First Congregational United Church of Christ, Cedar Rapids
How to use the planner, and the new site
For team leaders and staff. October 2026.
The church website has been rebuilt, and the planner behind it is where your team's people, dates, schedule and email now live. Enter a thing once and the website reads it. This page is the how-to: sign in, run your team, and find your way around the site.
Two addresses
The website
Until the domain moves it lives at the preview address below. After that it answers at fcccr.org, and every page keeps its old address.
The planner
Where you sign in. Your team's page, the calendar, the forms and the help cards are all here.
Sign in
Your email is the key
- Open fcucc.churchofficetogo.com on your phone or computer.
- Type your email and press Send sign-in link.
- Open your inbox. The email is called Your Worship Planner sign-in link. Press the link in it.
That is the whole sign-in. There is no password, and you stay signed in on that device for about three months. The link works once and expires after fifteen minutes; if it has gone stale, ask for a fresh one.
No email arrives? The office needs your email on your record and you listed as a leader of your team. Ask, and it takes them a minute. Staff sign in the same way.
Your team
What you see on your team's page
Press Your groups, then your team. Staff see every group; a leader sees their own groups and nothing else.
- The top line says who leads the team and how many people are on it, with how many have an email and a cell.
- The list is everyone on the team, with phone and email.
- Coming up is the next eight dates on the calendar for this team, about four months out.
- Schedule is who is doing what on each date, once the team has one.
- Email this group appears when the office has ticked that you handle the team's communications.
Someone missing, or a wrong number? Tell the office. The people list is theirs to change, so there is one list and it stays right for everyone.
Email your whole team
- On your team's page, press Email this group.
- Fill in Subject and Message. Replies come to you.
- Look at Going to N people, and at Not going to underneath: anyone with no email, or who asked not to get group emails. Call those few.
- Press Send it, then Yes, send it. When it says Sent to N people. A copy is in your inbox., you are done.
Everyone gets their own copy. Nobody sees the list. A short line at the bottom tells people why they got it and how to opt out, and a reply is the whole opt-out.
The Sent section on your team's page keeps what you sent, with how many it reached.
Schedule
Schedule your team for an event
- On your team's page, press the … button, then Add a schedule. Pick Which event? If the event is not there, ask the office to put it on the calendar.
- Under Who and what is needed, type one line per job or item: Intake, Stocking shelves, Rolls. Say How many for each, and add a note if it helps: Come at 10:15. Press Save.
- The schedule shows every upcoming date with those jobs on each. Press Add someone under a job and pick the name. The page says Ruth Cole is on Intake, Sat, Oct 3. That is the save.
- To take someone off, press their name, then Take off this date.
Type the jobs once; they repeat on every date. Only the names are per date. Only people on your team can be picked, so someone new goes on the team first.
Reminders go out on their own, two days before unless you chose otherwise: the day, the time and place, the job, and a link that says If you can't make it. Someone who presses it opens their spot at once, you get an email saying so, and the open spot shows on the schedule for you to fill.
To change the jobs later: the card's …, then Change what's needed. To stop the whole thing: Stop keeping this schedule. The names stay in the record and the event stays on the calendar.
Calendar
Put something on the calendar
Team leaders: ask the office, and it appears on your page. Staff can add events themselves:
- Press Calendar, then the day, then add the event: name, time, place.
- Choose Internal or Public. Public events show on the website's Events page and in the week at a glance on the home page within five minutes.
- Tick Create communications if you want the word out: the bulletin, the slides and social media carry it on a schedule leading up to the date, and the office is told you asked. Add a flyer or a picture if you have one.
- Press Save.
A repeating event on the website calendar, such as the Food Pantry Saturdays, can be given to a team. The team then sees the dates on its page and can keep a schedule on them. Ask the office.
Forms
A sign-up form for your team
- Tell the office what you want to ask. A form takes them a few minutes: the questions, who must answer, a last day if there is one.
- The office puts the form on your team's page with a Copy the link button, or on the church website. Paste the link into an email, the newsletter or a text.
- Answers arrive in the planner, with totals at a glance and one card per person. Ask the office to show you the answers, or to send you an email each time one comes in.
The eight forms on the website were built the same way: more information, membership, congregational care, I want to serve, building maintenance, annual pledge, memorial services and building use. Each one goes to the people the office chose.
The site
Where things are on the website
| Menu | Pages |
|---|---|
| Home | The steeple, a welcome, three doors, this week's events, the life of the church, join us |
| I'm New | New? Start Here, About Us, Staff, I'd Like More Info, I Want to Join |
| Get Connected | Life events, Support & Care, Children & Youth, Music, Adults, Reaching Out, I Want to Serve, Building Maintenance Request |
| Events | The month calendar, read from the planner |
| Media | The YouTube channel |
| Donate | Annual Pledge, Online Giving |
Life events is new: baptisms, weddings with the wedding packet, the memorial services form and the building use form. Every page, photo and link from the old site is on the new one, with the same addresses, and every page works on a phone and with a screen reader.
Spot a wrong word, a missing name or an old photo? Send it to Melanie. Changing the words on a page takes a few minutes; events, forms and people never need the website editor, because the site reads them from the planner.
Ask the office
What the office does, so one list stays right
- Adding or removing people on your team, or fixing a phone number or email.
- Putting an event on the calendar, or changing its date, time or place.
- Turning on email for you, or listing another leader.
- Building a form and putting it on your page.
Each one takes the office about a minute. Everything else on your page is yours: the schedule, the names on it, the reminders, and the email. The help cards at fcucc.churchofficetogo.com/help walk through each of these, button by button. Anything they do not answer, send to Melanie at melanie@firstchurchcr.org.