Managing Active, Inactive, and Non-Member Listings in Your Church Directory

Use family activity status and individual church membership status to keep your directory accurate while retaining the records you need. These settings serve different purposes.

Understand the two settings

Active? applies to the entire family. An active family is included in the directory. An inactive family stays in your administrator records but is excluded from member-facing directory listings and newly generated directory PDFs.
Member of Church? applies to one person. It identifies whether that person is a church member and controls membership-related name formatting. Selecting No does not make the family inactive or, by itself, prevent that person from accessing the directory.

Example: A regular visitor can be included in an active family while being marked No under Member of Church?. A family can also be inactive while its individuals remain marked as church members.

Mark a family active or inactive

Go to Families.
Find the family and click Edit on its card.
Near the top of the family editor, below Family Last Name, find Active?.
Select Yes to include the family in the directory, or No to retain the family’s record without including it in the directory.
Click Save.

Active Yes and No choices beneath Family Last Name in the Edit Family window. — Choose Yes or No under Active? to set the entire family’s directory status.

Important: Making a family inactive affects everyone in that family. Their email addresses in that inactive record no longer qualify them for access to your directory through the Mobile App or Member Website. If someone’s email also appears in another active family or staff record, review that record too when removing access.

Find or reactivate an inactive family

On the Families page, use All, Active, or Inactive to filter the list. Inactive family cards are shaded and labeled (Inactive).

All, Active, and Inactive filters on the Families page. — Use the family filters to find active or inactive records.

To reactivate a family, choose Inactive or All, find the family, click Edit, select Yes under Active?, and click Save. You do not need to enter the family’s information again.

Mark an individual as a church member or non-member

Go to Families and click Edit on the family’s card.
Under Adults / Parents or Children, click Edit beside the person.
In the person’s editor, find Member of Church? and select Yes or No.
Click Save in the person’s editor.

Member of Church Yes and No choices in the individual editor. — Member of Church? applies to the individual being edited.

This setting applies only to that individual. It does not change the activity status of the family or the church membership status of other people in the family.

If your directory uses customized labels, some terms may differ from the examples shown here.

How membership status affects names in the PDF

Church members’ names can appear in bold to distinguish them from non-members. In your directory PDF, this depends on the Membership Indicator setting under Customize → PDF Setup.

Membership Indicator enabled under PDF Setup roster formatting. — The Membership Indicator controls membership-related bold formatting in the PDF.

When the membership indicator is enabled, individuals marked as church members have bold names; non-members’ names use regular weight. When it is disabled, that distinction is not shown. A family surname may still be bold as part of the directory’s formatting.

See Customize Your Directory PDF: Layout and Pages Overview for more information. PDF layout settings do not control the Mobile App’s layout.

Can non-members access the directory?

Yes. Selecting No under Member of Church? does not block access. A non-member in an active family can access the directory when their email address is listed in the directory and your church’s subscription and member-access settings allow access.

See Understanding the Member Apps for setup and access information.

Organize visitors or other people in a group

Church membership status does not automatically place people into a separate directory section. To organize active visitors, friends of the church, or another set of people, create a Group and add the appropriate families or individuals. Update that group as people’s circumstances change.

See Utilizing and Managing Groups. Inactive families are excluded from generated group rosters, so a group is not a way to include inactive records in a directory PDF.

If you need a separately prepared list or special insert, you can create your own document and add it as a custom PDF page. See Customize Your Directory PDF: Layout and Pages Overview. Review that page’s contents before sharing; a manually prepared page is not automatically updated when a family’s status changes.

After changing a status

Update your PDF. Generate an updated directory PDF and distribute the new version. Previously downloaded or printed copies do not change. See Generating your directory, subdirectories and addendums.
Use privacy settings when only contact details should be hidden. If a family should remain in the directory but wants certain contact information hidden, use the applicable privacy settings. A person can still sign in with an email address marked private. See How to Make Family Address, Email, and Phone Information Private.