It has been a few months since the last Disciples update, and there are several new features to announce.

Copying Names Between Churches

Users who have coordinator level access to a church can now copy names to other churches that they have access to. This can be accomplished by clicking edit on the web version, and then at the bottom of the edit form select the new church that you want to copy the name to and hit the copy button.

Customizable Fields

One often requested feature is the ability to add customized values to the dropdown lists in Disciples. This can now be done for churches with a Disciples Pro subscription. Simply click on the “Manage Church Fields” button on the church page in Disciples to load the editor.

Pipeline View

Pipeline view is a new feature that helps organize interests by their level of involvement. Users can view contacts, and easily see what stage of evangelistic involvement they are in. Names can easily be moved between stages by dragging and dropping. It is hoped that this feature will simplify organization and management, especially for active growing churches.

Lists

One of the most useful features of Disciples is the filter capability. With filters, you can select just the names that you want to work with. New in Disciples is the list feature. Lists are simply saved filters that can be applied at any time or used for other purposes in the application.

New Beta Features: Email and Mailings

Since we have an advanced list management tool, we now have bulk email and mail features in beta that pro users can access. If you church has a Disciples pro subscription and wishes to access these features, please send a email to support@disciples.io. We anticipate launching these features to everyone in March 2020.

Email

Disciples now has its own email infrastructure specifically designed for the needs of churches and evangelistic teams. Our new integrated email feature makes sending emails to some or all of your contacts incredibly easy. We are working to add sequences and automatic trigger based emails.

Targeted Mailings

In addition to email, we are launching the ability to send postal mail to names in your interest lists. At the present time, we are still manually ensuring that every letter or post card is properly printed, so our turn around time for each mailing is 1-2 business days. In the near future, however, we will be automating our processes so that you can instantly send mailings to all of your names with the click of a button. We’ve worked hard to get the best mailing rates possible, the following prices include full color printing, shipping / handling, and postage.

To find templates that you can use to design your mailing, visit the Disciples documentation.

Mailing Piece Free User Pricing Pro User Pricing
4x6 Postcard $0.70 /postcard $0.44 /postcard
6x9 Postcard $0.98 /postcard $0.64 /postcard
6x11 Postcard $1.05 /postcard $0.70 /postcard
Letter, First Class $0.98 /letter $0.68 /letter
Additional Letter Pages $.26 /page $.22 /page

Future Development Directions

There are a number of future developments for Disciples that are planned for this year. These new features are in development, but are not ready for public consumption yet.

  • iPhone/Android App Update / Scanning
    • We are rebuilding our iPhone and Android apps this year. One of the first features to be released will be an integrated barcode scanner for recording event attendance.
  • Kiosk Mode / Guestbook
    • We are building a new iOS / Android app specifically targeted to serve as a checkin kiosk / guestbook.
  • Small group enhancements
    • Small groups will be returning to Disciples in a big way. Expect a number of new tools to help organize and manage small groups.
  • Advanced Mapping / Territories
    • Disciples has maps, but there is so much more that can be done with mapping. Think being able to filter by distance from a location, or to be able to assign territories to workers.
  • Developer API / Integrations
    • We are working on a first class REST based API, granting developers of other projects and ministries the ability to integrate their tools with Disciples.
  • Access control
    • In the future, Disciples Pro will allow you to restrict users to only be able to see names that are part of specific lists.

If you have thoughts or feedback to give, feel free to email us at support@disciples.io