Preaching rotas
kept straight
Planmaker is the preaching rota software behind close to 100 Methodist circuit plans. Your team works on one plan online, and it only offers preachers who are free.
A rota with a pulpit in every square
Every circuit keeps a preaching rota of some kind, even if everybody calls it the plan. It answers one question for each Sunday of the quarter: who is leading worship, in which church, and at what time? For a small circuit with a handful of chapels, a spreadsheet and a good memory will usually do. For a large circuit with dozens of services and a long list of preachers, it becomes a different job altogether.
Planmaker is our preaching plan software, made for exactly that job. It is one of the five tools in the Chrestos Cloud, and close to 100 Methodist circuits across the Connexion now use it to make the Methodist preaching plan. It is built around preachers and services, and it does that one thing carefully.
Why preaching rotas are hard to keep straight
A preaching rota looks simple on paper. The difficulty is everything the plan-maker has to hold in their head while filling it in: who is away in August, who has already been planned twice that month, who can’t get to the far end of the circuit for an evening service, and which Sunday somebody has quietly been put in two places at once.
Planmaker keeps track of all of that. It knows who is available on which day, at what time and in which place. When you choose a preacher for a service, it only ever offers the people who are genuinely free and who haven’t already reached their limit for the day or the quarter. Mistakes become much less likely, and the plan-maker can concentrate on the pastoral judgement that no computer can make.
Church rota software for a whole planning team
Most church rota software assumes one person is doing the planning. In a Methodist circuit that is rarely true. Planmaker works online, so a Superintendent Minister, a plan-maker and the people looking after each Mission Area can all work on the same quarter, each with the access they need. Some will have full control; others will see only their own section or Mission Area. Nobody passes a spreadsheet round by email, and nobody works from last week’s copy.
If you have been looking at church scheduling software and wondering whether any of it understands a circuit, this was made by Methodists, for Methodists. Visiting preachers can be marked as such, and churches can be grouped into Mission Areas, so the rota reflects how your circuit actually works. The other half of the story is the availability itself, and our page for the Methodist local preacher explains how each preacher gives their dates once, online.
From the grid to the website, the calendar and the printer
When the rota is finished, nobody has to type it out again. If your circuit website runs on Chrestos, the plan appears on it with services shown beside each church, and people can subscribe so the services land in their phone calendar. The planning grid also exports to a PDF in various sizes and orientations, an editable Excel spreadsheet or an ICS iCalendar file, so the people who want paper still get paper.
Planmaker can be leased on its own for £25 + VAT a month, with no minimum contract, so a circuit that already has a website needn’t change anything else. It is also included with Chrestos Premium, and the Chrestos Planmaker package page has the details.
What Planmaker keeps track of
The three things that make a preaching rota hard to get right.
Who is free
Each preacher’s availability is held by day, time and place, so the grid only offers people who can genuinely be there for that service.
Within their limits
Planmaker remembers how often each preacher is already planned and won’t offer anyone who has reached their limit for the day or the quarter.
Visiting preachers
Visiting preachers can be marked as such, and churches grouped into Mission Areas, so the rota reflects how your circuit actually works.
Plan together,
not in turn
The rota is built online, so the Superintendent, the plan-maker and whoever looks after each Mission Area can work on the same quarter at once. Each person can have full control, or access to just their own section.
There is no master copy on somebody’s laptop, and no wondering whether you are looking at the latest version. Everyone is looking at the same plan.
Typed once,
used everywhere
When the quarter is done, the plan can appear on your Chrestos website beside each church, and people can subscribe so services land in their phone calendar.
For everything else there are exports: a PDF in various sizes and orientations, an editable Excel spreadsheet or an ICS iCalendar file.
See the rota
in action
Tell us a little about your circuit and we’ll walk you through a live plan, show you the exports and answer your questions, with no obligation.
"...We highly recommend ThenMedia Chrestos who have designed, hosted and supported our church website since 2015. They listened to our needs, exceeded expectations in design and ensured smooth content transfer from our previous site. Andrew, Toby and John have given us patient and effective telephone support..."
Is your rota due a rethink?
Tell us how your circuit plans today, and we’ll show you how Planmaker could make plan-making a little easier.
Technology for a brighter church