Planning Center Launch

I am so excited to move both our directory and scheduling over to Planning Center. At this point, you may have received an email inviting you to join the directory. This invitation was sent to all members and regular attenders. If you did not get the email, it’s either in spam or I don’t have your email address. Check your spam folder or search for no-reply@planningcenteronline.com, since that is the email address it came from.  Hit the “join directory” button to be taken to access our directory. Try logging in with either your email or phone number—the information already uploaded may have one but not the other, so if one doesn’t work try the other. Once you are in, there will be a blue bar. If you click “share it now” you will be able to select the information that is currently uploaded that you would like to share. If you click “edit your profile” you can then add additional information that we don’t already have. You can choose to upload/update information but not share it; Incarnation Staff will be able to see anything that is not shared, but no one else will. I highly encourage you to add a photo! This will help others in the church recognize everyone better. Through your profile you will also be able to edit and update any other members of your household.


Scheduling

Starting in September, we will do all volunteer scheduling (music included) through Planning Center. I will send out an email to those who have signed up in a volunteer role asking you to enter in the dates you are unavailable (block out dates). In the email you will have the option to select “Block Out Dates” or “I have No Block Outs”. This will take you to Planning Center to log-in and update your schedule. If you prefer, block out dates can also be entered in on the Church Center app instead of you needing to log into Planning Center. Music will then be scheduled, and the rest of the volunteer roles will follow; once we have done all the scheduling an email will be sent letting you know what Sundays you are scheduled in the next month and giving you the opportunity to confirm the dates and roles. If you want to be proactive and enter block out dates before the email, they can be entered in either the Church Center app or website by going to “My Schedule” and clicking “actions”. In the Planning Center website, you go to “My Schedule” and then block out dates is an option at the top.


App

If you are interested in having the app on your phone, it can be downloaded in the App Store/Play Store; search for “Church Center” and you can log in. Once you are logged in, you can access the directory and your schedule along the bottom of the screen. Having the app on your phone is especially useful because you can search for people in the app and then call or text them from the directory.


Website

The Church Center address is: https://coti.churchcenter.com/home. Save or bookmark this link so that you can find this in the future instead of from your email; there will also be a link in the newsletter and on our website. Once you’ve logged in, the site will remember who you are on your computer, and you will not need to log in each time you access it. For those that share computers in the household, you can log out by going to “My Schedule”. You will be able to give permissions to those in your household to edit your scheduling and then you will not need to switch users to edit scheduling.

The Planning Center address is: https://home.planningcenteronline.com/. The two websites have the same information in regard to scheduling, but Planning Center does not have the directory.

If you have any problems with this, or if you don't have access to the directory and would like access, please reach out to me at katherine@incarnationrichmond.org

Katherine