Start with every team and every position
Take a blank page and write down every job that happens on a Sunday, and on any regular weeknight. Most churches find more than they expected. A typical list:
| Team | Positions | People each time |
|---|---|---|
| Music | Leader, vocals, keys, guitar, drums | 4–6 |
| Sound and slides | Sound desk, slides, livestream | 2–3 |
| Welcomers | Door, car park | 2–4 |
| Readings and prayers | Bible reading, prayers | 1–2 |
| Kids’ church | Leader, helper | 2–3, with child safe checks done |
| Morning tea | Set up, wash up | 2–3 |
| Cleaning and flowers | Weekly clean, flowers | 1–2 |
Positions matter. “Music, 5 people” doesn’t tell you if you have a drummer. Name each position and note who can do it, so a roster never puts a singer behind the sound desk.
For kids’ church and youth, put people on the roster once they have the checks and training your church and state require. Keep that list current and check it before each term’s roster goes out.
Decide how often people are on
This is the decision that most shapes whether people stay. A few rules of thumb churches use:
- Once or twice a month is sustainable for most people on most teams.
- Every week is usually too much for anyone outside the paid staff, and it’s how keen people burn out by winter.
- One team at a time for most people. Someone on music twice a month and morning tea twice a month is on every Sunday.
- Leaders need weeks off too. Have a second person who can lead music or run the sound desk.
Count heads before you promise anything. If the welcome team needs 2 people each Sunday and you have 8 welcomers, each person is on about once a month. If you have 4, they’re on every second week, and you need more people, not a cleverer roster.
Some people would happily be on more, and some can only manage now and then. A good roster allows for both rather than giving everyone the same number of Sundays.
Mark the year before you fill it
Get the church calendar out and mark the dates that are different. Do it once, at the start of the year:
- Easter and Christmas. Extra gatherings (Good Friday, Christmas Eve) need their own dates and often bigger teams.
- School holidays. Families travel. Expect fewer people and plan smaller teams or combined gatherings.
- Combined or special Sundays: baptisms, a church camp, a guest speaker, an outdoor gathering in the park.
- Weeknight groups that only meet during term.
- Public holiday weekends, when numbers drop.
Put all of these on the calendar as dates now, even if you won’t fill them until later. A Christmas Eve date sitting in October’s calendar reminds everyone it is coming.
Fill a term at a time
Plan the shape of the whole year, but put names on dates one term (or three months) at a time. A year of names goes stale: people move, have babies, change jobs. A term is long enough to plan around and short enough to stay accurate.
- 01
Ask who’s away
Two weeks before the term roster goes out, ask everyone which Sundays they’re away. Holidays, shift work, a family wedding.
- 02
Fill the gaps
Go team by team, position by position, giving each date to whoever has been on least and isn’t away.
- 03
Check pairings
Look for one person on two teams at once, or a new person rostered with nobody experienced.
- 04
Send it out
One link or one sheet, at least two weeks before the first date.
Make it clear how changes work. Most churches ask people to arrange cover, then tell the team leader. Whatever your rule, write it at the top of the roster.
A church roster in FairTurns
FairTurns is a free roster app that many kinds of groups use, churches included. Make an organisation for the church and a team for each area: Music, Sound and slides, Welcomers, Kids’ church. Give each team its positions and headcounts (“Welcomers, 2 people”), and set who can do which position.
Click a Sunday on the calendar, set the time and choose Every week on Sunday; the dates are kept up to 12 months ahead. Add one-off dates like Christmas Eve by choosing Just this once. Then press Fill for the next three months: each empty place goes to whoever has had the fewest turns in that position, nobody is put in a position they aren’t set up for, and nobody is put on two teams at overlapping times.
People mark the Sundays they’re away, including Away regularly for something like “every first Sunday of the month”, and Fill leaves them off. Share the roster on the public link: names and dates, no sign-in. The church roster page and the church roster template have more.
With Pro, each team gets the schedule by email and a reminder before each Sunday, and you can set How often for each person: More often, Normal, Less often or Now and then.
Questions
How often should church volunteers be rostered?
Once or twice a month suits most people. Weekly rostering wears people out, so if a team needs someone every week, it usually needs more people rather than more turns each.
How far ahead should a church roster go?
Plan the shape of the year, then put names on one term or three months at a time. That gives people notice without fixing names so far ahead that the roster goes stale.
How do we stop the same few people doing everything?
Keep each person to one main team, count turns across the term, and ask new people onto a team alongside someone experienced. A visible count often shows the imbalance more kindly than a conversation.
What about Christmas and Easter?
Add those gatherings as single dates at the start of the year, ask early who is away, and roster them first, before the ordinary Sundays around them.