The church outreach planner
for caroling, home and hospital visits.
Sign-ups, teams, carols, routes and live progress in one place. No spreadsheets, no group-chat chaos, and every home on your list gets a visit.
Free planner, no account needed · Full planner free on every ChurchAlpha plan
Five steps from empty to ready
A checklist walks you through it and tells you what’s left. When all five are done, every team has its stops, songs and route on their phone.
- 1
Add the homes to visit
Pick member families straight from your directory, with their saved addresses, or add a hospital, care home or neighbor. Note a preferred time or a request, like a favorite carol.
- 2
Share one sign-up link
Members sign in with their ChurchAlpha login, sign up themselves and their family, and say what they can do: sing, play an instrument, drive, give rides or bring children.
- 3
Make the teams
Choose how many teams you want and ChurchAlpha assigns people and homes for you. Move anyone by hand if you like.
- 4
Pick the carols
Start from a list of classic carols or songs from your own library. Add the words once from your hymnal and every team gets a printable songbook.
- 5
Plan the routes
Each team gets its stops in order, starting from the church or a pick-up point, with an estimated arrival time at every home.
Everything for the night itself
All of this is included on every plan, including free.
Member sign-up page
A link you can text or email. Members sign in, sign up their family together and pick their skills.
Teams assigned for you
Homes and people are split into teams in one click. Every home and every volunteer ends up with a team.
Carols and songbook
Silent Night, Joy to the World, O Come, All Ye Faithful and more. Add the words once, then print a songbook or read it on a phone.
A phone view for every team
Volunteers see only their own team: who they are with, the route, each stop with tap-to-call, and the songs.
Live progress on the night
Teams tap Visited or Couldn’t visit at each stop. You see every team’s last stop, next stop, and who is running behind.
More than caroling
Use the same planner for home visits, hospital and care-home visits, and community outreach days.
Let AI and Google plan it for you
Fifteen homes and four teams? On the Barnabas plan and above, ChurchAlpha drafts the whole plan and works out the driving.
Organize with AI
Proposes teams, areas, leaders and stop order. Families stay together, stops are grouped by neighborhood, and drivers and singers are spread across teams. Nothing changes until you apply the plan.
Google-optimized routes and map
The best stop order for each team on real roads, drive time and distance, and a map with numbered pins in team colors.
Questions churches ask
Is the caroling planner free?
Yes. The sign-up page, teams, carols and songbook, the volunteer phone view and live progress are included on every plan, including the free Lydia plan for churches up to 40 members. Organize with AI and Google-optimized routes are included from the Barnabas plan ($39/mo).
Do volunteers need to download an app?
No. Volunteers open a link on their phone and sign in to ChurchAlpha. They see their own team, route, stops and songs, and tap Visited at each home.
Do you track volunteers’ locations?
No. Progress comes only from volunteers tapping Visited or Couldn’t visit at each stop. Volunteers only see their own team’s addresses.
Can we use it for things other than caroling?
Yes. Choose caroling, home visits, community outreach or another type when you create the event. Hospital and care-home visits work the same way.
Does AI see our members’ names?
No. When you use Organize with AI, people are sent as anonymous references with their skills, and homes as addresses only. Names are added back on your screen afterwards.
How long does setup take?
A five-step checklist takes you from an empty event to ready: homes, volunteers, teams, carols and routes. Most churches can do it in an evening.
The planner is part of ChurchAlpha church management software, alongside members, giving, events and volunteers.
Christmas is closer than it looks.
Set up your church, add your caroling night and send the sign-up link this Sunday.
Start free today →No credit card · Free plan up to 40 members