Services — Offer help or find help
Offer Service is for rides, mentoring, babysitting, repairs, and other help you can give. Find Service is for needs you are looking to fill. Preset types keep posting simple; admins approve custom types.
How it works
Curious about Aphelotes before your church signs up? You can still explore. This page walks through what members see, what the tabs mean, and how a church gets started.
Explore without your church registered
You are not stuck at a wall. Until your congregation claims a catalog, you can still learn the product:
- Search across churches — browse items and services already shared by participating congregations.
- Open the live demo catalog — click through Services, Items, Prayer, and Chat the way a member would.
- When Offer / Find / Items / Prayer asks you to pick a church and yours is missing, that only means the congregation has not subscribed yet — not that you did anything wrong.
The tabs members use
Every church catalog has three sections. The site nav shortcuts map to the same places.
Items — Give, lend, or sell
Physical things the community is sharing: furniture, gear, kids clothes, and more. Listings show up on the church page and in global search. Member-to-member payment stays between people — Aphelotes is the bulletin board, not the checkout.
Prayer — Share and support requests
A dedicated space for prayer requests alongside the practical sharing. Same church URL, different tab — so spiritual care sits next to everyday needs.
Chat — Member dialogue & hangouts
Active listing members can post in church chat and announce hangouts. Mark a hangout open for visitors when others may join — that field is the bridge to a future area events app (separate product).
How a church gets started
- An admin subscribes on the home page pricing section, picks a church slug, and completes Stripe Checkout (trial available).
- They sign in with that same email and land in the admin dashboard to invite members, approve listings, and share the catalog link or embed.
- Members open
/c/your-slug/items(or the church website embed) and use Services, Items, Prayer, and Chat.
Common questions
My church isn’t on Aphelotes yet — can I still look around?
Yes. Use Search to browse listings across participating churches, open the live demo catalog if it’s available, or read this FAQ for a walkthrough of the tabs and flows. You don’t need your church registered just to understand the product.
Who can submit items and services?
Anyone your church allows. By default submissions go to PENDING and an admin approves them. You can mark frequent contributors as trusted so their listings auto-publish. Custom service types stay pending until an admin approves the type itself.
What are member services?
Beyond physical items, members can say they are offering help (rides, babysitting, mentoring) or looking for help. Pick from preset types or suggest your own. Contact info stays on the listing so people connect directly.
What are the Services, Items, Prayer, and Chat tabs?
On a church catalog those tabs are the main places people go. Services is for offering or finding help. Items is for things to give, lend, or sell. Prayer is for shared prayer requests. Chat is member-only dialogue — including hangout announcements that can be marked open for visitors (a bridge to a future area events app). The same ideas show up in the top nav.
Is it just for in-church use?
It's whatever you want. Some churches keep their page focused on their congregation. Others let neighbors browse and request items from the wider community.
Can our church website embed this?
Yes. You get a copy-paste embed that renders your live catalog directly on any page of your existing site — no developer needed.
What does it cost?
Monthly or yearly per church, by active listing members: $7/mo ($77/yr) for up to 25, $10/mo ($110/yr) for up to 50, $15/mo ($165/yr) for up to 100, $20/mo ($220/yr) for up to 150, $25/mo ($275/yr) for up to 200, then $30/mo ($330/yr) for up to 250. Yearly is 11 months for the price of 12 (one month free) where yearly checkout is configured. 30-day free trial on both. Cancel anytime. We don't take a cut of sold items — Stripe handles the subscription, not your members' transactions.
How are payments handled when someone sells an item?
Sellers and buyers arrange that directly today (cash, Venmo, etc.) — Aphelotes focuses on the listing and discovery side, kept simple on purpose.
Still figuring it out?
Email the creator directly — happy to walk through whether Aphelotes fits your church.
Or write pulpitconnect@gmail.com