Whether you’re a house church or launching a new building—Planning Center can help you build relationships, create space for community, receive donations, and prevent burnout.
Make Planning Center a part of your language and culture from the beginning. It's so much easier to set the culture than change the culture.
Lay a foundation of communication and organization without worrying about another bill. Then, as your church grows, we’ll grow with you—you can scale your paid plan up or down based on what your church needs.
Build a foundation for community by investing in strong relationships from the start.
Save people’s contact information and important details, like spiritual gifts; and other private notes you want to follow up on later, like prayer requests.
Connect with people after you meet them by creating a step-by-step workflow for how you want to reach out.
Let people know what’s going on at your church—whether it’s launch events, community gatherings, or last-minute location changes—via email, text, or push notifications.
Planning Center is a game-changing tool that enlarges a pastor's capacity to care for others and builds teams.
Give people a way to engage with Church Center—a free mobile app and website where congregants can connect.
Whether your house church is small enough to literally be a small group, or you have a few break out groups, people can chat with each other throughout the week, and leaders can take attendance and share resources.
Who is bringing what to the potluck? Can we get a headcount for the number of chairs we need on Sunday? Signups can be quick and easy, and you’ll have all the information you need to plan!
Everyone can remember names by seeing each other’s approved contact information and family photo. People can always edit their own profiles and adjust their privacy settings.
You can organize funds, create reports, and accept donations easily and inexpensively.
Planning Center charges a flat monthly subscription based on the number of donations you receive—and we don't take any percentage of those donations as they come in. Credit card and ACH donations are processed through Stripe at a low rate.
Organize donations based on separate funds, and then accept pledges for specific projects—like a building fund.
Filter donations based on the kind of data you want to see and share with others (based on their permissions) or print out anonymized data for elders, sending churches, etc.
You are likely short-staffed, volunteer-led, bi-vocational, and semi-nocturnal—you need tools to optimize.
Create an order of service of what is happening when and who is doing what. Even if you’re a house church—who’s bringing donuts? Who’s playing guitar, and which family is responsible for the kids this week?
Planning Center has tools for every area of ministry. Give your team access to what they need to get organized, whether it’s prayer group, children’s check-in, set-up, leading worship, and more.
Sometimes it’s all-hands-on-deck but, when you can, ask everyone to set their preferences and then automate the schedule, rather than trying to piece things together yourself.
Your church might be small now, but it’s never too soon to invest in safety systems.
Even if you only have a few volunteers at the start, verifying their history can add a layer of protection and build trust.
Check children into events quickly and safely, then match the code on children’s name labels to their parents’ security label for check out.
We know that no matter what comes, Planning Center can help us grow into the next stage. It’s like having a closet full of coats of the next size.
We have thousands of features across all eight of our products, but this is the core set of features we offer as a complete church management system.
Run Planning Center from the web browser on most internet-connected devices.
Manage your database, plan services, and check people in from an app.
Print custom name labels from Citizen, Brother, Dymo, and Zebra printers.
Accept donations online and in the mobile app via ACH bank transfer, credit card, or Apple pay; by text, cash, and check.
View donation reports and filter by campus, fund, and donation type.
Generate complete giving statements and deliver to people digitally or by mail.
Create online event signups, accept payments, and organize details.
Track requests/approvals for who is using what in which room, and when!
Use any internet-connected device to check people in and print labels.
Analyze attendance, donations, and more from a metrics dashboard.
Filter your database by profile data and activity to create lists of people.
View participation—events, check-in, small group attendance, donations.
Make announcements with the Church Center mobile app and website.
Send emails out to lists of people, or design full campaigns in MailChimp.
Purchase credits to send out mass texts to lists of people.
Take attendance, offer self-serve check-in, and track who checked in to which locations.
Take group attendance so you can follow up and track church-wide trends.
Count people as they arrive at services and larger events to get a headcount.
Create positions for your teams and assign them to services and events.
Ask people to set their availability and so you don’t have to scramble.
Send schedule requests months in advance and set auto-reminders.
Let people know about events and give them a way to sign up and pay.
Give people ways to keep in touch with each other throughout the week.
Broadcast services live, create a sermon library, and share links to content.
Create a comprehensive plan including an order of service, roles, and songs.
Customize sheet music and step through with a pedal as you play.
Organize your song library, transpose chord charts or audio files, and listen to audio.
Protect your data, and your congregants' privacy, with powerful permissions.
Security labels help verify who is authorized to pick up children.
Order detailed background checks through Checkr and schedule renewals.