact information than any shared password can be. Use this feature when you specifically want the directory on your own website, and keep what's in it modest.

Removing someone

Set their Visibility back to Public to move them to the staff side, or delete the person record entirely. Either way they drop out of the directory as soon as you publish.

If someone asks to be removed, do it that day. It's their information.