> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.thefaithapp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Volunteers and Serving Teams > Build healthy teams, prepare schedules and worship plans, close coverage gaps, and help every volunteer arrive ready. Volunteers & Serving Teams connects team rosters, healthy availability, schedules, preparation, training, recognition, and worship planning. Leaders work from the web dashboard, while members respond and prepare in the mobile Volunteer Hub. The dashboard keeps each task in a compact section bar and stacks forms below their working lists on smaller screens. In the mobile app, profile, feedback, availability, blockout, swap, and calendar actions open from the bottom of the screen so the current assignment stays in context. ## Before You Start 1. Open `Volunteers > Ministries` and confirm each ministry is current. 2. Open `Volunteers > Schedule & Teams` and create the roles each ministry needs. 3. Decide which roles require safeguarding, a background check, references, or training before a person can be scheduled. 4. Give leaders only the scheduling, sensitive wellbeing, or worship-planning access their responsibility needs. 5. Ask members to review their reminder choices, availability, preferred serving load, and code of conduct in the Volunteer Hub. Clearance fields record your church's review; TheFaithApp does not perform a background check or certify that a volunteer is safe or legally eligible. Follow your church's safeguarding policy and local requirements. ## Build Teams and Roles Use `Teams` to add a ministry role, its preparation instructions, usual call time, leadership state, and any required screening. Then add members to the ministry, choose their role, and mark leaders or standby volunteers. A member can be active, paused, or inactive without deleting their history. Private leader notes and clearance details are visible only to people with the sensitive wellbeing permission. ## Schedule a Service or Rehearsal Open `Schedule` and create a service or rehearsal plan with its date, time, timezone, location, and ministry. Add every needed position, then assign a member or leave it open for an eligible team member to claim. The coverage panel shows filled, confirmed, and unfilled positions. It also warns about: * A weekly availability mismatch or blockout * An overlapping assignment * A serving Sabbath window * The member's monthly or consecutive-week limit * A required clearance or training gap Review warnings before publishing. Publishing sends invitations to assigned members and exposes unfilled roles to active members of that ministry; it does not silently confirm anyone. Use a schedule template for a recurring pattern. A template can generate a series of draft plans with the right number of roles. You can also duplicate a previous plan and decide whether to retain its volunteers. ## Member Responses and Coverage In the mobile `Volunteer Hub`, members can: * Confirm or decline an invitation * Request a swap * Claim an eligible open role * Check in near the scheduled serving time * Review role instructions and the run of show * Subscribe to their private serving calendar * Reset that calendar link immediately if it was exposed * Set weekly availability, blockouts, a serving Sabbath, and preferred load When a role remains open, a leader can notify eligible standby team members. The same availability, rest, load, conflict, and clearance checks still apply. ## Care for Volunteer Health The restricted `Wellbeing` section highlights patterns that may deserve a human conversation: high load, long consecutive service, repeated declines, attendance follow-up, or low post-service energy. These are prompts, not labels or automated judgments. Members can send a private post-service check-in about energy, support, and whether they would serve again. Scheduling-only staff do not see private comments or restricted wellbeing data. Use `Training` to create a requirement for a ministry or role. A requirement may link to a published Discipleship pathway, expire after a chosen period, and send reminders while incomplete or nearing expiry. Thank-you messages and serving milestones appear privately in the member's Volunteer Hub when the member has chosen to receive recognition. ## Prepare a Worship Plan Use `Worship Plan` to build an ordered run of show with songs, messages, prayers, cues, owners, timing, stage positions, and production notes. The song library can hold: * CCLI number, default key, BPM, and notes * Named arrangements with working key, capo, chord chart, and tempo * Chord-chart links, rehearsal tracks, song files, stems, and references Members open the published plan from their assignment. They can transpose a stored chord chart, start an audible BPM metronome, and open the attached preparation files. The CCLI usage report counts songs in published and completed plans for a selected date range. ## Reminders and Communication Assignment and training reminders respect church quiet hours, the member's channel and category choices, and recorded email or SMS consent. Every reminder also appears in-app. For a broader update, use `Communications` and choose a Volunteer Team audience. That audience includes active members of the selected serving ministry. ## What Is Still Dependency-Gated Facilities and equipment conflict checks, reimbursements and stipends, cross-church sharing, third-party schedule synchronization, and AI-assisted scheduling will become useful only after their owning platform capabilities exist. The current scheduler uses explicit, explainable rules and does not pretend those integrations are available. See the [Volunteer Serving API guide](/api-reference/volunteer-serving) for the authenticated endpoint and permission contract.