Getting your church into the app

There is no button in Scout that emails your congregation an invitation to churchHQ. The way in is your church's own link, handed out by you, and this article covers what that link is, what a member does with it, and what has to be true in your directory before you send it.

The invite screen is staff-only

Settings → Users → + Invite opens Invite a user, and the role list on that screen leaves Member out on purpose. Scout will not create a congregant invite, and there is no member-invite email template anywhere in the product. That screen exists for people who need a staff login. See Inviting your team.

There is also no bulk "send everyone the app link" action, no member link to copy anywhere in Settings, and no step at the end of an import that emails the people it added. Settings has four tabs: Church Info, Users, Permissions, and Audit Log. None of them mention the member app.

Your church's link

Your link is the slug you picked under Your church URL during setup, plus .scout.church:

https://yourchurch.scout.church

If you have connected a custom domain, that domain works identically and is the better one to hand out. Scout does not display either address anywhere in the dashboard, so write it down somewhere you can find it.

That bare address is everything a member needs. It lands on the member app, and a signed-out visitor gets your branded sign-in page carrying your logo and your accent color.

What a member does when they open it

1. 1

   Type an email address

   The first screen asks for Email address. They tap Continue.

2. 2

   Password, or a code

   Someone who already has a password gets a Password field and a Sign in button. Everyone else gets a 6-digit code emailed instead. The message comes from your church's name at noreply@scout.church, and the subject is your church's name followed by "sign-in code."

3. 3

   Enter the code

   The code lasts 10 minutes and dies after five wrong attempts. The two messages people report are "That code has expired. Request a new one." and "Too many attempts. Request a new code." Both have a resend on the same screen. Entering the code signs a known member straight in — there is no password to create.

4. 4

   Brand-new people add a name

   Someone with no record in your directory gets one more screen, Tell us your name: First name, Last name, then Finish.

They are in at that point. There is no approval step on your side, no waiting list, and no password — the emailed code is the sign-in, and the session persists on that device. A member who wants a password can set one from the Set a password card in their profile, and once one exists the sign-in screen asks for it.

What has to be true in your directory

When someone finishes signing in, Scout looks for a person in your church whose email matches what they typed, ignoring capitalization. Two outcomes:

• A match that no other login has claimed. Their account attaches to that record. Their giving history, groups, and serving slots are all there the first time they open the app.
• No match. Scout creates a new person record from the name they typed and marks the source as self-signup. Nothing breaks, but if that person was already in your directory under a different address, or with no email at all, you now have two records for the same human. See Cleaning up duplicates.

So the work before you announce anything is email hygiene. The address on a person's record needs to be the address they will actually type.

Two more constraints worth knowing before the questions start:

• One account per email address, across all of Scout. A couple who share one inbox cannot each have their own account, and a member whose address is already on another church's Scout account sees "That email is already used on another church account."
• A login with no person record attached is a broken state. Home renders the newcomer card, and Schedule, Groups, Give and Profile all show "Couldn't reach" followed by your church's name. That combination is the symptom to listen for. See I can't log in.

A signup-shaped version of the same link

https://yourchurch.scout.church/welcome is a first-time setup page. Tell us about you collects First name, Last name, Email, and an optional Phone, then sends the same 6-digit code and creates the account. Same matching rules, same result. It asks for a phone number up front and reads like a signup form rather than a sign-in.

Nothing inside Scout links to /welcome. If you want people to use it, put it in your own communication.

The churchHQ app

churchHQ is the name on the App Store and Google Play. It is free, and it is the same member app in a native wrapper.

On first launch it opens Find your church: type at least two characters of your church name, tap the result, tap Open. That phone then goes straight to your church on every launch afterward. The shell remembers one church and has no switch-church control, so someone who serves at two churches on Scout has to pick one and use a browser for the other.

Push notifications reach the App Store and Google Play app only. A browser tab or a home-screen shortcut gets none. See Notifications and profile. scout.church/download is a public page carrying both store badges, which makes it a reasonable target for a bulletin link or a QR code.

Adding it to a home screen instead

Someone who would rather not use an app store can open your church's link in Safari or Chrome and use the browser's own Add to Home Screen. The shortcut opens full-screen, carries your church's name and accent color, and behaves like the app in every way except notifications. There is no "Install this app" prompt inside Scout, and the shortcut takes the browser's generic icon. The per-church home-screen icon was retired when the native apps shipped.

Announcing it is your job

Posting an announcement inside Scout does not solve this either. An announcement pushes to people who already have the native app installed with notifications on, which on day one is nobody. See Who receives an announcement.

The rollout runs on the channels you already own:

• from the stage, with the link on screen and someone walking through the four steps above
• your existing email list, wherever you send your newsletter from
• your existing text list
• your website and your social accounts
• a printed card at the welcome desk with a QR code pointing at your link
• team leaders and group leaders asking their own people directly

Expect it to take weeks rather than a Sunday. The people who get in first are the ones who have a reason to: volunteers with a serving slot waiting for them, group members with a request pending, givers who want to switch off a paper envelope.