PLANNING CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
You can run check-in, plan events, follow-up with families, and schedule volunteers all without burning out.
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Planning Center for Children’s Ministry
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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.
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.
Require cleared background checks for every volunteer
Put background checks in your training workflow and renew when they’re outdated.
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
Simplify event planning
Coordinate your classes, groups, winter camps, and VBS in one system—no details dropped!
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.
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.
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.
Care for people according to their needs
Track individual details and milestones about children and adults, like prayer requests, baptism, membership interest, and more.
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
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.
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.
Anytime any volunteer needs help figuring out Planning Center, they 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.
Core Features
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.
See the big picture through comprehensive reporting
Engagement Dashboard
Analyze attendance, donations, and more from a single dashboard.
Custom Reports (Lists)
Filter your database by profile data and activity to create lists of people.
Individual Activity Feed
View participation—events, check-in, small group attendance, donations.
Communicate with your congregation
Push Notifications
Make announcements from the Church Center mobile app and website.
Send emails out to lists of people, or design full campaigns in MailChimp.
Text
Purchase credits to send out mass texts to lists of people.
Manage events from signup to followup
Simple Signups
Create online event signups, accept payments, and organize details.
Room and 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 print labels.
See participation across every ministry
Event Attendance
Take attendance and keep track of who checked in to which locations.
Group Attendance
Take group attendance so you can follow-up and track church-wide trends.
General Attendance
Count people as they arrive at services and larger events to get a headcount.
Protect yourself and volunteers from burnout with balanced scheduling
All-Team Scheduling
Create positions for your teams and assign them to services and events.
Blackout Dates
Ask people to set their availability and so you don’t have to scramble.
Auto-Scheduling
Send schedule requests months in advance and set auto-reminders.
Connect your congregation with the life of your church
Events
Let people know about events and give them a way to sign up and pay.
Messaging and Directory
Give people ways to keep in touch with each other throughout the week.
Custom Content
Broadcast services live, create a sermon library, and share links to content.
Equip your worship team to plan and rehearse
Worship Planning
Create a comprehensive plan including an order of service, roles, and songs.
Sheet Music
Customize sheet music and step through with a petal as you play.
Rehearsal Tools
Transpose, access a massive song library, chord charts, AV files, and a mobile media player.
Track donations and make it easy for people to give at the same time
Flexible Donation Options
Accept donations online and in the mobile app, text, and by cash and check.
Reporting Dashboard
View donation reports and filter by campus, fund, and donation type.
Statements
Generate complete giving statements and deliver to people digitally or by mail.
Guard the privacy of your information and the security of your processes
Permissions
Protect your data, and your congregants' privacy,with powerful permissions.
Check-In/Check-Out
Security labels help verify who is authorized to pick up children.
Background Checks
Order thorough background checks through Checkr and schedule renewals.
Use the technology you already have to do the ministry you want to do
Desktop/Tablet
Run Planning Center from the web browser on any internet-connected device.
Mobile
Manage your database, plan services, and check people in from an app.
Printers
Print custom name labels from Citizen, Brother, Dymo, and Zebra printers.
Get a Product Tour
See how you can use Planning Center in your Children’s Ministry with a video walk-through from a product expert.
Explore the Getting
Started Journey
Moving to a brand new system is hard! We have resources you need to do it smoothly.
Learn about transition
Learn more about
individual products
All of our products have a page where you can see their major features, plan options, and prices.
