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⛪️ Connecting Church Leader Training Guide

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Estimated read time: 13 minutes

Overview

Whether you're just beginning to explore becoming a Connecting Church, have recently stepped into the Connecting Church Leader role, or you're a veteran leader looking for a refresher, this article is for you. Designed to accompany the Connecting Church Training video below, this written guide breaks down the key content into clear, manageable sections. Let's walk through it together!

Intended audience

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Included in this article

Ministry philosophy of the Connecting Church feature

The Connecting Church feature is a strategic innovation by CarePortal to bridge the gap in our Circles of Care between the Church and the broader community. CarePortal already empowers Churches to meet vetted, real-time needs — but with this feature, community generosity flows through the Local Church — not around it — ensuring that the Church remains at the Point of Care.

Why does that matter? Because while anyone can offer resources, only the Church carries the biblical mandate to serve the vulnerable in the name of Christ. When a community member gives, it's a Local Church that delivers — not just the item, but relational presence, hope, and spiritual grounding — with a posture of humility that prioritizes the family's dignity.

This feature also helps under-resourced Churches in high-need areas without compromising their role. The goal isn't simply to meet needs — it's to steward those moments into meaningful, gospel-centered connections.

Being a Connecting Church isn't about collecting more resources. It's about connecting more with families. It's a chance to reflect on who God is and what He's done for us by how we show up on our neighbors' doorsteps in their moment of need.

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Important settings & tools for Connecting Churches

These seven settings and tools make it possible for Connecting Churches to respond confidently and sustainably to families in crisis, ensuring resources are stewarded well and helping more meaningful connections take place.

1. Connecting Church Leader role

Assigned by your Primary Point Person, Connecting Church Leaders receive alerts when someone in the community offers to help and have permission to Take the Lead on requests. This role can also request a CarePortal Card through their Dashboard. For each request they Take the Lead on, they're positioned to help organize and coordinate responses from the community, engage any Response Team at your Church, and ensure requests are managed with care.

2. CarePortal Card

This secure, reloadable debit card allows cardholders to purchase items using donated money from responders to provide items from a request for a family in need. Activation requires training and a signed CarePortal Cardholder Agreement, and is required for any Church to become an active Connecting Church. You can access deeper training in the CarePortal Card training article.

3. Transactions tab

Located in your Dashboard, the Transactions tab tracks every dollar, including donations received, spent, and remaining, to ensure transparency and accountability. Anyone with a Church Leader role will see the Transactions tab in their CarePortal Dashboard, even if they don't have a CarePortal Card.

4. Connecting Church Radius

Set by your Primary Point Person, this determines how far your team is willing to travel to serve a family when a Community Responder offers resources to help meet a request. This setting can be adjusted throughout the year based on your ministry capacity, and your Network Leader can help you identify the best starting point based on your community's needs.

Note that this radius is different from the Response Team Radius. Here's the difference:

  • Connecting Church Radius — controls when your Church is notified that a Community Responder has offered resources for an open request that need a willing Connecting Church to Take the Lead and fulfill the request
  • Response Team Radius — controls which requests your Response Team is notified about when an Agency Worker submits a request

5. Engage My Community

After Taking the Lead on a request, Engage My Community lets any of your Church Leaders send a message to other Churches, Community Responders, and Champions, inviting them to respond and help meet the remaining needs. As the Lead Church, you'll be alerted to any responses from Community Responders or Champions, as well as any money donated toward the request from any type of responder, including Church Responders.

If another Church has already Taken the Lead, or if no remaining needs exist when your Church Takes the Lead, Engage My Community won't be available.

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Important! Only Church Leaders can see this button when logged in directly. Agency Workers will not be notified when you Engage the Community.

6. Manage Community Responses

When Community Responders or Champions commit to Provide items on a request you're the Lead Church over, you'll see their contact information and what they've committed to in your Dashboard on the request page. Select Manage Community Responses to view this. 

If something doesn't work out, a Primary Point Person or Connecting Church Leader can modify the item(s) by removing the Provided commitment and reopening the item(s) for other responders. Regional Managers have this functionality as well. 

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Important! This only applies to Provided responses. For help reversing a Funded response, contact your Regional Manager or reach out to Support. Please note that Taking the Lead cannot be undone.

7. CarePortal Fund (optional)

This tool allows your Church to accept tax-deductible donations via your public page. Church Leaders can make contributions from their CarePortal Dashboard and direct money from this account to Fund specific items on any CarePortal request. If their Church is local to the request and a Lead Church hasn't already stepped up, these leaders are given the chance to immediately Take the Lead and trigger an automatic transfer of the money onto their CarePortal Card. Otherwise, the donation is offered to other local Connecting Churches once one of them Takes the Lead. You can learn more in the CarePortal Fund training article.

Together, these tools help your Church lead with clarity, steward generosity well, and create meaningful, gospel-centered connections with families in need. Your Network Leader is available to guide you through setup and best practices whenever you're ready.

Taking the Lead on local requests

Taking the Lead is how your Church steps in to steward community-offered resources, ensuring they actually reach the family in need and that a relational connection is made through the Local Church.

1. Finding requests with resources available

The Primary Point Person and Connecting Church Leader(s) can learn which requests in their area have resources available in three primary ways:

  1. Email notifications — Once resources are offered by a responder that will need to be stewarded by a Connecting Church, the Recommended Connecting Church is alerted and given a 24-hour window to Take the Lead before other local Connecting Churches are notified. The email includes a button that takes the leader directly to the request page.
  2. Resources Available badge — When browsing requests in the Requests tab using the Map or Grid view, the Primary Point Person and Connecting Church Leaders will see a visual indicator on requests showing what type of resources are available to be claimed.
  3. Browse Open Requests filters — The Primary Point Person and Connecting Church Leaders will each see filters available in both the Quick Filters and general Filters lists to easily view only the requests with available resources in their local area.

 

2. Step-by-step walkthrough: Taking the Lead

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Important! Take the Lead is an irreversible action. Once a Church has taken the Lead on a request, it cannot be removed as the Lead Church. Make sure you are ready to coordinate before selecting Take the Lead.

 

3. Next steps

  1. Coordinate with responders — For Provided items, you'll receive the Community Responder's contact information in an email confirmation (and they'll receive yours) to start coordinating logistics. For Funded items, the donation is immediately transferred to your Church's CarePortal Card balance and is available to spend. No logistical coordination with the responder(s) is needed in these cases.
  2. Coordinate with the Agency Worker — In the same email confirmation, you'll receive the worker's contact information to help you connect with the family, and they'll receive yours. Whether it's a call or text, try to establish contact quickly, regardless of who reaches out first.
  3. Use your CarePortal Card — Donations for Funded items are transferred to your CarePortal Card to be used for providing those items to the family. Aside from intentional transaction restrictions to protect trust and accountability, this process removes logistical barriers to getting needs met.
  4. Activity Feed — There are meaningful connection opportunities even with responders who Fund items on requests you Take the Lead on. Reply to their post in the Activity Feed to say thank you, offer updates, and build trust in the process so they return and meet additional requests in the future.
  5. Verify Participation — After the need is met, someone from your Church who was involved will need to confirm your Church's participation so your impact is recorded. Click here to learn more about Verify Participation.
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Tip: If another local Church commits to Provide items on a request they are local to, they'll still coordinate directly with the Agency Worker, even if you're the Lead Church. Collaboration is encouraged, but not required.

Connecting Church launch strategy & tips

How to build a healthy, sustainable rhythm from day one.

  1. Choose leaders with a heart for it. Your Connecting Church Leaders should feel called to serve families in crisis, and excited to do it more often when given access to the right resources. These leaders thrive when they see CarePortal as a way to experience God more deeply while helping others.
  2. Use CarePortal as a ministry access point. Don't treat CarePortal as "one more ministry" within your Church. Instead, use it to support existing ministries with real-time opportunities to serve local families. Every ministry can become a Response Team that operates in its own unique way.
  3. Set healthy, shared rhythms. Protect leaders from burnout by setting and sharing realistic response goals (e.g., one request per week). Communicate availability clearly with Network Leaders up front to help build sustainable local networks.
  4. Stay organized and accountable. When managing multiple responders or requests, organization is critical. Use your Dashboard tools, like custom saved views and the Transactions tab, along with your own internal tools to keep processes smooth and relationships strong.
  5. Be ready when you Take the Lead. Taking the Lead isn't the finish — it's the start. Respond quickly to coordinate with Agency Workers and responders so the family is served well and everyone involved feels supported.
  6. Look for connection at every level. Every request is layered with connection potential, not just with families, but also with Community Responders, Agency Workers, teammates, and even your own heart. Stay open to where God may be working.
  7. Build your team intentionally. CarePortal highly recommends hosting a Response Team Training with your local Network Leaders as a way to invest in developing future leaders. No one is meant to do this alone. Make sure Church members who want to be involved are approved on your Response Team so they can help Fund and Provide when requests come in.

With these rhythms in place, your Church will be equipped to respond consistently and compassionately, representing Jesus well in your local community.

Who Connecting Churches partner with

When your Church is a Connecting Church, you and your teams are positioned to steward generosity from beyond your walls. Community Responders — whether individuals, non-local Church members, or organizational partners — can all respond to real-time needs in your area. When they do, your Church is invited to Take the Lead.

 

Here's how it works:

  • Community Responders are individuals not on a local Church Response Team, or they may belong to a Church that's not local to the request.
  • Community Champions are businesses, nonprofits, foundations, or other non-Church groups using CarePortal to serve their neighbors with purpose and consistency.

Once a response is made that needs a Local Church to Take the Lead, the most local Connecting Church gets a 24-hour window to Take the Lead as the "Recommended Connecting Church." If one of your Church's own team members funds a request, even if you're not the closest, you'll still be the Recommended Connecting Church because of your relationship with the responder.

Why the Church at the Point of Care matters

Community generosity is powerful and necessary, but also untrained. Community Responders don't have the same level of preparation as Churches do, and can begin responding right away upon enrolling. Your team might even be a responder's first real interaction with someone through CarePortal.

The Church has a mandate to serve from a selfless, unconditional posture. It has a natural discipleship pipeline that connects the act of showing up for vulnerable families to the deepest sense of purpose and calling, the kind that CarePortal, from the Church's perspective, is a doorway into: gospel-rooted hospitality, discipleship, and collaboration.

How community alerts work

Responders are notified when:

  1. A critically urgent request is posted (immediate alert)
  2. A high-urgency request doesn't receive a response within 2 days
  3. A normal urgency request doesn't receive a response within 5 days
  4. A Connecting Church chooses to manually use Engage My Community with a custom invitation about the request

Even if you're not the Lead Church, you can still advocate by sharing the public request link. Anyone who selects it to help will be walked through a simple sign-up process to respond.

Who can you invite?

Think about the local relationships your Church already has — businesses, families, teams, or ministries — who already trust you and might want to partner in this work. Inviting them to enroll as Responders or Champions is a natural next step in building a sustainable local network of care, with your Church guiding the way.

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