Ministrative v1.28.0 (Beta)

Families beyond the household, a family tree, and a few things made easier to read.

What's new

• Family connections: record who each person's parents are (Birth, Adoptive, Step or Guardian), even when they live in different households. Ministrative works out the rest: children, brothers and sisters (and half-siblings), grandparents and great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws, each with its proper name ("Grandmother", "Son-in-law"). A member's Overview has a Family Connections section at the bottom, closed until you open it.
• A family tree: the new Family tab on a member's profile draws their family from grandparents down to grandchildren. Click anyone to centre the tree on them; More generations reaches further up or down, so a family with five living generations fits on one page.
• Sensible checks: Ministrative won't let someone become their own ancestor or have a third birth parent, and it asks before linking a parent whose birthday is too close to the child's.
• Find families can now also suggest parent links from the households you've already set up.
• Mark a household inactive: when a whole family moves away, mark the household inactive once instead of each person. Inactive households are hidden until you tick Show inactive, and Mark household active again brings them back.
• One line per household: the printed member directory can now list each family on a single line, with its address, phone, and the people in it.
• Dashboard: icons and counts are easier to read in dark mode, Preached On dates read like "Oct 14, 2026", and Recent shows what you preached most recently first.
• For Claude users: the Claude helper can now apply a whole plan of entries, services and teaching slots at once after showing you a preview, and import finished sermons from a Sermon Inbox folder you choose in Settings › File Storage.
• Credits: the Open-source licenses page now credits the Bible texts (from the scrollmapper/bible_databases project).

Your sermons and data are never touched by the installer.

Installing

Download MinistrativeSetup_v1.28.0.1.exe below and run it. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows will warn you that the publisher is unknown: click Run, or More info and then Run anyway. Step-by-step pictures are in the install guide.

This is a beta. Before updating, export a backup: Settings › Backup & Export › Export Backup.

Found a problem?

Open Settings and choose Report a Problem. Describe what happened, and Ministrative builds a small report (never your sermons, members or prayer requests) and opens an email for you to send. For anything else, email support@ministrative.app with your version number from Settings › About.

Ministrative v1.27.0 (Beta)

A bigger Members release: fuller profiles, a pastoral care log, and families.

What's new

• A fuller member profile: each profile now has a header with call, email and edit buttons, and tabs for Overview, Care and Notes (plus Prayer when Prayer Requests is turned on).
• Care log: on the Care tab, keep a record of your visits, calls, cards and counsel, each with a date, notes and an optional follow-up. It shows how long it has been since you were last in touch. The care log is locked on this computer like your member list and is included in every backup.
• Follow-ups on the Dashboard: a new Follow-ups card lists the follow-ups that are due this week or overdue, so you can tick them off or jump to that person.
• A better Members list: sort by name, newest, upcoming birthday or last contacted, and filter by Needs a visit (no contact in 30, 60, 90 or 180 days).
• Households: group your members into families. A member's Overview has a Household section showing the family's address and phone and everyone in it (Head, Spouse, Child or Other), and you can click straight to each of them.
• Households view and Find families: switch the Members screen between People and Households to see one card per family. Find families suggests households from people who share a last name and an address or phone number. You choose which ones to create.
• Open a profile full page: the new Open full page button spreads a member's profile across the whole screen. The back arrow returns you to the list.

Your sermons and data are never touched by the installer.

Installing

Download MinistrativeSetup_v1.27.0.1.exe below and run it. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows will warn you that the publisher is unknown: click Run, or More info and then Run anyway. Step-by-step pictures are in the install guide.

This is a beta. Before updating, export a backup: Settings › Backup & Export › Export Backup.

Ministrative v1.26.1 (Beta)

A small fix-up release after the rename to Ministrative.

What's fixed

• Pictures found in their new home: the starter bulletin covers, member photos, account photos and bulletin pictures that still pointed at the old data folder now point at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ministrative. After this update you can safely delete the old MinistryBase_moved_<date> folder.
• Start menu: the Start menu folder is now named Ministrative.
• Support link: the Support link in About now opens buymeacoffee.com/ministrative. Ministrative is free for everyone; a coffee is never required.

Your sermons and data are never touched by the installer.

Installing

Download MinistrativeSetup_v1.26.1.1.exe below and run it. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows will warn you that the publisher is unknown: click Run, or More info and then Run anyway. Step-by-step pictures are in the install guide.

This is a beta. Before updating, export a backup: Settings › Backup & Export › Export Backup.