Set up your congregation and onboard publishers

1. Understand what a tenant congregation is

A tenant congregation manages its own witnessing locations, schedules, and helper relationships. Right now Brutus is operating as an active tenant. Other congregations can remain helpers until their own admins decide to activate their tenant workspace.

2. Review a congregation’s status

Open Congregations from the main navigation and select the congregation you want to manage. The congregation page shows contact details, assigned locations, members, and whether the congregation is already operating as a tenant.

1. Open the Congregations menu in the main navigation.
2. Select the congregation you want to review.
3. Look at the Tenant congregation settings section to see whether it is already active as a tenant.

3. Enable a congregation as its own tenant

If the congregation is not yet operating its own tenant, a congregation admin can activate it from the congregation detail page. Public Witness Scheduler will reuse an existing tenant if one already exists, or create one automatically if it does not.

1. Go to the congregation’s detail page.
2. In Tenant congregation settings, choose Enable this congregation as a tenant.
3. After activation, the congregation can manage its own locations and schedules while still helping in other tenants.

4. Add or update congregation members

Use the PWS Admin area for user onboarding and role changes. That is the fastest place to create congregation users, set their role, and make sure they belong to the correct congregation.

1. Open Admin from the top-right utility links.
2. Select Users.
3. Create a new user or open an existing one.
4. Set the person’s role and congregation.
5. Save the user, then give them their login details.

5. Help publishers get started

Once a user account is created, help the publisher sign in, open their profile, and confirm their personal details are complete. They can update their own name, phone number, address, theme, and profile image from the profile page.

1. Ask the publisher to log in with the credentials you created.
2. Direct them to Profile in the top-right corner.
3. Have them update their information so scheduling and messaging stay accurate.

6. Task guides for everyday work

The full walk-throughs for the most common admin tasks live in their own pages:

• Adding and editing locations — map pin, address auto-fill, delete rules.
• Creating shifts and recurring rules — single shifts, seasonal recurring rules, cancel vs delete.
• Onboarding publishers and setting roles — add a publisher, hand off the temporary password, approve for helper congregations.
• Using Public Witness Scheduler messages — compose, reply, archive, trash.

7. Pause visibility of shifts in tenants you help

If a season comes when your own congregation needs every available publisher on its own locations, you can quietly redirect attention by pausing visibility of the helped tenant's shifts. This is per-relationship — if your congregation helps two other tenants, you can pause one and leave the other visible.

Where to do it: open Manage → Tenants we help. Each row is a tenant your congregation is currently a helper for, with a Pause visibility button.

What "Pause visibility" does for the helped tenant's shifts:

• The tenant disappears from your volunteers' tenant switcher dropdown.
• Its shifts no longer show in their shift list, calendar, or sign-up flow.
• Helper-shift invitations to your publishers from that tenant are blocked.
• Sign-ups attempted via direct link are politely refused with a note pointing them at you.

What it does not do — your existing helping relationship is preserved:

• Existing signups stay valid. Anyone already on a future shift in the helped tenant remains on it, and reminders for those shifts still go out.
• Your congregation is still listed as an active helper in the helped tenant. Their admins can still rely on existing signups and can still message your publishers.
• Admins of your congregation (you) still see the helped tenant in your own tenant switcher so you can verify the pause is in effect, view existing signups, and resume when ready.

The helped tenant will know. Their Manage → Helpers page will show a "Visibility paused" badge next to your congregation's name, so they can plan their own coverage accordingly. There's no surprise; pausing is a coordination signal, not a withdrawal.

Volunteers will know too. The next time a publisher with a future signup in the paused tenant visits the home page, a soft banner explains that visibility is paused, that their existing signups are still on the schedule, and that they should talk to their admin if they need to add a new visiting shift.

To resume, return to Manage → Tenants we help and click Resume visibility. Everything reappears immediately on the next page load.

8. Manage publisher reminders

The short notes that appear on every publisher's home page under Public witnessing reminders live in the admin under Scheduling → Reminders. Add, edit, reorder, or remove them any time — changes are live immediately, no deploy needed.

See the dedicated walk-through with screenshots: Managing publisher reminders.

9. Recommended onboarding checklist for a new congregation admin

1. Confirm the congregation record is correct.
2. Decide whether the congregation should remain a helper or activate its own tenant.
3. Create user accounts for the congregation’s admins and publishers.
4. Verify congregation and tenant assignments in admin.
5. Check locations, scheduling surfaces, and member visibility in the main app.