Best Practices for Families and Households

A Guide for Church Staff and Admin Users

Understanding the difference between households and families in Connection Card Pro — and how to manage them well — helps keep your people records accurate, organized, and helpful for ministry.

This guide explains key concepts, outlines best practices, and answers common scenarios church staff run into.

Contents

• Household vs. Family — What’s the Difference?
• Managing Households
• Managing Family Connections
• Primary Contact
• Real-World Scenarios
• Managers vs. Primary Contacts
• Quick Best Practice Summary

Household vs. Family — What’s the Difference?

Managing Households

• A person does not need to be assigned to a household if they live alone or don’t need to be linked with others.
• If someone is not assigned to any household, Connection Card Pro treats them as a single-person household (invisible to others).
• Households are primarily used for mailing, contact information, and organizing the member directory.

Managing Family Connections

• Families are defined by relationships, not living arrangements.
• Add parent/child, spouse, sibling, grandparent, engaged, etc.
• Extended and multi-generational families are fully supported.
• The system automatically mirrors relationships (e.g., adding a sibling to someone will reflect that same sibling back on the other person’s profile).

Primary Contact (formerly Head of Household)

• Only one person per household can be marked as the Primary Contact.
• This is not gender-specific and can be any trusted adult the organization views as the main point of contact.
• The primary contact is visible in the directory as the household “parent” and has default permissions in the Personal Hub.

Real-World Scenarios

🧍 Adult Child Moves Out

• ✅ Remove them from the previous household.
• ❌ Do not create a new household unless others will be linked to them (e.g., spouse or roommates).
• ✅ They’ll now function as their own household without needing setup.

💑 Blended Families or Step-Relationships

• ✅ Use “partner” or “engaged” if not married.
• ✅ Connect each child to both parents (if appropriate) using “parent”/“child” relationships.
• ✅ Grandparents, uncles, and aunts can also be linked for multi-generational care.

🏡 Roommates

• ✅ Only create a household if the church sends joint communications (e.g., two college students).
• ❌ Otherwise, treat them as individuals with their own records.

Managers vs. Primary Contacts

✅ Quick Best Practice Summary

• Assign a household only when people live together and need shared communication or contact grouping.
• Use family connections to reflect real-life relationships, even across households.
• Don’t assign households or families to every person — only when helpful.
• Always assign a Primary Contact to every household you create.
• Use descriptive and appropriate relationship labels (partner, child, grandparent, etc.).
• The system will auto-handle mirrored relationships — no need to re-link both sides.