Emmasdale Seventh-day Adventist Church · Faith community · Lusaka
From scattered communication to one digital centre.
Church digital platform · Strategy · UX · Full-stack development
Project at a glance
Who it is for
- Client
- Emmasdale Seventh-day Adventist Church
- Sector
- Faith community · Lusaka
- Delivered
- Public website, Member experiences and Leadership platform
Visitors
Find what's on, from anywhere
- Weekly bulletin from one link
- Daily reading and Sabbath School
- Sermons and announcements
Members
Pray together, privately when needed
- Public prayer wall
- Anonymous and confidential requests
- Requests routed to a care inbox
Leaders
Run church admin from a phone
- Quarterly departmental reports
- Digital forms for camps and documents
- Staff care inbox with status
The challenge
Church life ran on chats, paper, and chasing people
Four documented frictions, and the decision that answered each one.
01
- Leaders
Reports ran on paper and WhatsApp chasing
Before
Quarterly figures depended on paper, office visits, and reminders in group chats.
Now
Mobile-friendly staff dashboard, starting with quarterly departmental reports.
02
- Public
Church life stopped at the door
Before
The bulletin and spiritual content were easy to miss if you were away or unwell.
Now
One bulletin link, daily reading, sermons, and announcements available all week.
03
- Members
- Leaders
Prayer requests had nowhere to go
Before
Requests vanished into private messages, and sensitive needs still needed confidentiality.
Now
A public prayer wall, plus anonymous and confidential paths to a staff care inbox.
04
- Leaders
Every request started from scratch
Before
Each camp, event, or document need meant a new form, chat, or paper stack.
Now
Reusable platform forms and structured intakes for repeatable church operations.
“For the first time we can point members and visitors to one place — this Sabbath, prayer, ministries, and how to get help — instead of five different WhatsApp groups.”
Method
How we approached the project
The interesting part wasn't building the website — it was figuring out what needed to be built.
[ 01 ]
Investigate
Stakeholders · channels · workflows · journeys
[ 02 ]
Diagnose
Where information, participation, and admin broke down
[ 03 ]
Architect
Public + members + leaders on one platform
[ 04 ]
Build
Website · workflows · dashboard
[ 05 ]
Ship
Live platform at emmasdalesda.org
Behind the build
Research, structure, and build notes
Open a section for the investigation, the structure, or the build notes.
Discovery and research
How we investigated
Business diagnostic aligned with the implemented product, original SRS, and operating model — stakeholder interviews, channel audit, care-path mapping, benchmark against mature SDA and church platforms, and validation against live modules on emmasdalesda.org. June 2026 business diagnostic aligned with the implemented product, original SRS, and operating model: stakeholder interviews, social and WhatsApp workflow review, care-path mapping, SDA/church benchmarks, and audit of live public routes and staff dashboard domains. Evidence confirmed the product is shaped as church digital operations — content, events, ministries, care, bulletins, forms, quarterly reports, facility scheduling, Camp Meeting, church-document requests, and role-based access — not a static brochure.
Sources
- Stakeholder interviews
- Social and WhatsApp workflow review
- Live public site and staff dashboard audit
- SDA / church platform benchmarks
- Product domains (roles, ministries, care, scheduling)
Evidence snapshot
[ 01 ]
Department and church work still meant paper forms, office visits, and WhatsApp lists — leaders could not reliably submit quarterly reports or collect data from their phone
[ 02 ]
Members who missed Sabbath, travelled, or worshipped online had no single place for bulletin, devotions, sermons, and announcements — the church felt tied to the building and the right chat group
[ 03 ]
Prayer often went to one leader's inbox; the congregation could not see appropriate public requests and pray together, while sensitive needs still lacked a confidential path
[ 04 ]
Visitors and members could not trust one official, current source for service times, programmes, and how to request help
Visual evidence
Screenshot
Digital Bulletin
Architecture and design decisions
The blueprint
System architecture
EMMASDALE DIGITAL HUB
│
┌─────────────┼─────────────┐
↓ ↓ ↓
PUBLIC MEMBERS LEADERS
│ │ │
Visit · Care Bulletin · Reports ·
Ministries Prayer wall Forms · Care
Sermons Devotions Scheduler
│ │ │
└─────────────┼─────────────┘
↓
ONE MOBILE-FRIENDLY HOMECapability
Technology & role
Strategy · UX · Full-stack development
- Next.js
- Node.js
- Role-based admin
- Figma
Implementation
How it works
Workflows
Quarterly report from a leader's phone
- 1.Department head opens dashboard on phone
- 2.Completes quarterly report fields
- 3.Submits for leadership review
- 4.Reviewer approves or requests changes
Prayer on the wall
- 1.Member submits a public prayer request
- 2.Request appears on the prayer wall
- 3.Others read and pray
- 4.Pastoral team follows up where needed
Note
Dashboard “Requisitions” manages official church-document requests — not financial expense approval. Giving pages stay informational until treasury workflows are confirmed.
Scope & limits
Implemented: public site, digital bulletin, Daily with God, Sabbath School surfaces, prayer and care intake, digital forms, quarterly reports, facility scheduler, Camp Meeting and pledges, church-document requests, role-based dashboard. Future scope: full treasury ledger, payment processing, financial requisition chains, membership register, automated WhatsApp broadcasting, broad attendance analytics. Adoption and content ownership remain ongoing.
Have a similar problem in your organisation?
Whether you need a better public website, clearer communication, or a digital system that supports how the organisation works, let's discuss what is not working and what a practical solution could look like.
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