• Avoid using abbreviations or initials when naming Congregations.
• Attempt to make Congregation names as short as possible.
• All MinistryPlatform churches would benefit from at least one "Friends of ..." Congregation. This can be assigned to companies, missionaries and others who may not attend any of your Congregations. This Congregation would rarely - if ever - be used for things like Events, Opportunities, Groups, etc.
• Multi-site churches would benefit from a "Church-wide Activities" Congregation. This can be used for Groups and Programs that serve all or several Congregations. The Portal can be configured so that giving opportunities assigned to this Congregation are visible under all congregations. Use the Configuration setting, Common: GlobalCongregationID to set the church-wide congregation. 
• When a multi-site church launches a new campus, it is possible to copy the basic Group and Program structure of an existing Congregation by opening that Congregation record on the Congregations page and clicking Copy.  It is advised to modify the names of the Groups and Programs copied so they are clearly related to the new campus.
• You can set which Congregation is defaulted when a new Household record is created (and the entry point does not otherwise specify/require Congregation). To do so, go to Administration > Configuration Settings > DefaultCongregationID and put the desired Congregation ID# in the Value field.

If a Congregation needs to be renamed:

• Be aware that when you rename a congregation, any custom views that you have created that filter using that congregation name will need to be updated - and therefore, you may want to consult support for assistance.