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A walk through Synodo

Someone in a group

Everything this week in one place — and it tells you what is being asked of you.

Open it and it already knows

No hunting through a church app for the bit that concerns you. The first line says whether anything needs you today, and what. Most weeks it says nothing does, which is the honest answer and the one that keeps people opening it.

This week, with the work attached

The study is in the app, not in a PDF somebody emailed in September. The reading, the questions, anything to do before Thursday — and a tick against each one, so a leader can see who has done what without asking anybody in the room.

Mark it up — it is yours

Highlight a line in the guide and it stays highlighted, in your color, only for you. People keep what they have annotated, and almost nothing else.

The conversation lives with the study

Not a separate group chat that half the church has muted. Prayer requests that can be marked answered, a poll when a date needs deciding, and "remind me about this" on anything you will otherwise forget by Tuesday.

Say something only the leader sees

Some questions are not for the room. A written answer goes to the leader alone, which is a thing no group chat can do and the reason people answer honestly.

Leading a group

Your Sunday night takes ten minutes.

The week on one screen

Who is coming, what is due, what you said you would do. A volunteer leader has twenty minutes of goodwill a week and this is what they spend it on, so it is one screen rather than four.

The leader guide, in the room with you

Your prep notes for tonight — the opening, the questions, the thing to watch for — tabbed and on your phone. This is the part other church software simply does not have: it manages the roster and leaves the actual meeting to a printout.

Ask the group something, on the agenda

A sign-up for who is bringing what, a poll, an RSVP for the retreat — attached to the agenda item it belongs to. Not twenty replies up a chat thread that somebody has to count on a Saturday.

It notices who is slipping before you do

Take the register in four taps. Synodo watches attendance, the work and whether somebody has opened the app at all, and quietly names the person who has missed two in a row. It is a prompt to ask, never a verdict on anybody — a man in hospital scores nothing, and the software should not pretend to know why.

Write it Thursday, send it Sunday

Leaders prepare when they have time and want it to land when people will read it. Schedule the message, pin the one that matters, and let the ones who have not seen it be nudged rather than chased.

Running it for the church

See thirty groups without ringing thirty leaders.

Every group, honestly

Attendance, how much of the work is getting done, and how many people in each group are drifting. Derived from what actually happened, not from what a leader remembered to report.

The names, and a way to reach them

The at-risk list says who, why, and gives you their phone number. A screen that names somebody and offers nothing to do about it is worse than no screen, so this one ends in a call rather than a worry.

Build a study once; every group runs it

Units, leader guides, homework, handouts, reading with a link to buy the book. Share it with the other churches on Synodo, or copy theirs — handouts and all, which is the part that usually breaks.

Your people, from where they already are

Import a CSV, or connect Planning Center and pick groups by tag. PCO stays the source of truth for names. Anybody who cannot find their invite can ask to be added, and you answer it in two presses.

What your leaders are telling you

Leaders check in; you get a written summary every Monday — who is struggling, which groups have gone quiet, what needs you. The reporting line a volunteer organization never otherwise has.

Getting started is an afternoon

A guided first group: pick what kind it is, choose a study, add people. Thirty days free, no card, and your data is exportable from the first day to the last.