Churchory's Sunday product gives a worship leader service plans, a searchable song library with ChordPro chord charts and live transpose, and a serving schedule the band can see by Thursday, 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 worship leader's week look like?
A worship leader's week runs backwards from Sunday. Early in the week you pick the songs, often after a conversation with the pastor about the sermon. Midweek you build the order of service, send charts to the band, and confirm who is actually playing. Thursday or Friday is rehearsal. Saturday is when the bass player texts that they are sick, and Sunday starts with a sound check and a run-through before the doors open.
In a small church the worship leader is frequently a volunteer, or a staff member who also runs youth, and the planning happens in the evenings. The more of it that lives in one place, the more of the week is left for music.
What pain points do worship leaders bring to us?
- Charts in five places. PDFs in email, chord sheets in a shared drive, someone's own app on an iPad, and a binder for the person who prefers paper.
- The wrong key. The chart says G, the vocalist sings it in E, and somebody is transposing in their head at rehearsal.
- Not knowing who is on. The schedule is a spreadsheet only the leader updates, so the band finds out on Thursday.
- Saturday-night cancellations. A sick drummer turns into a dozen texts from the leader.
- A plan nobody else can see. The tech team and the person running slides get the order of service on Sunday morning.
How does worship planning work in Churchory?
Worship planning lives in Churchory's Sunday product, alongside serving schedules and Sunday check-in. It is one product rather than three, because a worship plan reads the same serving teams the schedule uses.
A typical week looks like this:
- Start the plan from a template. Templates hold the shape of your usual service, with service times set once for the church.
- Add songs, readings and transitions in order. Songs come from a searchable library, so you pick from what the band already knows.
- Bring in the team. Pull the people serving that Sunday straight from the serving schedule onto the plan.
- Share it. The band, the tech team and the slides volunteer see the same plan on the web or in the Churchory app, well before Saturday night.
- Rehearse from it. A rehearsal view keeps the songs and charts in order for the practice room.
The serving solution page shows the scheduling side in more detail.
How does the song library work?
The song library is a searchable list of every song your church uses, each with its details and, where you add one, a chord chart. Charts use the ChordPro format, and anyone viewing a chart can transpose it live to the key being played, so the vocalist's E and the chart's G stop being a rehearsal problem.
You do not have to type your library in. Churchory imports song files from SongSelect, OnSong and OpenLP, and can bring songs across from Planning Center Services. If you are starting from nothing, Churchory gives you 24 public-domain hymns to begin with.
How are band and tech teams scheduled?
Each team, such as band, vocals, sound or slides, is a serving team in Sunday. Volunteers enter their own availability and blockout dates rather than the leader guessing. An auto-scheduler can draft a rotation across weeks and services, with per-person limits so the same guitarist is not on every Sunday, and the leader adjusts the draft before it goes out.
When someone cannot make it, they send a swap request that goes to the people who can actually cover. Churches also get a setting for couples: schedule spouses together, schedule them apart so one parent is with the children, or leave it alone. Both are preferences, so if nobody else can fill a slot the schedule fills it anyway and shows who ended up doubled up. People who are not yet in Churchory can sign up to serve through a link that needs no account. The volunteer coordinators page covers the scheduler in depth.
What permissions would a worship leader have?
Most churches give a worship leader Manage (all) on the Worship permission area and Manage (assigned) on Serving.
- Worship covers the song library, service plans, rehearsals and sign-up sheets. It has two working levels, View and Manage (all), because a church has one song library and one set of plans.
- Serving at Manage (assigned) lets the leader run the teams they lead: rosters, schedules, blockouts and swaps. It does not reach into a team they do not lead, so the kids or welcome schedule stays with whoever owns it.
- Band members do not need either permission to see their schedule or the plan they are on. Give them View on Worship if they should browse the whole library and every plan.
Roles are named by your church, so you might call this role "Worship Leader" or "Music Director". The full grid of 23 permission areas is explained on the people solution page.
Which Churchory products should a church buy for worship?
For most churches the answer is one product. Sunday is $99 a year, which saves $201 against paying $25 a month, and includes worship planning, serving schedules and Sunday check-in in one product, so the set list, the band schedule and the check-in count are not three separate subscriptions. Two additions are common:
- Chat if the band talks between Sundays. A leader can start a chat with one or more serving teams in one step, and the weekly "who's serving" brief is posted there, so rehearsal changes stop going through one person's phone.
- Documents for the stage plot, the input list and the team handbook, in a folder only the team can open.
If your church wants many products, Churchory One at $599 a year, or $129 a month, includes everything, plus your church's own app; it becomes the better deal from the sixth product on monthly billing and the seventh on yearly billing. Every church gets a 45-day free trial with no card.
Can a small church with one guitarist use this?
Yes, and it is often where it helps most. A one-person worship team still needs a song list, a key and an order of service, and a single Sunday product keeps them together with the check-in count and the people serving. The page on small church software has suggestions for a lighter setup, and the church plants page covers a portable Sunday.
How do we move from Planning Center Services?
Songs can be imported from Planning Center Services directly. For people and history, Churchory's team offers a free migration from Planning Center and other systems, with 12 to 24 months of history. The switching page explains the process and the comparison page shows how Churchory compares.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import our existing song library?
Yes. Churchory imports song files from SongSelect, OnSong and OpenLP, and can import songs from Planning Center Services. Churches starting from nothing get 24 public-domain hymns to begin with.
Does Churchory show chord charts?
Yes. Songs can carry ChordPro chord charts, and anyone viewing a chart can transpose it live to the key they are playing in.
Is worship planning a separate product from volunteer scheduling?
No. Worship planning, serving schedules and Sunday check-in are one product, called Sunday, at $99 a year ($25 a month). Worship plans read the same serving teams the schedule uses, so they are sold together.
Can a worship leader manage the band without seeing every other team?
Yes. Give the worship leader Manage (all) on Worship and Manage (assigned) on Serving, and they can run the teams they lead without changing the kids or welcome schedules.
Does Churchory handle CCLI reporting?
Not automatically. Each song can carry its CCLI number, but Churchory does not file usage reports with CCLI, so keep reporting through CCLI as you do today.
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.
Does each product work on its own?
Yes. Every product runs on Core by itself except Retreat Builder, which needs Events because every retreat is an event. Products light up extra features when you own them together: Groups plus Chat gives each group its own channel, Sunday plus Care puts first-time guests on the follow-up list, and Events plus Newsletters pulls upcoming events into a newsletter.