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A Mobile App for Your Congregants
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Planning Center as a ChMS
Equip your team, connect your church
Planning Center for Children's Ministry
Care for families, support volunteers
Planning Center for Church Planters
Set the culture for a growing church
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Support
Helpful responses in ~1 hour
Getting Started
A roadmap to transition
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Tools that work with our products
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Our story and our values
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Become a Planning Center scholar
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Sign upLog in
Calendar
Event & Facility Scheduling
Check-Ins
Child & Volunteer Attendance
Giving
Donation Processing & Reporting
Groups
Community Organization & Communication
People
Membership Management
Included free with all apps
Publishing
Custom Web & App Content
Registrations
Event Signups & Payments
Services
Service Planning & Volunteer Scheduling
Music Stand
Mobile Music Reader
Church Center
A Mobile App for Your Congregants
Support
Helpful responses in ~1 hour
Getting Started
A roadmap to transition
Integrations
Tools that work with our products
About Us
Our story and our values
Training
Become a Planning Center scholar
Planning Center as a ChMS
Equip your team, connect your church
Planning Center for Children's Ministry
Care for families, support volunteers
Planning Center for Church Planters
Set the culture for a growing church
PricingBlog
Sign upLog in

Planning Center for Children’s Ministry

Care for families, support volunteers, and create a safe space for children

You can run check-in, plan events, follow-up with families, and schedule volunteers all without burning out.

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Welcome children to a safe environment

Put safety procedures in place to keep you and parents confident.

cloud illustration
Illuration of a blue balloon on playgroundIlluration of a red balloon on playgroundIllustration of a two kids on a playground slide

Welcome families with a secure check-in and check-out experience

Match the code on childrens’ name labels to their parents’ security label before allowing anyone to be picked up.

Illustraion of check-in station on tablet device and an printed label with information

Quickly find where children are and who dropped them off / picked them up

Record who checks in, who drops them off, and who picks them up so you have what you need in an emergency.

Illustration of ui of a check-in and location on Planning Center Check-ins Admin view

Require cleared background checks for every volunteer

Put background checks in your training workflow and renew when they’re outdated.

Illustration of list of background checks on Planning Center People
Customer quotes

I’m doing this all on my own, so Planning Center has become my assistant—it takes a weight off of my shoulders of knowing how I’m going to be able to accomplish everything.

Katie Knorr

Children’s Ministry Director at Camp Hill United Methodist Church

Simplify event planning

Coordinate your classes, groups, winter camps, and VBS in one system—no details dropped!

Illustration of simple interface of Planning Center Calendar of booking a roomIllustration of simple interface of Planning Center Registrations showing attendee information
Illustration of simple interface of Planning Center Check-ins of a check-in station

Book Rooms and Resources

Request everything you need to plan behind-the-scenes, and then add events to the church calendar so people know what is happening, when, and where!

A Simple Signup Process

Gather signed forms, accept payments, include custom fields for questions, and offer event add-ons, like t-shirts or books, all in the same signup!

Seamless Event Check-In

Check kids into their assigned VBS crew, camp cabin, or onto the bus—all of their information from the signup will sync automatically.

Make sure families don’t fall through the cracks

Keep families involved in the church with opportunities just for them.

Illustration of family of three and a sunrise

Connect families to community

Welcome first-time guests and invite them to events, let absent children know you missed them, and follow up with them on their prayer requests.

UI illustration of Planning Center People workflows

Keep families in the loop

Parents can check kids in, sign up for events, and see what else is going on at church—maybe join a small group, or watch a sermon, all from your custom Church Center mobile app.

UI illustration of Church Center viewing list of groups

Care for people according to their needs

Track individual details and milestones about children and adults, like prayer requests, baptism, membership interest, and more.

UI illustration of a person's profile on Planning Center People
Customer quotes

Planning Center saves me a ton of time. Administrative work was killing me, especially volunteer scheduling, and if I’m doing extra admin work, that time comes out of my ministry time, personal growth time, and lesson-prep. The shift to Planning Center really changed everything.

Ryan Wootton

Family & Media Pastor at Glad Tidings Community Church

Schedule volunteers quickly and easily

Scheduling can be a footnote on your to-do list, instead of a complicated spreadsheet demanding hours of your week.

Illustration of a band member and teacher infront of simple ui

Plan your schedule months in advance

Plan your schedule out as far as you want by setting class times, volunteer roles and availability in advance. Then the week-of is just final confirmations and preparation for Sunday morning and not a last-minute scramble.

Communicate easily with volunteers

Volunteers can set their own preferences in Planning Center, and you can auto-schedule right around them! Then send the schedule requests and reminders out however volunteers prefer—email, text, push notifications, or even print for your paper-only folks.

Illustration of block out dates and accepted request via email

Any volunteer can come to us for training and support.

Pastors, teachers, volunteers—everybody using Planning Center on your team has access to our training materials to learn more and can contact our support team to ask questions.

Support illustration with a happy woman standing by a computer

Core Features

We have thousands of features across all of our products, but these are the features from the five products you can use for children’s ministry!

Protect volunteers from burnout with a balanced schedule

All-Team Scheduling

Create positions for your teams and assign them to services and events.

Blackout Dates

People can set their availability based on when they prefer to volunteer.

Communication

Send schedule requests months in advance and set auto-reminders.

Manage events from signup to check-in

Simple Signups

Create online event signups, accept payments, and organize details.

Room/Resource Booking

Track requests/approvals for who is using what, in which room, and when!

Fast Check-In

Use any internet-connected device to check people in and safely and print labels.

Protect children and volunteers with secure processes

Background Checks

Order and track background checks through Checkr, or your own system.

Security Labels

Match children and parents’ labels to verify who is authorized to pick up children.

Reports

Know who checked in, where, who dropped them off, who picked them up, and when.

Use the technology you already have

Unlimited Check-in Stations

Run check-in from as many internet-connected devices as you need.

Mobile Access

Manage your database, plan services, and run check- in from an app or browser.

Printers

Print custom labels from Citizen, Brother, Dymo, and Zebra printers.

Connect families with the community of your church

Follow-Up Workflows

Create step-by-step processes to make sure no one falls through the cracks.

Church Center App

Give people a central place to see what’s going on at the church and get involved.

Email, Text, Push Notifications

Communicate with parents about what’s going on in children’s ministry!

Start your free trial

Try all of our products for free for 30 days! All subscriptions include People for database management.

Start a trial

Explore the Getting Started Journey

Moving to a brand new system is hard! We have resources to help you do it smoothly.
Learn about transition

Learn about all our product features

See all of the ways you can use Planning Center as your whole church management system.
See a full feature list

Learn more about individual products

All of our products have a page where you can see their major features, plan options, and prices.
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