Scheduling assistant for Planning Center
Fully automate your worship service's volunteer confirmations and reminders.
Real text messages to any mobile phone — no carrier information, no gateways, no setup for your volunteers. Works in the US, Canada and many more countries.
- No carrier info needed
- Works on all mobile devices
- Works with Planning Center Services
This Sunday
42
Confirmed
6
Still pending
Hi Dana — you're on Bass this Sunday at 9:00am. Can you make it?
Yes, I'll be there
Confirmed and saved to Planning Center. Thank you!
Reminder schedule
- 1 week before
- 1 day before
- 1 hour before
See it in action
A volunteer gets a text, answers in their own words, and the schedule updates itself — no app to install, nothing for your team to chase.
Assistant: Hi Marcus — you're scheduled for Bass this Sunday, Sept 13 at 9:00am. Can you serve? Volunteer: I'm on vacation September 12 through 20. Assistant: Got it. You're on Bass Sept 13 and Sept 20. Want me to decline those and mark you unavailable? Volunteer: Yes please Assistant: Done — blockout created in Planning Center and both assignments declined.
Let's be honest about email.
A well-planned service still falls apart when volunteers don't show up — and email confirmations are read about a fifth of the time. Texts are read almost immediately.
The free texting most planning software offers isn't really texting: it sends email through each carrier's gateway. That means knowing whether every volunteer is on Verizon or T-Mobile, it mostly doesn't work outside the US, and the largest US carrier closed its gateway altogether.
Confirmed.Church sends real text messages from your church's own number, so none of that is your problem anymore.
97%
of texts read within 3 minutes
20%
of emails opened at all
And then there's the part nobody else does.
Your volunteers don't have to speak in keywords. They write like they'd write to a friend, and the assistant handles the rest — carefully.
Volunteers reply like people
"I'm on vacation Sept 12–20." No codes to memorize. The assistant reads it, finds the affected assignments, and knows what it means.
It asks before it changes anything
It proposes the blockout and the declines, then waits for a yes. Nothing is written to your schedule on a guess.
Planning Center stays the source of truth
Confirmations, declines and blockouts are written straight back into Planning Center, then synced for context.
Every change is auditable
Answer "what did the assistant change?" in one screen — the action, what it used, who approved it, and the result.
I'm on vacation September 12 through September 20.
Got it. You're currently scheduled for Bass on September 13 and September 20. Would you like me to decline those and mark September 12–20 as unavailable?
Yes please
Done — blockout created in Planning Center and both assignments declined with your reason. Enjoy the trip.
Everything you'd expect, too.
A simple dashboard and the controls to run confirmations the way your church runs.
Text confirmations
ACCEPT and DECLINE still work exactly as your volunteers expect, including multiple confirmations in one thread.
Reusable schedules
Build a schedule once — 1 week before, 1 day before, 1 hour before — and reuse it across services.
Editable messages
Merge fields fill in the volunteer's name and the service. Edit the wording to sound like your church.
Confirmed vs pending at a glance
One dashboard for accepted, unconfirmed, declined, failed texts and unfilled positions.
Services in list or calendar
Browse folders, service types and plans, or switch to a month calendar with confirmed counts per service.
People and their history
Search volunteers, see what they've confirmed, and open a full conversation thread for anyone.
Manual pings
Need someone now? Send a one-off reminder without waiting for the next scheduled send.
A church-wide stop switch
One switch pauses every automatic text instantly, church-wide, whenever you need quiet.
How it works
- 1
Sign up and connect Planning Center
One secure connection. We never ask for your volunteers' carrier information.
- 2
We sync, you choose who gets texted
Pick the services and teams in scope and the schedule you want to run. Nothing goes out until you finish setup.
- 3
Confirmations and reminders send themselves
Replies come back in plain English, get handled, and land in Planning Center.
Nothing is ever texted to your volunteers until you've connected Planning Center, reviewed what synced, and finished setup yourself.
Works with your favourite software
Planning Center Services today. Church Community Builder and Elvanto are planned.
Questions churches ask
Know who's coming before Sunday morning.
Connect Planning Center, choose your schedule, and let the confirmations take care of themselves.