# A Church Community Platform for Your Congregation and Ministries > Give your church one private place online for announcements, small groups, prayer requests and volunteers. People can join by approval, RSVP to services and Bible studies, watch live streams inside the community and message each other one to one. It works on any phone, in the browser. ## Spaces for every part of church life Give each ministry its own space and split it into rooms the way your church already meets: one for each small group, serving team or class. - **Announcements only leaders post in**: Turn off Members can post and a space becomes read only: admins post there and members read. Pin this week’s notices, schedule a post for a set date and time, and turn on Notify members about new posts so nobody misses one. - **Small groups and prayer requests**: Give each small group its own space, or a room inside one, and make it private so only the members you add can see it. Keep a prayer-request space open for members to post in, and a Volunteers space where serving teams plan together. - **Start blank or from the Local club template**: Start blank with one General Discussions space, or pick the Local club template: Noticeboard, Meetups, Introductions and Marketplace. Rename and add spaces as you like, so Noticeboard becomes Announcements and Meetups becomes Small groups. ## Everything your church community needs, in one place The Vonza community module, set up for congregations, ministries and Bible study groups. - **Joining by approval**: Choose By approval so newcomers ask before they come in, and ask them a question first, such as which service they attend. Approve requests one by one or all at once. - **Services and Bible studies**: Create events in person with an address, or online with a link you paste. Repeat them every week, and members RSVP and get reminder emails. - **Live streams in the community**: Stream a service or a prayer night from a post. Members watch from the feed, and the recording can go up afterwards for anyone who was away or unwell. - **One-to-one messages**: Members message each other directly, with photos and files. Each member picks instant, weekly or no emails about new chats. - **Moderation and reports**: Members report posts and comments to the hosts. Review them in one queue, then approve, hide, delete, warn, mute or ban. - **Classes and discipleship**: Turn a membership class, a new believers’ track or a discipleship series into a Vonza course and link it to the whole church or to one ministry’s space. - **Free or paid membership**: Keep it free, or add plans such as a one-time payment, a subscription or pay what you want, paid through Stripe or Paystack. - **Works on any phone**: From teenagers to grandparents, members open it in the browser on whatever phone, tablet or computer they have. Nothing to install, and email and in-app notifications keep them posted. ## Services, Bible studies and live streams in one place Add Sunday service as an event that repeats every week, in person with your address or online with a stream link you paste. Members tap I’m going and get reminder emails. When you would rather stream from Vonza, go live from a post and members watch inside the community. - Weekly, monthly or one-off events, shown to everyone or to selected spaces - In person with an address, or a link labeled Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Other - Reminder emails 24 hours, 30 minutes and 5 minutes before the start - Go live from a post, and post the recording to the feed afterwards ## How to start an online church community From a blank community to your first Sunday together, in four steps. 1. **Create the community**: Start blank or from a template, give it your church’s name, colour and logo, and rename the spaces to fit how you meet. 2. **Decide who can join**: Choose Anyone or By approval, add membership questions, and keep it free or add a plan. 3. **Invite your congregation**: Send email invites, enroll people directly, or share the community link and its QR code in the notice sheet or on the screen on Sunday. 4. **Plan the week**: Post the week’s announcements, put services and studies on the calendar, and go live when you meet. ## Questions about church community software ### Is there a church community app members need to download? No. Vonza has no separate app to install: members open the community in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. On a phone the sections sit in a row at the top with a Spaces menu under the composer, and members hear about new activity through email and in-app notifications. ### Can we keep prayer requests and small groups private? Yes. Mark a space or a room as private and only the members you add can see it and post there. You can also set the whole community to By approval, so nobody gets in until you approve their request. Members can report a post or comment to the hosts, and block another member if they need to. ### How do people join our online church community? Pick one of two doors under Who can join. Anyone lets people join straight away, which suits an open welcome group. By approval has people ask first, and you can ask them membership questions (a short answer, a multiple-choice pick, an email or a phone number) before a leader approves them. To bring your existing congregation in, send email invites up to 10 at a time or enroll up to 100 people directly. ### Can we stream Sunday services into the community? Yes, in two ways. Go live from the post composer: Vonza starts the stream, posts it to the space you pick and members join from the feed. One stream runs at a time in each community, and the recording appears about a minute after it ends, ready to post to the feed. If you already stream somewhere else, add the service as an event and paste the link, so members see where to watch. ### How do members find out about services and Bible studies? Add each one as an event with a date, time, length and place, and make it repeat every week or month. Members see it under Upcoming in the community’s Events, tap I’m going, and get reminder emails 24 hours, 30 minutes and 5 minutes before it starts. Add to calendar saves it to any calendar app. You can show an event to everyone or only to members of selected spaces. ### Can we run classes, discipleship courses or a Bible college? Build courses in Vonza and link them to the whole community or to one space, either open (members are enrolled automatically) or locked (shown to members, who enroll separately). Members find them in the community’s Classroom, grouped by space. For a full Bible college with admissions, fees and transcripts, Vonza School is the education management side of the platform. ### Is it free for members, and can we charge for anything? A community with no plans is free to join: the button reads Join for free. If you want paid membership, add plans such as a one-time payment, a subscription or pay what you want with a minimum and maximum, and members pay at checkout through Stripe or Paystack once you connect an account. A free community needs no payment account at all. ### How do we keep the community respectful? Members can report a post, comment or member with a reason such as spam, harassment or false information, and block someone they do not want to hear from. Reports land in the Moderation queue, where you approve, hide, delete, warn, mute for a set number of days or ban. Under Rules you can list banned words, ask for approval of new contributors’ first posts and block links. ### Can members message each other privately? Yes, one to one. Members start a direct message with another member of the community, add photos and files, and mute or delete a conversation. Group chats are not offered yet. Each member chooses whether emails about new chats arrive instantly, weekly or never. ## Related pages - [Online Community Platform](https://vonza.net/best-community-platform): Everything in Vonza Community: spaces, posts, members, chat, paid plans, events and live streams in one place. - [Community Events and Live Streaming](https://vonza.net/community-events): Every event format, recurring schedules, RSVP and reminder emails, and live streams in the feed, in detail. - [Live Streaming](https://vonza.net/live-streaming): Vonza’s live streaming outside a community: classes, sessions and webinars from the dashboard or your site. - [Community Moderation Tools](https://vonza.net/community-moderation): The moderation queue, rules, member reports and blocking, in detail. - [Vonza School](https://vonza.net/school): Education management for Bible colleges and other schools: admissions, fees, live classes and transcripts. - [Online Courses](https://vonza.net/free-online-courses-platform): Build courses for classes and discipleship, then link them to your community.