What's Coming to Shepherd's Pastoral Care in 2026

Every feature on Shepherd's roadmap started with a real pastor's real problem. This is the story of what we're building next — and why.

A Message from Bamenda

Pastor Brian Tanko Mbuli leads Mount Zion Baptist Church in Bamenda, Cameroon. He was one of the first international churches to join Shepherd, and within days of signing up, he sent us a message that changed our roadmap.

"I'm really just thinking like a Pastor now and proposing what I'd like to have in a preferred church management system. The Pastoral Care module is a huge deal."

He asked for three things: notifications when prayer requests are acted on, appointment confirmations with details, and a way to set his availability so members know when to book. We shipped all three within 24 hours of his message. But that conversation opened a much bigger question: what does a truly pastoral church management system look like?

What's Live Today

Shepherd's pastoral care module already includes:

• Prayer Request Management — Members submit via WhatsApp (PRAY), staff manage from the dashboard, and members are notified when their prayer is being prayed for or answered
• Appointment Booking — Members book via WhatsApp (BOOK), pastors confirm, and members receive confirmation with date and time
• Pastor Availability Slots — Set your weekly availability so members see real slots when booking
• Member Feedback — Star ratings and comments after services, visible in a dashboard
• Multilingual notifications — Every message sent in the member's preferred language: English, French, Twi, or Pidgin English

This is a solid foundation. But pastoral care is more than managing requests — it's about knowing your congregation, tracking their journey, and never letting anyone slip through the cracks.

What We're Building: Q2 2026

1. Follow-up Tasks & Reminders

When a prayer request comes in, someone should be responsible for following up. With tasks, you can assign a follow-up to any team member with a due date. They'll receive a WhatsApp reminder when it's due, and you'll see overdue tasks surfaced on your dashboard.

No more relying on memory. No more members wondering if anyone saw their request.

2. Prayer Broadcast (SHARE)

Also requested by Pastor Brian: when a member shares their prayer request with the congregation, the prayer team should know about it immediately. We're building a broadcast feature so a single approved prayer can reach your entire prayer team via WhatsApp — and they can reply PRAYING to join in intercession.

3. Pastoral Visit Log

In African church culture, visiting members — at home, in hospital, at a bereavement — is central to ministry. Shepherd will let you log every visit: who was visited, by whom, when, what type of visit, and notes. The full care history of every member, in one place.

4. Absent Member Auto-Care

Shepherd already tracks attendance. Soon, it will use that data proactively. When a member misses two, four, or six consecutive services, a care task is automatically created and a WhatsApp alert sent to your pastoral team. You'll know when your sheep are gone.

5. Secure Care Notes

Pastoral conversations need to be documented privately. A secure, append-only note per member — accessible only to staff with pastoral care permissions — means nothing important gets forgotten, and sensitive context is preserved for whoever needs to follow up next.

What We're Building: Q3 2026

Church Elections & Voting

One of the most consequential moments in any church's life is electing its leaders — elders, deacons, committee chairs. It should be transparent, documented, and trusted by everyone.

Shepherd is building a WhatsApp-native elections system with a full audit trail. Members will nominate via WhatsApp, vote via WhatsApp, and receive the results via WhatsApp. A cryptographic ballot token system ensures voter privacy while preserving the ability to verify the process after the fact. PDF results certificates, gender balance advisories, and automatic tie-flagging are all included.

No other church management system built for Africa offers this. We're building it because governance matters, and technology should make integrity easier — not harder.

Built in Africa, for Africa

The platforms that dominate church software were built for Western churches with reliable broadband, credit cards, and email-first communication. They were not built for a pastor in Bamenda managing a congregation where most members communicate via WhatsApp, give via Mobile Money, and expect their pastor to visit them at home.

Shepherd was. And every feature we build is shaped by the pastors using it — in Ghana, in Cameroon, and across the continent.

If you have a feature request, send us a WhatsApp message. It might be on the next roadmap.