A lot of groups have a main conversation for the whole group, plus separate conversations for the men and women. If your church has been using another chat app for those gender-specific conversations, you can now bring them into Planning Center Chat!

When creating a new conversation in a Group, you'll see a new gender filter. Toggle it on, and the conversation will only include members whose gender matches yours. So if you're a woman creating the conversation, it becomes a women-only conversation.

Once a gender-specific conversation exists, it stays in sync with your group. In this case, if a new woman joins the group, she'll be automatically added to the chat. No one falls through the cracks.

What if I need to create a conversation for the opposite gender?

Since gender-specific conversations are based on your own profile, you can only create one that matches your gender. So if you're a male group leader who needs both a men's and a women's conversation, here are a couple of easy ways to get the women's conversation set up:

  • If your group settings allow all members to create conversations, any woman in the group can start the women's conversation herself.

  • Or, you can add a woman as a co-leader on the group. She'll be able to create the women's conversation, and it gives the group a clear point person for that conversation too.

Make sure your congregation's gender info is up to date

For this feature to work well, your congregation needs gender set on their profiles. Managers in People, head to your Church Center settings and you'll find Gender listed as a built-in profile field, right alongside birthdate and grade. You can control whether congregants can add their gender if it's blank, edit it freely, or whether only admins can make changes. If you want people to set their own gender but not change it afterward, "Can add if blank" is a good fit. Admins can also update anyone's gender directly from their profile in People.

We hope this makes your groups feel a little more connected.

💙 The Chat Team