Managing Recurring Services

A recurring service is one event that repeats, not a new event every week. That is what makes it possible to change the time for good, or call off a single Sunday, without editing dozens of entries.

Note

Recurring services never take sign-ups. There is no sign-up question when you create one and no sign-up settings afterwards; people simply come. If you need a headcount, create it as an Event instead. See Creating an event.

Create a recurring service

Start a new event

From your Events page, click Create. Under What is it?, choose Recurring service.

Name it and say what it is

Give the service a name people would recognize on your website, like “Sunday Modern” or “Midweek Prayer”. Under Kind of service, keep Worship service or choose Class or Other gathering. The next section explains the difference.

Set the day, the times, and how often it repeats

Pick the Day, the Starts and Ends times, and How often: Every week, Every other week, or Monthly.

Where should people find it?

Most of the weekly schedule, like worship, Sunday school and Bible study, stays on Just the weekly schedule: it is listed under Services only, so it doesn't crowd your events. For something you would invite a visitor to, like a youth group or a men's breakfast, pick the filter it belongs under, such as Kids & Youth or Community. It then also shows with your events, once, at its next date. To set this on one you already have, open it from your Events page and choose Settings.

Set where and who can see it, then create it

Check the address, leave Who can see it? on Everyone so visitors can see when you meet, and press Create event. To change any of this later, open it from your Events page and edit it on its page, like any event: click the day and time for When & where, or open Settings.

Services, classes and other gatherings

Your website treats a worship service differently from the things around it. A Worship service is what visitors see as the service: it is the “Next service”, it shows as live while it runs, and it appears in your weekly times (“Sundays 10:30 AM”).

A Class (Sunday school, an adult class) or an Other gathering (a pre-service dinner, a prayer time) is listed under that day's service, headed “Before the service” or “After the service”. It is never shown as the service itself. Child check-in and attendance work the same for all three.

Tip

During church setup, use Add a class or gathering on the service times step to add Sunday school alongside your services.

The service page

A recurring service has its own page rather than an ordinary event page. It shows the next date and a rail of the dates around it. When you can administer it, it also shows a toolbar with a sermon link, Go live where streaming is available, and a ⋯ menu that starts with Edit & manage.

A recurring service page with the admin toolbar's more-actions menu open, showing Mark as special service and Cancel occurrence — The toolbar separates changing the series from changing one date

Tip

Click a date in the rail before using the ⋯ menu. Occurrence actions apply to whichever date is selected, not always the next one.

Changing the whole series

Open the service from your Events page, or choose Edit & manage from the ⋯ menu on its page. The service page opens with the tools along the top (Overview, Sign-ups, Check-in, Messages and the rest), and you edit the page where you see it:

Click the service's name, the line under it, or the description to change them. These save as you type.
Click the day and time for When & where: the day, how often, the start and end times, and the place. Press Save.
Settings holds who can see it, who it's for, the live stream link, and deleting the series.

Done editing shows the page as visitors see it.

Warning

These changes apply to every future date, not just the next one. Moving the start time from 10:00 to 10:30 moves it permanently. To change one week only, use the occurrence actions below.

Calling off a single week

Select the date

Click the affected date in the rail so the page is showing it.

Choose Cancel occurrence

Open the ⋯ menu and choose Cancel occurrence. The dialog names the service, the date, and the time, and takes an optional reason, such as snow, a building problem, or a combined service elsewhere.

Confirm

Only that date is cancelled. The dialog says so explicitly: future occurrences are not affected.

A cancelled date shows as cancelled on the public page, with your reason if you gave one, so anyone checking before they set off finds out. To undo it, select that date again and choose Restore occurrence.

A class or gathering does this from its own page instead: click the day and time to open When & where, where the next eight dates are listed. Choose Cancel this date beside one, or Restore beside one already cancelled. Settings has a Cancel a date button that opens the same list.

Tip

Cancel the week rather than deleting the service. Deleting removes every future date as well, and your website loses the service times.

Marking one week as special

Mark as special service in the same menu gives a single date its own treatment, such as a Christmas Eve service, a baptism Sunday, or a guest speaker. The date keeps its place in the series but is presented differently. Choose Edit special service to change it afterwards.

Where services show up

Your website lists your service times, so a visitor planning a first visit sees when you meet.
Your events calendar shows each date as it comes.
Streaming attaches to the service, so a broadcast lands on the right date. See Live streaming.