When it comes to building meaningful relationships within your church, small groups have always been a great way for people to share life experiences and grow together.
But some of life’s journeys require a different kind of space—one where anonymity and confidentiality are key.
For those in recovery, looking for healing, or facing other sensitive challenges, the ability to participate while maintaining privacy from other group members can make all the difference in seeking help.
That's why we're glad to introduce a new feature to support these safe spaces—confidential member groups.
Creating safe spaces for healing
Recovery and support groups thrive when participants feel safe enough to attend before eventually opening up. With our new confidential settings, members can join a group while remaining anonymous to fellow participants—only group leaders will have access to the complete member list.
This balance provides the safety participants might need to take that first step toward receiving support, while still ensuring leaders have the information they need to provide an environment that’s hospitable and caring.
Hosting confidential groups
Not only do confidential groups create the safe environment many need to begin their journey, they also open up opportunities for you and your church to host support groups and foster places of healing.
This might look like:
- Recovery groups for divorce, substance abuse, and addiction
- Grief support
- Mental health support for individuals and family members
Once someone joins a support group, you can also use already existing features in Groups to extend care to members. For example, you can easily share resources with group members that might help guide discussions. Or, by taking attendance in a way that maintains anonymity, you can then follow up with members to check in on them.
How to make a group confidential
Enabling this feature in Groups is straightforward:
- Navigate to the Settings page
- Find the new Member privacy section under Availability on Church Center
- Check the box for Make member list confidential
Once enabled, all personal information—including names, profile photos, email addresses, and phone numbers—will be hidden from other members. The chat feature will also be automatically disabled to maintain this privacy between members.
Group Type Managers and Groups Administrators can control this setting, giving you flexibility in how you manage it across different groups.
Making a group confidential doesn’t make it private. A confidential group is still visible on Church Center.
Confidential groups on Church Center
When browsing groups on Church Center, people can easily identify confidential groups through the Members are confidential badge displayed prominently with a group’s information.
After joining a group, members will only see information about the leader, giving them a point of contact. Meanwhile, leaders will have total visibility of all member details so they can provide comprehensive care.
We've also built in some additional protection: If the confidential setting is ever disabled for a group, all member information will stay hidden by default. Members would need to intentionally opt-in to share their information with the group if they’re comfortable with it.
This feature has been highly requested, and we couldn't be more excited to finally include it! By providing this layer of confidentiality, your church can extend support to those who might otherwise hesitate to reach out for help.
We'd love to hear how this feature is working for your community! Send us your feedback, ideas, or questions at support@planningcenter.com.
🧡 Team Groups