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The People Map displays your congregation as pins on an interactive Google Map, colour-coded by small group status. It gives you a quick visual picture of where your church reaches geographically and helps identify areas where small groups could be planted.
Before you start
The People Map requires two things to be in place before it will show any pins:
- A Google API key — the map won’t load without one. See Google API key setup.
- Geocoded addresses — households need latitude and longitude coordinates stored against them before they can appear as pins. See Geolocating for how to geocode individual addresses, or use the bulk geocode option for your whole directory at once.
Accessing the map
In the admin dashboard
Go to Church Admin → People → People Map. You are first asked to choose which member types to display — tick the ones you want to see and click Show. The map then loads with a pin for every geocoded household in the selected member types.
On your website
You can embed the People Map on any page of your website using the shortcode or the People Map Gutenberg block. Because the map shows personal location data, it is restricted to logged-in users — anyone not logged in sees a login form instead.
You need to be logged in to view the map
Or search for People Map in the Gutenberg block inserter to add it without writing the shortcode by hand.
Shortcode parameters
The shortcode accepts several parameters to customise what the map shows and how it appears:
zoom— the initial zoom level of the map (default: 13). Higher numbers zoom in further.member_type_id— comma-separated list of member type IDs to display. If not set, the map shows a selection form first.small_group— whether to show small group markers (1 = yes, 0 = no; default: 1)unattached— whether to show people not in a small group (1 = yes, 0 = no; default: 1)width— width of the map, any CSS value (default: 100%)height— height of the map, any CSS value (default: 500px)
Example showing only member type IDs 1 and 2 at a slightly wider zoom, in a taller map area:
You need to be logged in to view the map
Understanding the pin colours
Each household is shown as a coloured pin based on their small group status:
- Blue pin — the household is a small group meeting location
- Green pin — the household is in a small group
- Red pin — the household is not in a small group
A legend below the map shows the pin colours with a count for each category, giving you an at-a-glance summary of small group coverage across your congregation.
Map centre
The map centres automatically on your church’s site location if one is configured in Church Admin → Sites & Services. If no site is configured, it centres on the average position of all geocoded household addresses instead.
Privacy considerations
The People Map shows the home locations of your congregation members. If you embed it on your website, make sure the page requires a login — don’t place this shortcode on a publicly accessible page. The shortcode enforces login automatically, showing a login form to non-logged-in visitors, but it’s still good practice to use the logged-in content restriction as an additional layer. See Members only content.
Also make sure your congregation knows their address will appear on the map if they are marked as visible in the directory, as part of your GDPR communication. See General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).