Who’s in charge here?

Several years ago, I was on a flight from Mumbai, India to New York City. On the flight, there was a very animated (albeit, quite inebriated) man who kept getting up and wandering around the cabin despite being asked to take his seat. The flight attendant would patiently ask him to return to his assigned row, and then he would insist that he needed to speak to the person in charge. He kept loudly asking, “Who’s in charge here?!? Who’s in charge here?!?” The flight crew eventually got him settled into his seat, but for the remainder of the flight he would still periodically ask, “Who’s in charge here?!?” This story still makes me laugh and throughout the years, in moments of organizational chaos, I’ve quoted the tipsy passenger many times.

The Extremes

When it comes to organizational empowerment there are two extremes. There are teams where one person holds all the decision-making power, while on other teams everyone has equal input regarding decisions. I’ve worked on both types of teams and, to be honest, I am not sure which causes more frustration. In a single decision-maker system, progress hinges on whether (or not) that person is available when an answer is needed. This often leads to a bottleneck and progress stalls out while the team is waiting around for a green light. In an equal-input system, there tends to be a lot of discussion regarding what needs to be done, but you often leave meetings without direction or clarity. Both systems fail to truly empower team members because individuals are unsure of what they’re allowed to do and supposed to do. Many organizations have a natural bend toward one direction or the other. Healthy organizations learn to manage the tension of living in the middle.

Regardless of the size of your church, your team is likely using a Church Management System like Planning Center. Even with a great software tool like Planning Center, there is a tendency to fall into one of the extremes. Some churches designate one person to do everything in the database while other churches want everyone on the team to have full access. Both models have their strengths and their weaknesses, but there are some practical things you can do to keep from falling into these two ditches.

Decide who is in charge.

I recently started working with a local church to help them clean up their church database. The lead pastor called and said, “Our database is really inaccurate. Can you help us?” He told me that their staff was struggling to pull accurate reports from their system to do even basic things like send an email to all their volunteers. One of the first steps in a clean-up project is to discover how the mess came to exist in the first place. It didn’t take long to figure out why their database was such a mess. “Who is your system administrator?” I asked. “Oh, we have a bunch of those,” he said, “When someone needs access, we usually just make them an admin so they can do whatever they need to do.” Mystery solved.

The truth is, not everyone should have all access to do everything. This leads to messy and unreliable data. If the entire church staff (and sometimes volunteers) can manage, tag, move, or delete data from your system, then it’s only a matter of time before you have a mess on your hands. This is why we highly recommend one or two people on your staff become your Planning Center Champion(s).

Appoint a Champion

The job of a Planning Center Champion is to maintain a 30,000-foot view of what’s happening in the system and of who has access to your data. This person has the “master key” to the database and they’re responsible for overseeing any major changes to be made in the system. While it may not be necessary for them to become an expert in everything Planning Center can do, they should be an expert in the way their church is using the platform. Not only does this help keep the system secure and the data accurate, but it takes the pressure off the rest of the team to feel like they need to become experts in Planning Center.

Understand Permissions

Once you’ve found your Planning Center Champion, give them permission to set up Permissions. Planning Center Permissions are designed to empower your team members to safely manage only the things in their sphere. Through the various Permission settings available in Planning Center, you can give access to individuals on your team on an as-needed basis, allowing them to perform actions and make changes to their lists, teams, groups, etc. When properly set up, Permissions will ensure that team members don’t wander off into a part of the system that they shouldn’t have access to and empower them to confidently use the tools available to them.

Note: If you’re not using Permissions yet, a great place to get started is in the People product. You can learn more about Permissions in People by reading our past blog post here:

​Understanding and Assigning Permissions in Planning Center People​

Empower your team

When it comes to Planning Center, answering the “Who’s in charge here?” question not only provides clarity of responsibilities, but it empowers team members to work confidently in their roles. Don’t let Planning Center intimidate you! If your team is struggling to understand PCO Permissions or you need help equipping a Planning Center Champion on your staff, we would love to help! Contact us at info@threefold.solutions to see how we can partner with you.

Alicia Osgood

P.S. Here’s how we can further assist you:

#1: Looking for more tips and tricks? Check out our blog.

#2: Check out our YouTube Channel for all things Planning Center.

#3: Contact us directly at info@threefold.solutions if you have questions or want us to write on a particular topic.