The core purpose of all Planning Center apps is to serve the needs of church staff and volunteers with ministry tools. We are now expanding our attention to provide you with tools to support your congregation with our new mobile app Church Center, a dedicated space for people to connect with the life of your church.
Instead of directing people to a specific URL or your website to find more information or get involved, you can tell them to download an app on their smartphone and we’ll help them do the rest!
So, what does it do?
After people download the app, find your church and log in, they can:
- Give: Enter how much they want to give, specify which fund they want to give to, and which payment method they want to use, as well as choose whether to cover processing fees.
- Manage Groups: In addition to finding and joining groups, people can view upcoming events, any resources group leaders have uploaded, and the contact information of other group members.
- Register: People can search through your church’s events by campus and category and then complete a full registration, including payment.
In addition to these familiar Church Center capabilities, we are releasing a new, Church Center app only feature: Profile Updates!
When people create a login for Church Center, we will automatically create a profile for them in Planning Center People. We already do this in the browser version; however, we did not allow people to update any profile information except their phone, address, and email. Now they can!
In the Church Center app, we have a profile section where people can add their personal information, including contact information, important dates, and a profile photo—all of this data will be added to their People profiles.
This is one of the most requested features we have ever received from our customers, and we are thrilled to finally have a solution that is convenient for both you and your congregation.
Also, coming soon to the Church Center App: the ability for parents to begin checking their families in before they get to church. They can select which household members they want to check in and then when they arrive, scan the generated QR code to print their labels!
How Much and How-To
Mobile applications are necessary, but they are expensive, making it impractical for many churches. For this reason, Church Center is 100% free for all Planning Center customers. We have a number of paid features planned, but all of the core features included in this initial release will always be free.
Church Center app is now available for US and Canadian customers. To learn a few more details about how to get your church set up with Church Center, you can check out this article. If you have any questions along the way, reach out to our support team!
This is just the beginning for Church Center, and we can’t wait to continue building this app as you use it to build an even stronger community within your church.
Live connected,
The Church Center Team