The directory lets your congregation find each other. It is also the surface where a church most easily loses someone's trust, so the controls sit with the member rather than with you.
Who can see it
Signed-in members. It is never public, never on your website, and never reachable by a search engine.
Members control their own details
For each of email and phone, a member chooses who sees it, under their own profile:
- Only me: no other member sees it in the directory. This is the default.
- Church staff: the church's admins and editors
- All members: anyone signed in
Per field, not all-or-nothing. Somebody can share a phone number with the whole church while keeping their email private, which is exactly what most people want and rarely what a printed directory allowed.
These settings decide what other members see. Admins and editors can still see every member's email and phone, in the directory and in People, because they need them to run the church. You cannot change a member's choice for them.
What this means for you
Do not assume members see each other's details. A member who left everything on only me is listed by name and photo and nothing more, as far as other members can tell. Most people never change the default.
Tell people the controls exist. Most members never open their privacy settings and assume the worst: either that everything is public, or that nothing is. A single sentence when you launch the directory does more than the settings page ever will.
Launching it well
Mention it once, plainly:
"There's a member directory in the app. You choose what other people can see: your email and your phone number are each separate, and you can keep either one private."
Then leave it alone. Directories work when people opt in over months, not when they are chased.
What is never in it
Children never appear. Child records live under their parent's family and are visible to the parent and to staff. See Children and families.
Pending members (people who have asked to join and not yet been approved) are not in it either.