Why Church Center is the best place for your group and team chats

Jon Aleixo — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:29:11 GMT

New: Direct messages are now available in Church Center. Members of your groups and teams can now connect directly—one-on-one or in small groups. Learn how to get started.

Have you ever been in a group chat that started as a small fun thread and slowly became...everything? Prayer requests, memes, event planning, Netflix chatter, someone’s random musings about life.

The chaos wasn't the people; it was the tool. Using a general-purpose messaging app for your church has always been a bit of a compromise—not just for your community, but for safety too.

For a lot of churches, GroupMe or WhatsApp has become the default for communication. They're familiar and pretty easy to spin up. But there's a real downside: your church conversations live outside your church tools.

Church Center changes that.

Everything in one place

When your small groups and teams communicate through Church Center, your conversations are connected to the people and structures you've already built in Planning Center.

New group members get added to the right chats automatically, and when someone leaves, they're removed just as seamlessly. No more awkward "can someone remove Amy since she moved" moments. No more starting another text thread because your new guitar player has an Android (we love you Android users).

Conversations also live right next to everything else your people are already using. Group members can chat and browse group resources in the same place they sign up for events. Worship team members can chat and pull up chord charts without switching apps. It's all there, together.

And with DMs now available, your members can connect one-on-one without bouncing to another app.

Built with safety in mind

Church Center is genuinely different from GroupMe and WhatsApp. And we’re proud of that.

Neither of those apps knows anything about your congregation. They don't know who's a minor, who's a group leader, or who just showed up for the first time. They can't. They're general apps built for general audiences.

Church Center is built for churches.

That means safety isn't an add-on or “nice to have” for us. It's built into how communication works from the start. Here's what that looks like in practice:

Two adults, always. Any conversation that includes a teenager requires at least two adults to be in the chat. (That's by default, too. 💪)
Teens can't initiate DMs. If a teenager wants to reach out to their group leader, an adult has to start that conversation. This keeps conversations between adults and minors visible.
Age verification built in. Users without a birthdate on file have to verify their age before accessing chat. Anyone under 13 is completely blocked from chatting.
Admins are in control. As an admin, you decide whether DMs are enabled. You can turn it on completely, or keep it off entirely.
Members can opt out. Anyone who doesn't want to receive DMs can turn them off for themselves.

GroupMe and WhatsApp don’t do this because they're not designed for the relationships and rhythms that come with church communities. Church Center is.

Conversations stay in context

GroupMe and WhatsApp can easily turn into the Wild West. In Church Center, people can only message other people they share a group or team with. That's an intentional—and additional—layer of safety. It keeps conversations grounded in real, existing relationships, without giving access to the whole community or opening people up to conversations they might not welcome.

Your people are already in Church Center. Their giving, event signups, and volunteer schedules are all there. Why not have conversations there too?

💙 Planning Center

How 46 seniors found community and connection through Church Center

Emily Jiles — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:09:14 GMT

On any given week in San Antonio, a 87-year old walks into Grace Community Church and starts stretching.

She is one of 46 seniors—including five others in their 80s—who show up to the church every week for a strength class.

Terri, the church’s admin, has watched the whole class come together. And that was two years ago.

“We have a thriving community of seniors,” she said, “and Planning Center has really helped us to connect them better.”

A city rooted in military community

San Antonio, Texas is a hub of active military and retired veterans. Grace Community Church provides a place of worship and community for both. Terri is part of that story, too. Stationed in San Antonio 26 years ago, Terri discovered Grace—and never left.

While many of Grace’s ministries grew over the years—family, recovery, grief, PTSD, outreach, and others—their only senior-focused event, a monthly mid-week lunch potluck, dwindled in size.

That was until one church member, Jim, had an idea.

A 3-month mobility class experiment is now a weekly community

Jim, a retired physical therapist and member of Grace Community Church, noticed an increase in the number of members who’d taken a fall and were struggling physically. So he suggested a weekly strength class aimed at helping seniors find their footing, increase their stability, and strengthen their core.

Terri made an event signup in Planning Center Registrations to gauge interest. “The group really exploded!” she said.

Suddenly, they had a packed class: People brought friends and neighbors, and even former members started showing up as well.

After the 3-month experiment finished, everyone wanted to keep going!

The class had been a success, and its members wanted even more: a way to reach out and check in on each other in-between classes.

So Terri set up a group in Church Center!

A helping hand: the Church Center app

Grace Community Church has a strong community culture. Over 50% of attending adults are signed up for a regular small group, so many of the class members had already used Church Center for a group signup or online giving.

For those who hadn’t, Jim and his wife stayed before and after class to help people download the app and get set up.

Now all 46 group members use Church Center to share prayer requests, ask for rides, coordinate lawn maintenance, and help with other chores.

When someone misses class, they “razz” each other in the chat.

Today, class members coordinate lunches, Bible breakfasts, and share prayer requests in Church Center

Before this class, the only thing Grace Community Church had for their seniors was the slimly-attended monthly potluck—now it’s packed with people staying after the exercise class.

In the two years since the group started, new groups have sprung up—like a small band of 6-7 older gentlemen who now meet up for breakfast and support one another throughout the week.

And, “If anybody needs a ride,” Terri said, “they just put a little note out there in the Church Center chat, and somebody will go pick them up.”

You can learn more about Church Center and all the ways it can connect your community at planningcenter.com/church-center.

We found out about Grace Community Church’s story through the Planning Center community. The community is a great place to share ministry successes, ask questions, and get ideas on how to use Planning Center in ministry. We’d love to have you join us.

Announcing the Planning Center MCP: Connect ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools

Emily Jiles — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:11:30 GMT

You can now connect ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever AI tool you use to read/view data in your Planning Center account!

Ask quick questions about people, events, donations—anything in Planning Center
Build custom dashboards and reports with data from across Planning Center
Automate tasks in other software tools based on what’s in Planning Center
Audit settings in your account

The Planning Center MCP (Model Context Protocol) is available for Services, Giving, People, Registrations, Calendar, Groups, Publishing, and Check-Ins. The only edit or “write” abilities are in People: the AI tool can make notes and fill out forms on your behalf.

Even the most capable AI tools require a lot of context before they can do anything helpful. That empty chatbot window can feel a lot like that empty page of your college essay! Where to even start?

But your Planning Center account already has tons of ministry context: attendance, zip codes, schedules, demographics, engagement history. That’s a big headstart on context you can’t get anywhere else.

Connecting Planning Center to Claude or ChatGPT means you can access your work more easily, without manually feeding the model everything it needs to know.

A lot of churches are using AI tools to help automate tasks, summarize content, and create efficient processes. Our goal is to equip you with the access you need to use these tools alongside Planning Center, however you want to.

A few reasons to use the Planning Center MCP

You don’t have to use AI tools in your ministry to be productive or to find value in Planning Center. And no matter what’s going on with AI, we’re committed to improving our products to do the work you need.

But the MCP is a great way to expand what you can do on your own through Planning Center!

Here a few ideas!

Ask questions and create reports across multiple products.

There are a few powerful ways to pull information from across Planning Center (like lists in People). But sometimes you need a customized report, or just a quick answer to a question without going through a whole process.

With the Planning Center MCP connected, you could use your AI of choice to put together an attendance dashboard that combines data from Services, Check-Ins, and Registrations.

You could also put together a giving report that takes attendance into account, or just ask who’s donated for a second time this year or in the last month.

Bring data context into your ministry projects quickly and easily.

Let’s say you’re planning a children’s ministry event, pulling from past curriculum, looking through meeting notes, and making your plan. Now you can use AI to inform your work by quickly pulling data from Planning Center!

How many volunteers did we need for VBS last year? How many kids signed up versus actually checked in? How did attendance numbers change each day of the week? Did we have a giving fund for VBS?

The Planning Center MCP can read/view data in all products

When you connect the Planning Center MCP, you can choose which products you will give the AI read (or view) access to.

Then when you ask a question, make a request, or start a project, the model can reference information from Planning Center to help with the response.

Additionally, if you give it access to People, you can allow write access, so it can actually make changes in your People account.

Right now, that means you can create notes and add them to people's profiles, and fill out forms.

How to use the Planning Center MCP

Open possibilities can be overwhelming. The Planning Center community is a great place to take your questions and ideas, and see how other churches are using technology in their ministries!

Our customers are doing all kinds of things, like:

Reviewing lists in People to see if the logic/conditions need to change to get accurate results
Creating an engagement dashboard of all of the ways people are engaging with the church for an at-a-glance view
Auditing settings in Groups: making sure the right type is set and the group description is published
Adding a prayer request note in someone’s profile
Using it with the Gmail MCP to summarize the email threads and add them to their profile

Join the community to share your projects and find inspiration.

Security settings: protecting people's privacy

It’s very important that you are in total control of how AI interacts with your Planning Center data.

By default, both OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude) can use your conversations to train their models, which can include personal information from Planning Center. But both Claude and ChatGPT offer a setting to turn this off. We strongly recommend doing this before you get started, and requiring all admins to do the same.

You also have total control over who has access to the MCP from your Planning Center account. A few settings will help you stay informed and keep your information safe.

All org admins will be notified when someone first connects to the Planning Center MCP.
You control who has access to the MCP. Org admins control who connects to the MCP. You can specify who and who isn’t allowed access, and you can revoke it any time.
People can only access data they have permission for in Planning Center. This does not expand your admin's access to what is in your Planning Center account.

Planning Center does not use your church data to train any AI models. We handle member data only as you instruct. Our tools are contractually prohibited from using any of your data for training, and we process all data securely under the same privacy standards as the rest of Planning Center. Read more about our commitments in our privacy policy.

How to connect the Planning Center MCP to ChatGPT or Claude

This doc outlines how to get things set up, so follow the step-by-step process here. We highly recommend you go through the entire checklist to make sure you’re aware of all the security nuances!

We’re planning to continue expanding what you can do with these AI tools through the connection to Planning Center. We hope this tool can help you do the work you are already doing to help and serve the people in your community.

Please let us know if you have any questions or ideas on what you’d like to see next. We’re looking forward to hearing how you use it!

💙 Planning Center

3 focus areas for a successful groups ministry launch

Savannah Frye — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:43:44 GMT

I’ve always loved August. As a kid, it was my favorite time of year because it was always marked by getting a new planner and new pens. That fresh-start-feeling is unbeatable.

Now, August not only marks the near end of the unbearable Nashville heat for me, it also means the ministry year is starting back! As a community group leader at my church, I see this time of year bring new people to the city, and I have the unique opportunity to help welcome them into my church community.

As someone with both a front-row seat to groups ministry and Planning Center products, here are 3 focus areas I'd make sure every group leader focuses on as groups ramp back up.

Setting up your groups and events

Before the fall, it’s important to set up your groups in Church Center so they’re easily discoverable.

Duplicating groups: If your groups look similar from year to year, or you need to create a new group that uses a lot of the same setup as an existing group, you can duplicate an existing group instead of building from scratch.

Unarchiving previously used groups: Instead of rebuilding groups, you can unarchive a group that starts back again in the fall, and its members, resources, chat conversations, and events will be restored.

Resource pinning: Once your groups are built and in Church Center, you can organize them with resource pinning. Pin links and files right inside your group in Church Center, so things like discussion guides, childcare details, and location information are easy to find.

RSVP to events: Members can RSVP to events right from the app. They can also add extra guests, so your leaders get an accurate headcount before anyone shows up. Perfect for the beginning of the year when people are inviting friends to try new groups.

Custom event images and promoting events to groups: Add custom images to make group events stand out in Church Center, or promote church-wide events to small groups so members can see what’s coming up.

Communicating with your groups

Finding a group in Church Center is just step one. Once members are in, it's where they stay connected with chat.

We have a senior exercise class that meets weekly. The members of this group routinely let each other know when they won't be there, share prayer requests, and solicit and offer help for rides, lawn maintenance, car trouble, etc. The chat feature has really connected the seniors in a way that has brought many more back to church after sitting things out for a long while!
Terri Donahoe, Grace Community Church

Enable group chat from Church Center: Group leaders can enable chat directly in Church Center, so group members have a powerful, efficient, and fun way to connect

Gender-specific chat: Leaders can create gender-specific conversations right inside Planning Center chat, and as new members join the group, they're automatically added to the right conversation.

Email digest: For members who aren't opening the chat every day, the email digest delivers a daily roundup of recent messages straight to their inbox so nobody misses a prayer request, reminder, or funny GIF.

Email images and attachments: Attach files directly to a Groups email or embed images inline. Your flyer or invitation shows up right in the message instead of hiding behind a "click here."

See how it’s going

Once your groups are in full swing, reporting is one of the best ways to keep tabs on the ministry's health. Here are a few of my favorite reporting tools.

Multi-group overview reporting: This report can help identify which groups across your ministry have low engagement, so you know where to follow up with a leader.

CSV export of the groups list: Use this when you need a portable snapshot of your groups directory to share with your pastor, elder board, or anyone who doesn't live in Planning Center.

CSV export for multi-group event attendance: This export helps when you need attendance data outside of Planning Center, for things like presentations, custom reports, or to combine it with other church data.

If your fall is anything like mine, it'll be full of good conversations, new friends, and a chili night or two. These tools will help your group season start smoothly so that you can spend less time on setup and more time on things that really matter, like perfecting your cornbeard recipe.

Online giving at Planning Center: Your biggest questions, answered

Jon Aleixo — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:42:23 GMT

If you’re considering Planning Center Giving as your online church giving platform, you’re in the right place. We know that switching donation platforms, or setting one up for the first time, can come with a lot of questions. So we put together answers to the ones we hear the most. By the time you're done reading, you'll have a clearer picture of what Giving can do for your church.

How much is Giving?

Pricing for Giving is based on the number of donations tracked through the platform each month. That includes donations processed through your online giving form and donations entered or imported into batches.

When you’re choosing your subscription, it’s helpful to think about the total volume across all your donation types:

Online credit/debit card or bank transfer/ACH donations initiated through Church Center, our church giving app
Cash and check donations manually entered into batches
Donations imported from third-party integrations
In-kind donations (including QCDs and DAFs) tracked in Giving

To get an idea of what your Giving subscription might be, visit our Pricing page.

How do processing fees work?

Online donations in the US are processed at 2.15% + $0.30 per transaction for credit/debit card and 0% + $0.30 per transaction for ACH bank transfer. Offline donations (cash, check, etc.) don’t incur any fees. We offer the lowest processing fees available so churches can save more money for their ministry needs. To see how much you can save, check out our pricing calculator!

Can we migrate or import our giving history from our current system?

Yes! You don't have to start from scratch when you migrate to Planning Center Giving. We offer a donation history import tool that makes it straightforward to bring your existing giving records over.

This import donation history guide walks you through preparing your import file and getting your account ready.

How do year-end giving statements work, especially if we're in the middle of a transition?

With Giving, you can generate and share donor statements easily, even if you're in the middle of transitioning from another platform. Our guide on creating and sharing donor statements covers everything you need to know to get those out to your donors at the end of the year.

Can we keep our current payment processor during the transition?

You definitely have flexibility here, especially if you’re concerned about recurring donors who haven’t gotten set up with Planning Center yet.

A couple of ways churches have handled this:

Approach 1: Track-only. You can use Giving purely to track donations without processing payments through it. You can complete the full Giving onboarding without setting up online payments, so you can get your records in order before making any changes to how donations are processed.

Approach 2: Dual-system transition. You can continue processing through your current platform while also processing new donations through Giving. This is a great option if you want to give donors a set window of time to migrate their recurring giving over to Giving.

We know how important it is to be able to track donations without losing people during transition, so you don’t have to make a hard switch overnight.

Can I record donations from outside of Giving, like cash, checks, or Venmo?

Absolutely. Whether your donors give by check, drop cash in the offering plate, or use a payment app like Venmo or Zelle, you can record all of those in Giving using batches. Batches let you manually enter, organize, and track donations that don't come through your online giving form. Giving also supports mobile church giving so donors can give from anywhere, any time. Additionally, you can use the donation import tool to import these donations in bulk. The import tool will create a batch for you to review, making it easy to record donations in Giving.

Is there a QuickBooks integration?

There’s not a direct integration with QuickBooks or other ledger software. Giving offers robust CSV export options that make it easy to get your data into whatever accounting software you use. You can filter exports by date range, payment method, and even by deposit.

One tip: Instead of importing itemized donation records into your bookkeeping software, consider using journal entries instead. It saves time and keeps your records accurate. You can learn more in this guide for bookkeepers.

Can we export Giving reports?

Yes! Giving has a variety of reports you can pull and export. See our article Giving reports to learn what's available and how to use them.

How do we keep Giving and bookkeeping in sync?

The same CSV export tools that help with QuickBooks work well for keeping your books in sync. You can filter your exports by time period or donation type, and use journal entries in your ledger software to record the totals. Again, the guide for bookkeepers is your best friend here.

Switching giving platforms is a big decision, and it's okay to take your time getting there. We built Giving to make the whole process—from your first donation to your year-end statements—feel less like a challenge and more like one less thing to worry about.

Still have questions? We'd love to help! Reach out to our support team or start a free trial to experience Giving for yourself.

Switching to Planning Center Giving? Import your donation history

Jon Aleixo — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:04:07 GMT

Making the switch to a new donation platform is a big decision. One of the biggest hesitations we hear from churches considering a switch is that, when they migrate, they can’t bring their donation history with them, leaving them managing two different platforms and donors receiving split year-end statements.

Those are totally real—and fair—concerns.

That’s why we’re introducing our new import donation history tool! With all of your donation history in Planning Center Giving, this means:

Donation records aren’t split between multiple systems
Sending year-end statements happens in one place
People can see their full donation history in Church Center

Plus, you’ll be able to spot trends across multiple years without toggling between systems. You can even import your donation history without upgrading your Giving account!

Here’s how importing works

The import process is intentionally designed to be simple and straightforward. No need to put on a Steve Jobs turtleneck.

Export a CSV from your previous system. Your giving platform should let you export your data as a spreadsheet file.
Upload and map your columns. In Giving, go to Manage > Import Donations and upload your CSV. The tool walks you through matching your spreadsheet's columns to the right fields.
Review flagged rows. The tool automatically matches existing donor profiles and only flags the rows that need your attention.
Finalize your import. Once everything looks good, Giving creates in-progress batches organized by year, ready for you to review and submit.

If you change your mind about something, or realize there’s an error, you have a two-week window to undo the import. If you need to undo an import after that timeframe, please reach out to our Support team for help.

Import everything at once or slowly, and send single statements

Use this import tool to bring all of your past donations over at once, or use it as needed to move donations in batches.

Using another donation system, but want the giving activity in Planning Center? Import donations from your other system to see people’s donation records next to their attendance, prayer requests, volunteer schedule, and more.
In the middle of migration? Import the donations from your other platform and then send a single year-end statement from Planning Center Giving!
Just migrated but still have records from early 2026 in your last system? Import the donations so you can send a complete statement!
Fully moved over to Giving? Bring your records over to have a full donation history you and your congregants can see.

If you have any questions or want a recommendation based on your unique situation, email our support team! We’d love to help you out.

Built—and tested—alongside real churches

This tool is the result of years of listening to churches and learning what they need out of this tool. We’ve run a beta, ensured imports connect accurately to existing People records, and refined the process based on feedback from churches who tried it firsthand.

So if you’re evaluating Giving, or you’ve already migrated but your data is in your former platform, the donation import history tool is ready to help you make the transition.

Check out our demo for basic steps to get started, or visit our help article to learn how to prepare your CSV and manage your settings.

It makes sense to have all of your giving history in one place. Now it can be.

Not ready to make the full leap? Sign up for our Giving promo and get up to 12 months of your subscription free if you’re stuck in a contract with another donation system.

20 years of Sundays: A reflection from our founders

Jeff Berg — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:05:01 GMT

Hi there!

We’re Jeff and Aaron, co-founders of Planning Center. This week marks the 20th anniversary of Planning Center, and we’re deeply grateful for what this occasion represents.

For our churches, that’s 20 years of Sundays and the moments in between: baptisms, friendships made through small groups, and all the ministry moments big and small, seen and behind the scenes.

For us, it means two decades of choosing churches over investors, the long game over the easy exit: building and shipping one feature at a time, listening carefully to your needs, growing at a deliberate pace, and staying true to who we are.

These are the reasons we're still here, still independent, and still building for the future.

2006 was a different world

Before there was Planning Center, there was just a problem.

I (Jeff) was working at a church, overseeing graphics, web, and the internet (yes, all three). Every week I’d update spreadsheets and manually retype run times every time the order changed. At a big church like that, it was a massive headache. So I thought, “There has to be a better way.”

I (Aaron) was on staff at the same church, burning CDs and uploading MP3s for people to learn music, which was its own challenge. We both felt the same pain, and that intersection was where Planning Center started.

The first version was just a drag-and-drop order of service with timing. It was simple, but it solved our problem.

Then we added the accept and decline buttons—a single click that let a volunteer confirm or decline without logging in. That little feature changed everything.

We quickly learned other churches had the same challenges and wanted the tool we’d made, but sharing software was a lot harder in 2006 than it is now.

So we did what we could and worked with what we had: showing people at conferences and visiting churches to help them get set up. If someone suggested a feature, we’d even try to code it that same day.

Little did we know, we were building the DNA of our company that would follow us 20 years later: ship fast, serve well, and keep pushing forward.

A commitment to our customers: never being acquired

Two years ago I (Jeff) wrote a letter outlining our commitment to independence. The short version? Planning Center is not for sale, and we never will be.

Although this was a stance and commitment we had already made to ourselves, this was my first time putting it out into the open. And honestly, we were afraid people wouldn't believe it.

We watched other companies make similar promises and then slowly back away. Each one had good reasons. Each one probably meant it at the time. But once the circumstances changed—once they took an investment, or a number got big enough, or things got hard enough—the promise went out the door.

Our customers love our products in a rare way. They trust us with their ministry work, and we never want to lose that.

I don't think any other company would ever see the value that I see in Planning Center.

I wrote that letter to make it harder to go back on my word, to raise the stakes. Two years later, I have no regrets.

Being independent is a value, not a status

We're people who like to solve problems. And one of the hardest parts of staying independent is learning how to say no (to features, to markets, to opportunities) so that the yes-es actually mean something.

In order to have a good yes, you have to have a whole bunch of hard no's as well.

In our early days, we launched a product called Smart Events. It wasn’t church-specific, but it allowed anyone to handle registration for their events. It worked…kind of. But it wasn't right. So we tore it down and rebuilt it specifically for churches as Planning Center Registrations. That was the moment we finally had words for what we were actually doing: Help churches help people.

Staying independent has given us the freedom to pivot, to make calls that need to be made, and to ensure we realign to the right things.

20 years with churches, and what we’ve learned

We now serve tens of thousands of churches and have the pleasure of hearing from them often—at conferences, through social media, in emails.

What strikes us is that what they say isn’t only about specific features (though it often is). Instead, our customers praise our software as a whole and see that we’re not trying to squeeze them for every cent. That might sound simple, but we believe it’s the result of a conscious choice we’ve made over and over again.

We like to think about Planning Center as a building: We provide the infrastructure, a place for people to come, but we’re not the ministry. You’re doing the ministry. Our goal is to stay out of your way so you can get to the most important work.

Twenty years of serving churches has also taught us how genuinely different churches are from each other. We’re still surprised by it: the range of contexts, styles, and sizes, the number of creative ways people use our products. We want every church to be able to use Planning Center according to their own needs, and they've taught us how to make that possible.

What they've also shown us is that they value how we build, not just what we build. No sales team. No outside investors. No exploitative pricing. They're not just bought into the software; they're bought into the way we operate. That kind of trust isn't something we take for granted.

Looking ahead: we’re not stopping

In some ways, we're more in our groove than we've ever been. The systems, the people, the company infrastructure, it’s all here. Our team is doing the best work we’ve ever seen, and our core values aren't just words we’ve passed around to make ourselves feel good. They actually permeate how our team makes decisions, how we treat each other, how we treat our customers. That's hard to build and maintain, but we’re still up for the challenge.

So to every admin, pastor, worship leader, children’s director, and beyond who has ever logged into Planning Center and will log on today and again tomorrow, we want to say this directly:

Thank you.

Thank you for trusting us. For using our products and, in doing so, giving us the freedom to build Planning Center the way we've always believed it should be built.

There's not a day we’re not in awe that this is the work we get to do, and you’re the whole point of it all.

Thank you for being on this journey with us: 20 years of Sundays. Now here’s to all the ones still ahead.

Jeff Berg & Aaron Stewart

Planning Center Co-Founders

11 new features made to save you time

Jon Aleixo — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:30:19 GMT

Hi, there! 👋 I’m Jon. It’s been raining here for what feels like weeks—the sky’s bleak, and we’re all cooped up indoors.

Being stuck inside does make you think about your time differently. Specifically, all the things piling up you wish you could get to faster. (Two baskets of laundry, I see you.)

Rain or shine, we’re releasing things left and right to help you in your day-to-day ministry work. Here are 11 new features we made to save you time through it all:

Volunteer replacements

Finding a replacement volunteer used to mean chasing down a declined request, sorting through who's available, and manually updating the plan. With volunteer replacements in Services, declining volunteers now handle that entire process themselves! They pick an eligible teammate, confirm they've already asked them to cover their serving slot, and the plan updates automatically.

See how it works!

Bulk management

If you manage lists, workflows, or forms in People, you know how much time gets lost clicking through each resource one at a time. A redesigned table for lists, workflows, and forms now includes sortable columns, persistent filters, and a "Needs attention" view so you can spot what needs fixing at a glance. Bulk actions let you grant or revoke access, archive, or delete multiple resources in one step.

Learn more

Donor memos

If your church uses Giving to process checks, you've probably had to go back after batch entry to add donor memos and internal notes one by one. Now you can capture both right in the batch entry form by logging what a donor wrote on their check and add your own internal context without ever leaving the batch entry flow.

See where the memos go

New scheduling preferences

When volunteers don't have a good way to communicate their availability, it often lands on a team leader to figure out. Two new scheduling preferences give volunteers clearer options: "Once a quarter" for those who serve a handful of times a year, and "Unavailable" for anyone needing a break from one specific team without leaving it entirely. Fewer gaps to chase down, fewer conversations to initiate, and auto-scheduling that handles the frequency so you don’t have to.

Learn more

Gender-specific chat conversations

If your church has been running gender-specific group chats in a separate app, you can now bring them into Planning Center! When creating a new conversation in a group, a gender filter lets you limit it to members who share your gender so, for example, a women-only conversation stays women-only automatically, even as new members join. No more creating a separate group or using a separate chat tool just for that.

Internal notes for registrations

Context about a registration often surfaces after the fact, like a note from a check-in conversation, a special accommodation flagged over the phone. Now you can capture that directly on the registration as an internal note, visible only to your team.

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Smarter duplicate mergers

Merging duplicate profiles in Giving now shows you what's at stake before you confirm. If the profile being removed has saved payment methods, active recurring donations, Text2Give enabled, or pending bank verification, you'll see a clear warning so you're not caught off guard by interrupted giving later.

Clearer roster check-ins

A subtle but impactful update to roster stations: confirmed and unconfirmed spaces are now visually distinct enough that volunteers are far less likely to accidentally check someone out. Unconfirmed boxes are darker, their checkboxes are blue, and confirmed attendees now have a clear section label.

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Recurring event requests

Requesting a recurring event used to mean submitting (and approving) each one separately. Now requesters can set a recurrence pattern right in the event request form, covering daily, weekly, monthly, and annual schedules.

See it in Calendar

Church Center dashboard

The new Church Center Dashboard pulls everything you need to see into one place: an overview of how your content is being used, quick access to navigation and pages, one-click creation for new pages and sermon episodes, and shareable Church Center links. Whether you're launching for the first time or just doing weekly maintenance, it's a faster starting point.

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Deeper background checks with Checkr

With Planning Center's Checkr integration, you can order a background check directly from People, bringing an important part of your volunteer management alongside your other work, in one place. The Checkr integration also has two new optional add-ons: a federal criminal search catches felonies and misdemeanors that don't always surface at the state or county level, and an alias search runs records under maiden names and nicknames so a name change doesn't create a blind spot.

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Whether you're buried in Sunday prep, managing a growing congregation, or just staring down a to-do list that never seems to shrink, these updates will free up a little more of your day. We're always looking for ways to make Planning Center work harder so you don't have to!

Get VBS-ready: Vacation Bible School checklist

Savannah Frye — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:21:06 GMT

It feels like we took down the Christmas tree, blinked, and it’s already summer. Longer days, beach vacations, time at the pool… and the week kids ministries work the hardest: Vacation Bible School.

Your VBS week is probably right around the corner, so here’s a quick checklist to help you avoid the most common technical snags we see every year. Before all those kids come running through the doors, just take a few minutes to ask yourself these questions. A little prep now means fewer surprises on day one!

1. Are your Check-In stations using WiFi or Bluetooth?

Both work great, but pick one and turn off the other. Lots of printers let both run at the same time, which can cause connection issues that can be hard to diagnose during check-in.

2. Are you moving or relocating your Check-In stations for VBS?

Speaking of WiFI, if you're setting up stations in a room or building other than your usual spot, your printer may connect to a different WiFi network or be too far from the router. Test your connection at fast.com (you want at least 50 Mbps), and if you can swing it, put your stations on a dedicated network so nothing else competes with that speed during check-in.

3. Have you integrated Registrations and Check-Ins?

When you integrate Check-Ins with your signup in Registrations, a few magical things happen:

The assignment types you create in Registrations become folders in your Check-Ins event
The assignment areas become locations within those folders

Set this up correctly before VBS starts and your check-ins will run smoothly.

Need more help with the Registrations and Check-ins integration? Watch this video to learn how to correctly sync your Registrations with your Check-in events.

4. Are you adding new stations for VBS–or pulling old ones out of the closet?

Either way, check out our setup guides to help you get those stations configured correctly from the start. Sometimes printer factory defaults aren't the best settings for connecting to your WiFi, and a few simple tweaks can make a big difference before the first kid walks through the door. We also recommend checking that the operating systems on all your devices are up to date!

5. Is your multi-day event set up correctly in Check-ins?

The most common VBS Check-Ins mistake we see? Adding a separate time for each day of the event. This lumps everything into one giant session instead of creating a fresh one each day, and it's difficult to untangle once kids have already started checking in.

The best way to avoid this is to make sure you select Daily/VBS as your event frequency in Check-ins and add one check-in window. Check out our VBS guide to double-check your setup.

6. Have you resolved incomplete registrations before the event?

One way to ensure check-ins run smoothly is to resolve any incomplete registrations before the event starts. Attendees with incomplete registrations won't be able to check in at a self-station, but will instead be required to use a manned or rostered station, which can hold up the line.

7. Do you have a plan for last-minute registrations?

It’s always exciting to welcome people to VBS, so create a plan in advance to handle any walk-in registrations.

The fastest move is to check them in at a manned station so they get to their group right away, then circle back to register them afterward. But if you'd rather get them properly registered first, keep a device with Registrations open and add them on the fly, or post a QR code at the door so parents can register their kids themselves.

8. Are you using grade-based or age-based selection types in Registrations?

The Registrations integration can only use the information already in a person's profile to determine if they fit any grade, age, or gender restrictions, so using the right grade label for the time of year matters more than you might think.

Make sure you don’t promote grades while your VBS signup is actively accepting registrations. Doing so will cause issues with previously applied selection and assignment restrictions, and untangling that in the middle of snack time is no fun for anyone.

Instead, make sure you either:

Promote grades after you start VBS registration and use Grade Last Completed for your labels OR…
Promote grades before you start VBS registration and use Grade Entering for your labels

9. Have you tested your Check-In experience before VBS starts?

Testing is easier than you might think. Just jump into Check-Ins, set your event time to today's date, and test away! When you're done, make sure to set your date back to the first day of your event and delete any test check-ins you made.

If anything looks off during testing, you can reach out to us for help before your event so we have time to get it sorted before the kids arrive.

10. Do you know where to find help if you get stuck?

Printer acting up? Hit the Troubleshoot button in Check-Ins printer settings.
Check out our Plan your VBS article for more best practices.
For anything else, email us at support@planningcenter.com.

We're here for just about any curveball VBS may throw at you. As for the missing goldfish? Good luck, and we’re rooting for you. 🐟

5 ways to manage your facilities with Planning Center Calendar

Jon Aleixo — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:23:51 GMT

As a facilities manager, you do a lot to help things run smoothly at your church. Things can be pretty straightforward and look like they took no coordination at all—like setting up a room for an event—until something goes wrong. A double-booked fellowship hall, a setup crew with no direction, a last-minute email asking for a few chairs and a monitor. It adds up fast.

Planning Center Calendar has features built specifically to take that friction off your plate. Here are five things worth making sure you're actually doing.

1. Block out rooms and resources before conflicts happen

When the gym floor is getting refinished or the sanctuary is being redecorated, block those dates out in Calendar. Blockouts automatically prevent conflicts. So if someone tries to book a blocked room, it simply won't be available to request. No back-and-forth or explanations needed. You just set it and move on.

💡 “A little organization best practice: try creating a facilities calendar for your maintenance, blockout, and facilities events!" - Michael, Calendar Product Manager

2. Assign conflict resolvers for tricky situations

Not every scheduling conflict is a hard no—sometimes it just needs a conversation and more understanding. Calendar lets you assign specific people as conflict resolvers for your rooms and resources. When a conflict comes up—like the knitting club wants the fellowship hall on the same Monday evening as a recurring Bible study—the conflict resolver gets notified and can reach out to see if the groups can be flexible with location and timing. The right people handle it, and it doesn't all land on you.

3. Give your facilities team a setup diagram

With room setups, you can attach floor plan diagrams directly to events. You can even create shared setups that apply across multiple rooms, or room-specific ones for spaces with unique layouts. Share the setup with your facilities team with a link to the event, with a printed report, or through the Planning Center app. Then your team can see exactly how the room should look and get to work. No guessing whatsoever!

4. Use event request forms for room reservations

Two features that work best as a pair: event request forms and room reservations.

The event request form means people give you real information about their event needs before anything lands in your inbox. Once an event is approved and created, staff or volunteers can formally request the rooms and resources they need, which keeps everything visible, trackable, and routed through an approval process.

💡 “If you are a multi-campus church, make sure you are using our multi-campus setup so you can see events across all your campuses!” - Channelle, Product Specialist

5. Control what gets confirmed with approval groups

Approval groups let you assign the right people to approve booking requests for specific rooms, resources, or event request forms. Only one person from a group needs to approve a request, and you can assign multiple approval groups to a single room if necessary. Whether that's one approver for the whole building, or different people for different spaces, you can set it up to match how your church actually operates.

All of these features are available in your Calendar account right now! A few minutes of setup today can save you heaps of scrambling later on.