When I shipped Ministry Margin Directory 1.0, I thought I understood what the app was.
A couple of weeks later, after carrying it on my own phone and using it in ordinary ministry, I realized I understood it much better.
That experience became Directory 1.2.
This update adds better local search, People Map, People Nearby, clearer navigation, accessibility improvements, and a long list of refinements throughout the app.
That may seem like a lot to add so soon after launch. It certainly felt that way while I was building it. But instead of making me wish I had delayed version 1.0, it convinced me that releasing when I did was exactly the right decision.
01
Why Shipping 1.0 Mattered
It’s tempting, especially as an independent developer, to believe every good idea needs to make the first release.
I don’t think that’s true anymore.
Before an app ships, every feature is theoretical. You can sketch it, prototype it, and imagine how someone might use it, but you don’t really know what belongs in the center of the product.
At some point you have to stop imagining and start living with what you’ve built.
Directory 1.0 gave me something real.
It wasn’t a collection of ideas anymore. It was an app I could actually depend on.
It already did the job I built it to do. It gave pastors and ministry leaders fast access to the Planning Center People information they already had permission to see. From a person’s profile they could call, text, email, open directions, save someone to Apple Contacts, or keep a private prayer request connected to them.
That was the purpose of the app.
Version 1.0 accomplished it.
But once I started relying on Directory during the week, I stopped asking, “What else could this app do?”
Instead I started noticing the small places where its central purpose still had unnecessary friction.
Those were the ideas worth building next.
02
One Simple Pastoral Workflow
Directory has always been built around one simple idea.
Find the person you’re thinking about.
Take the next faithful step.
Sometimes that starts with a name.
Sometimes it starts with a missed call and only a few digits of a phone number.
Sometimes I remember the street someone lives on but can’t remember their name.
Sometimes I’m already looking at one person and wondering who else from the church lives nearby.
Those aren’t different administrative tasks.
They’re different entrances into the same pastoral responsibility.
Directory 1.2 now lets you search locally by name, phone number, or address. Phone searches ignore formatting differences, so parentheses, spaces, and dashes don’t matter. Search results also explain why they matched, which is especially helpful when you started with only part of an address or phone number.
Just as importantly, those searches stay on your phone. Search queries are never sent to Ministry Margin.
The goal wasn’t to build a more impressive search feature.
The goal was to make it easier to get back to the person.
03
The Feature I Thought Could Wait
Originally I planned to save People Map for a later release.
It seemed like a nice enhancement, but not something Directory needed immediately.
Then I built it.
Within a few days I realized I had been wrong.
People Map quickly became one of my favorite parts of the app.
It gives a completely different perspective on the same directory by showing where people and households are distributed throughout the community.
Families stay grouped together. Larger directories automatically cluster nearby households to keep the map readable. Tapping someone still takes you to the same focused contact card with the same practical actions you’ve always had.
The map didn’t pull Directory away from its purpose.
It reinforced it.
Once I realized that, holding it back simply because it belonged to a future milestone didn’t make much sense anymore.
04
Understanding Context
People Nearby grew naturally out of the same idea.
When you’re viewing someone’s contact card, Directory can now show other people who share that household, followed by people whose addresses are geographically closest.
The app isn’t making recommendations.
It isn’t deciding who should provide care.
It’s simply giving pastors better context before they decide what to do.
Questions like these matter.
Who else lives here?
Who from the church is nearby?
Is there someone I already know in this part of town?
Once you have that context, the next step is still simple.
Call.
Text.
Email.
Open directions.
Save them to Contacts.
Pray for them.
Search, People Map, and People Nearby aren’t really three separate features.
Together they’re one connected workflow.
Find the person.
Understand a little more of their context.
Take the next faithful step.
05
A Better App Without Becoming a Bigger One
Directory 1.2 also reorganizes the app with clearer navigation for Directory, Prayer, Map, Search, and Settings, along with dozens of interaction, accessibility, and visual improvements throughout the experience.
Those changes matter just as much as the larger features.
Adding capability without improving clarity simply replaces one kind of friction with another.
06
Privacy Still Comes First
One thing hasn’t changed.
Directory is intentionally conservative about your data.
People Map and People Nearby do not use your iPhone’s current location. They work only from the addresses already stored in your selected Planning Center directory.
When those features need coordinates, addresses are sent directly to Apple’s geocoding service. Ministry Margin never receives those requests. The resulting coordinates are stored locally on your device and are removed whenever your locally cached Planning Center data is cleared.
Planning Center remains the source of truth for your church’s information. Directory simply reads the People records your account already has permission to access. It never writes changes back.
Prayer requests remain private Ministry Margin data. They stay on your device unless you choose to sync them through your personal iCloud account, and they are never written back into Planning Center.
Those boundaries aren’t limitations.
They’re part of the philosophy behind the app.
Planning Center continues to organize your church.
Directory helps you care for the people in it.
07
More Fully Itself
Directory 1.2 is a significantly better app than the one I released only a short time ago.
I’m proud of that.
But I don’t see it as evidence that I shipped version 1.0 too early.
I see it as evidence that shipping matters.
The discipline before version 1.0 was finishing something genuinely useful and letting it become real.
The discipline afterward was resisting the temptation to chase unrelated ideas and instead completing the features that clearly strengthened the app’s central purpose.
Directory still isn’t trying to become another church management platform.
It’s still a focused, private, local-first iPhone companion for ministry workers who use Planning Center.
It just does that job much better than it did a few weeks ago.
I expect the next season of Directory development to be much quieter. There will always be refinements to make, accessibility improvements to pursue, and reliability work worth doing. But I don’t feel pressure to keep adding large features simply for the sake of having something new to announce.
The app now feels much more like the one I set out to build.
And I think that’s exactly what shipping version 1.0 made possible.
Directory 1.2
Currently in App Review and coming soon.
Directory 1.2 is currently in App Review and will be released soon.
View Ministry Margin Directory on the App Store