Viewing and Updating Ministry Schedules

The Schedules page — the serving grid, and the button that opens it from a ministry says exactly that — is where every ministry's weekly rhythm comes to life. Open it whenever you want to see who is serving, when they are serving, and what still needs a name on the line.

A date can also be staffed from Calendar. Click the day; the right panel shows the same unfilled roles, and a scheduler can fill them there. This page is the week.

A line under the toolbar counts empty role cells in the range you are looking at. It does not email anyone.

📷 Screenshot: The serving grid with role rows, date columns, and name pills in the cells.

Which events the grid is showing

The serving grid does not show every activity on the calendar. It shows the events you have chosen to prepare assignments for, and nothing else. That keeps a Sunday roster from being buried under prayer meetings, training nights and holidays.

Two separate things decide what appears:

1. It happens in the dates you loaded, on this campus. Open Choose or search an event… and the list is every activity with an occurrence in that window. Change the dates and the list changes. Birthdays and holidays are not activities, so they never appear.
2. You picked it for this session. Across the top of the grid, Events being scheduled lists what you are working on now. Each campus has a default — for most churches that is its Sunday Service — and it is selected for you when the page opens. That default comes from Allow ministry assignments for this event plus Administration → Campus Locations → Default assignment event. The tick does not hide other activities from the list.

To add another event, open Choose or search an event… (the caret opens the list). An event already being scheduled stays in that list, marked Scheduling — click it to remove it. To stop working on one from the chips, click the ×.

What you'll see on the page

The page is one ministry. Roles are the rows. Each column is a date of an activity listed under Events being scheduled. A cell holds the names for that role on that date.

• Role (left, sticky) — Set-Up, Server, Porter, and the rest of this ministry's serving roles.
• Date columns — one occurrence each, with the activity title and when it starts.
• Names in the cell — a pill per person. An empty cell shows —.
• Schedule snapshot (above the grid) — a compact scan of the same dates. It does not open a second editor.

There is no notes column on a cell, and no ministry column: you already opened this ministry.

A real example — Victuals Ministry

The Victuals Ministry handles fellowship meals after the service: setting up tables, serving food, and clearing the hall. It runs every Sunday and uses three roles, each with its own responsibility.

The three Victuals roles

• Set-Up — arrives early to arrange tables, lay out plates and utensils, prepare drink stations, and help receive food deliveries from the kitchen team.
• Server — staffs the serving line during fellowship: portioning meals, replenishing dishes, and keeping the line moving.
• Porter — handles clearing and tear-down: collecting used plates, wiping tables, taking out trash, and stacking chairs at the end.

What a Sunday looks like in the grid

Here is a typical Victuals Sunday as it appears when Sunday Service is selected:

The Server cell has one name. A second server is another pill in that same cell, not a second Server row. The unfilled line under the toolbar counts cells with no names; it does not know that you wanted two Servers.

You can read a filled cell as a sentence: On Sunday, May 11, for Victuals in the Set-Up role, Remilyn Estrada is serving.

Filling a cell

You fill names in place. Nothing slides open.

1. Find the role row and the date column you want.
2. Under Ministry member, type a name, pick it from the list, and click Add (or press Enter).
3. The name appears as a pill. The bar under the grid says You have unsaved assignment changes.
4. Click Save changes. Until then, only you see the edit.

📷 Screenshot: The Victuals serving grid with Server on May 11 showing one name pill and the add-person row underneath.

To take someone off, click × on their pill, then Save changes. Past dates are view-only.

Worked example — adding a second Server

Continuing the Victuals Sunday above, David is already on Server. A leader adds Anna:

1. Open Ministries → Victuals → Serving grid. Confirm Sunday Service is listed under Events being scheduled.
2. In the Server row for Sun, May 11, type anna under Ministry member and pick Anna Reyes.
3. Click Add. Two pills now sit in that cell: David Cruz and Anna Reyes.
4. Click Save changes.

The Sunday is staffed. Anna sees it on My Schedule; Calendar's day panel shows the same names.

The toolbar

• Ministry — the team you opened. It is not a dropdown on this page.
• Start / End and Load — the date window. Change the dates, then Load; the event list follows that window.
• Events being scheduled — which activities the columns are for. How that list is built is in Which events the grid is showing above.
• Campus — the selector in the top bar, the only campus control.

What you can expect

• Names you add are local until Save changes. They are not live for the rest of the team until then.
• An empty cell stays empty on Calendar until someone is saved into it.
• Saving only touches the events you currently have selected, so a Sunday-only save never disturbs a Prayer Meeting.
• This page is one ministry. For a person's whole week, use My Schedule. For one date across ministries, use Calendar.
• A posted list is a different thing from the serving grid. Serving staffs the roles on an activity's date; a posted list is a standing rota — a cleaning rotation, a pickup run — that has no activity behind it. A ministry offers both, and the buttons on its page are named for the difference.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Editing the wrong week. Confirm Start and End before you add names — Load is what actually changes the columns.
• Leaving without Save changes. Pills you just added are not stored until that button.
• Forgetting to switch campus. If you only see your own campus by default, you may miss assignments at another site.
• Looking for an event outside these dates. If a gathering never appears in the list, it usually does not occur in the loaded range, or it belongs to another campus — not because it lacks the assignment tick.
• Confusing roles within a ministry. For Victuals, Set-Up and Porter are not interchangeable — Set-Up arrives at 8:00 AM, Porter stays until 12:30 PM. Putting the name in the wrong row leaves the actual gap unfilled.