Who Can Manage Children's Ministry: Roles and Permissions
Breaks down the individually grantable Children's Ministry permissions and the two default roles that use them.
Permissions separate from Members
Children's Ministry has its own set of permissions, entirely separate from the main Members module, a church can give someone access to run Children's Ministry without giving them access to the main Members list, and the reverse holds too.
What can be granted individually
Viewing children, registering new children, editing a child's record, archiving or deleting a child, recording check-in and attendance, managing classes, promoting or transferring a child, and managing Children's Ministry settings are all separate permissions, each one grantable on its own rather than bundled together.
The default roles
The Children Ministry Admin role comes with full access to all of these permissions out of the box, while the general Member Manager role only gets baseline view, register, and check-in access by default, so a Member Manager can help at check-in without automatically being able to manage classes or promote children.
Best practice
Build out a Children Ministry Admin assignment for whoever actually runs the ministry day to day, and keep everyone else on the narrower default access, granting individual permissions only as specific volunteers take on specific responsibilities like managing classes or handling promotions.
Related Articles
Registering a New Child
Walks through exactly what information Children's Ministry captures when you register a new child, including which fields are optional.
Linking a Guardian to a Child's Record
Covers how to attach a guardian who already has a Member record to a child, including recording the relationship between them.
Adding a Guardian Who Isn't Already a Member
Shows how to attach a guardian's name and phone number for someone who isn't in Sermfy yet, without creating a Member record.
Creating a Children's Ministry Class
Clarifies that a Children's Ministry class is just a Group with a special tag, created through the same Groups feature as any ministry.