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Choose whether new members need approval

When someone taps Become a member on your church's public page, they can either join right away or wait for you to review their request first. This setting lets you decide which happens.

Before you begin

  • You need access to your church's Settings.
  • It helps to understand the difference between a subscriber and a member. See Subscriber vs. member.

Step-by-step

  1. Go to Settings > General. Open Settings from the main menu and stay on the General tab.
  2. Find the Membership section. Scroll to Membership. The Approval row shows your current setting as either Required or Not required.
  3. Click the pencil. Select the pencil icon next to the current setting to open the Do new members need approval? window.
  4. Pick an option. Choose Required or Not required. Your choice saves automatically the moment you select it, and the window closes.

What each option does

  • Required. When a subscriber taps Become a member and fills out the join form, the button reads Request to join and their request lands in your review queue as pending. You approve or reject it from your dashboard.
  • Not required. When a subscriber taps Become a member and fills out the join form, they become a full member instantly. There is no review step.

Approving requests when approval is required

When approval is turned on, pending requests appear on your Home page in the list of items that need your attention.

  1. Go to Home. Open Home from the main menu.
  2. Find the request. It reads "[Name] wants to join" with the time it came in.
  3. Click Approve or Reject. Selecting Approve makes them a full member. Selecting Reject turns down the request.

Promote anyone directly, anytime

This setting only controls what happens through the public join form. No matter which option you pick, you can always make someone a member yourself from their profile.

  1. Open People. Go to the People page and open the person you want.
  2. Go to their settings. Find the Membership field.
  3. Choose Member. Change the field from Subscriber to Member. The change saves on its own.

Good to know

  • Changing this setting does not affect people who are already members or already have a pending request. It only changes what happens for new requests going forward.
  • Turning approval off does not automatically approve anyone who is already waiting. Approve those requests from Home.
  • Membership is separate from whether someone gets your emails or texts. Making someone a member does not change their email or text preferences.

What's next?

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