NOTE: This post is from an e-mail I sent out to the people in our Worship Arts ministry, to help them be a little more familiar with Planning Center Online.
As you all know, this is the system we use for scheduling, but it does so much more. Starting right now, I’m updating chord charts and sample MP3s for all the songs we do on Sundays, so that those of you scheduled for the upcoming week can log in before Thursday and listen to/practice with the songs. Please try to block out some time to do that we we’re ready to rock on Thursday nights.
How do you do this? Easy! Go to http://www.planningcenteronline.com and log in with your e-mail address and either the password you received via e-mail or whatever you changed it to. I’ve updated everyone’s account [in the GBC Worship Arts Ministry] so you can view all service schedules and songs, EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT SCHEDULED for the upcoming Sunday.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET THERE
Once you’ve logged in, here are three important things you can do.
1) In the FAR upper-right corner, you can click your name (next to where it says “Gateway Baptist Church” and that will take you to your personal info screen. Please take a moment to do that, and if you haven’t already, activate the “Enable text messaging” feature. This way you can really quickly respond to scheduling updates without having to check your e-mail.
2) Back on the main screen, you can look on the far left and under the little calendar you’ll see links, one of which is “Block out dates”. Would you take a moment each week to click that and indicate if you are NOT available for Thursdays and Sundays? (For instance, vacation coming up, work schedule, sports practices that conflict, etc.)
3) Again on the main screen, if we have the Sunday schedule ready, you’ll see a date under “Upcoming plans” and when you click it you can see everything we’re doing that week and the people who are scheduled. THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN GET CHORD CHARTS AND MP3s. See the follow-up post (“Planning Center notes 2“) explaining more about how to find and use those resources.
That’s it for now. Thanks for being a part of the team!
For His Kingdom,
– Pastor Phillip
