← Help Center Importing

Connect Planning Center

Updated October 11, 2026

The steps here are stable; exact screenshots will be added once the interface is final.

Planning Center is the easiest church management system to connect. There’s no API key to create and no separate setup — you authorize it in one click, right from Volunteer Circle.

New to importing? Read How importing your people works first — it covers the rules that apply to every ChMS (one-way, read-only, people arrive pending).

Before you start

You’ll need to sign in to Planning Center with an account that can see the People Lists you want to bring over. That’s it — no developer settings, no API user.

Connect it

  1. In Volunteer Circle, go to the import screen and choose Connect Planning Center.
  2. You’ll be sent to Planning Center to authorize the connection. Sign in there if prompted, and approve the request.
  3. You’ll land back in Volunteer Circle, now connected.

That’s the whole setup. Because Planning Center uses a secure one-click authorization (OAuth) rather than a key you have to copy, there’s nothing to paste back and nothing to store by hand.

Import by People Lists

Planning Center imports work from your People Lists — so the first step is making sure the volunteers you want are in Lists in Planning Center (for example, a “Serving Team” list, or a list per ministry).

In Volunteer Circle:

  1. Pick which Lists are your volunteers.
  2. For each List, choose to create a new team, map it to an existing team, or skip it.
  3. Run the import.

The people on those Lists come in as pending for you to review and activate, and each person’s List membership becomes their Volunteer Circle team membership. Imported fields are first name, last name, and email.

Staying in control

  • The connection is read-only — Volunteer Circle never changes anything in Planning Center.
  • You can disconnect anytime from within Planning Center (revoke the authorization there) or from Volunteer Circle.
  • Re-running the import later updates contact details and adds any new team memberships, without removing memberships you’ve set up.

Still need a hand?

Email support@volunteercircle.com, or ask the assistant in the corner of any page.