Churchory's Sunday product gives a church volunteer coordinator availability requests, an auto-scheduler with per-person limits, swap requests volunteers settle themselves, and a weekly who's-serving email, at $99 a year ($25 a month). Churchory is church management software for small and mid-size churches. Start free with Core (your people directory, families, roles and church-wide email and push), then add only the products you need, like groups, events, Sunday serving and check-in, kids, care, chat and voting, or get everything with Churchory One.
What does a volunteer coordinator's week look like?
A volunteer coordinator's week is a puzzle that resets every seven days. Early in the week you look at the next month: which Sundays are thin, who has gone away, who has said "anything but nursery". Midweek you chase answers from people who have not replied, confirm the teams for Sunday, and remind the new greeter where to stand. Then Saturday evening comes, a sound tech's car breaks down, and the puzzle starts again with a dozen texts.
In many churches the coordinator is a volunteer as well, sometimes the pastor's spouse, sometimes a retired teacher who is very good at spreadsheets. Either way, they hold the whole Sunday in their head, and the church only notices when a slot goes empty.
What pain points do volunteer coordinators bring to us?
- Chasing availability. You ask for blockout dates and get answers by text, email and in the car park.
- The same faithful few. The spreadsheet makes it easy to schedule whoever reliably says yes, until they burn out.
- Last-minute cancellations. Every swap routes through you.
- Teams that do not know who is on. People find out on Sunday morning who they are serving with.
- New volunteers who never get started. They say yes on Sunday, and then there is no easy way for them to sign up.
How does Churchory schedule church volunteers?
Volunteer scheduling lives in Churchory's Sunday product, with worship planning and Sunday check-in. Each ministry team, such as greeters, ushers, nursery, band, sound or coffee, is a serving team with its own roster and leaders.
A month usually runs like this:
- Open an availability round. Volunteers are asked for their availability for the coming weeks, with a due date. Churchory sends one reminder before it is due, so you are not the one nagging.
- Volunteers answer themselves with available dates and blockout dates, on the web or in the Churchory app.
- Run the auto-scheduler. It drafts the rotation across weeks and services, respecting availability, blockouts and per-person limits, so the same faithful few are not on every Sunday.
- Review and publish. Adjust the draft by hand, then send it. Volunteers are asked to confirm, and those who have not are nudged before the service.
- Let swaps settle themselves. A volunteer who cannot make it sends a swap request to the people who can actually cover.
- Send the weekly brief. One email to everyone serving that Sunday, at 9am on the day you choose, says what they are on for, that week's lesson, and who else is serving.
The serving solution page has screenshots and setup notes.
What happens when a slot is still empty?
Churchory can prepare the ask for you. With prepared work, which is in beta, an empty slot becomes a card on your home screen listing the people who are free and have not served lately. You look over the list, skip anyone you would rather not ask, and approve it. Churchory then asks them one at a time: the person being asked sees a simple "could you serve?" card, a yes fills the slot, and a no is genuinely fine, so the ask moves on quietly without nudging. Nothing starts until you approve it. The AI page describes prepared work and what is available today.
How do couples and families fit into the schedule?
Churchory has a setting for couples, because churches want opposite things. A church with young families may want parents on different Sundays so someone is with the children; a church whose couples serve together wants the reverse. You can choose either, or neither. Both are preferences rather than rules, so if nobody else can fill a slot it is filled anyway, and the schedule shows who ended up doubled up.
If the church also owns Kids, you can ask each family with children in the program to take a set number of serving turns each period. A Parent Serving view shows which families are behind and lets the kids director send a gentle reminder. The kids ministry page covers that side.
How do new volunteers sign up?
Share a sign-up link. People can sign up to serve without creating an account, which is often the difference between "I'd love to help" on Sunday and actually serving the next month. For one-off needs, such as setting up for a dinner or bringing a dish, Events has sign-up sheets with a live count.
What permissions should a volunteer coordinator have?
Give the coordinator Manage (all) on Serving. That covers every serving team in the church, plus the auto-scheduler and the serving settings. Team leaders, such as the head greeter or the worship leader, usually get Manage (assigned) on Serving, which lets them run the rosters, schedules, blockouts and swaps of the teams they lead and nothing else.
Two other grants are common:
- People: View, so the coordinator can look up a volunteer's contact details without being able to edit the directory.
- Attendance: Manage (all) if the coordinator also runs Sunday check-in. Churchory's seeded Welcome Team role is exactly this: it runs Sunday check-in and views the directory.
Serving insights, such as participation and schedule dashboards, are a separate grant, so you can decide whether the coordinator sees trends as well as running the schedule. The people solution page explains the 23-area permission grid.
Which Churchory products should a church buy for volunteer scheduling?
For most churches, one product does it: Sunday at $99 a year, which saves $201 against paying $25 a month, with every team and every volunteer included. Common additions:
| Add | Why | Yearly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kids | Children's check-in, and parent serving rotations | +$99 | +$25 |
| Chat | A chat for one or more serving teams, started in one step, which also gets the weekly who's-serving list | +$99 | +$25 |
| Events | Sign-up sheets for one-off needs | +$99 | +$25 |
Churchory One at $599 a year, or $129 a month, includes everything; it becomes the better deal from the sixth product on monthly billing and the seventh on yearly billing. If you run serving on a separate scheduling tool, a group text and a sign-up site today, compare what those cost with one product on the same directory your volunteers are already in. Every church gets a 45-day free trial with no card.
Can we bring over our current schedules?
Yes. Churchory's self-serve import reads serving history from CSV or Excel files, with presets for Planning Center, Breeze and a generic layout. Churchory's team also offers a free, staff-run migration from Planning Center, Breeze, Church Community Builder, Tithe.ly and Elvanto, Realm, Servant Keeper, ChurchTrac and spreadsheets, with 12 to 24 months of history. See the switching page.
Who else uses the serving tools?
The worship leaders page covers how the band and tech teams use the same schedule with service plans, and the church administrators page covers setting up roles for team leaders.
Frequently asked questions
Does Churchory build the serving schedule automatically?
Yes. An auto-scheduler drafts the rotation from each volunteer's availability and blockout dates, with per-person limits so nobody is on every week. The coordinator reviews and adjusts the draft before it goes out.
What happens when a volunteer cancels at the last minute?
They send a swap request that goes to the people who can actually cover. For a slot that is still empty, Churchory's prepared work (in beta) can list who is free; once you approve, it asks them one at a time.
Do volunteers need a Churchory account to sign up?
No. You can share a sign-up link that people use without an account, which helps with new volunteers and the ones who never open an app.
Can we keep couples on different Sundays so one parent is with the kids?
Yes. A church-wide setting tells the scheduler to put spouses together, keep them apart, or ignore it. It is a preference, so a slot still gets filled if nobody else can take it.
How much does volunteer scheduling cost?
Scheduling is part of the Sunday product, $99 a year or $25 a month, which also includes worship planning and Sunday check-in. Every team and every volunteer is included.
Can we run sign-up sheets for potlucks and work days?
Yes. Events have sign-up sheets with slots people claim (dishes, set-up crew, drivers) with a live count, and slots can be open to everyone, one team, or parents only.
How does volunteer scheduling work?
You build teams and positions, volunteers enter their own blockout dates, and the auto-scheduler fills the rotation while respecting per-person limits; you adjust anything by hand. Volunteers see their own upcoming slots in the app with reminders, and can request a swap that goes to the people who can actually cover.