Get started as a new church

A new church can walk through Churchism with the setup guide. Skip, pause, or exit anytime. Bring it back from Settings or the question mark in the sidebar.

Typical first week:

1. Church details — congregation name, address, gathering times, and calendar. These show up on the directory, recaps, and reports. Open Settings → Church details.

2. People — add members, households, and visitors. The directory is the heart of the church. Follow-up lives here when a guest fills out a connect card.

3. Volunteers — the roster is who serves. Invite them, put them on a gathering, and keep the volunteer agreement in Settings.

4. Giving — set up funds, then connect online giving. Planning Center can sync over the API. Subsplash, Tithely, and others send a CSV after you map the columns. You can skip this if you only record cash and checks.

5. Staff logins — invite the people who need a Churchism login and pick a role for each. Roles control what they can see.

6. Announcement email — set the From address, send a test, then turn sending on. Kids, utility, archived, and deceased stay off the list unless they opt in.

7. Sunday — Attendance is the door list. Kids Club has its own check-in and pickup codes. After service, recap lives under Sunday report.

8. Calendar — church events, rooms, and gatherings so the team is looking at the same week.

The question mark next to a page or setting explains that piece and can jump you back into the guide.