Templates

Free church rota template

A free monthly rota for Excel, Google Sheets or print.

Last updated: 2026-09-22

Download the church rota template

Download the Excel workbook or get the printable PDF. To use Google Sheets, upload the workbook to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. It includes a blank rota, a worked example and instructions.

Want the rota and volunteer replies together? Try Levites free with one team. The spreadsheet is a starting point; Levites is where your team can see assignments and reply.

A worked example

The example below shows a four-Sunday month. Replace the names and dates with your own and use the fifth-Sunday column in the download when needed. Roles down the side, Sundays across the top, one name per cell:

Role (arrive 9:15)	Sun 5th	Sun 12th	Sun 19th	Sun 26th
Welcome door	Grace A.	Tom P.	Grace A.	Ruth O.
Sound desk	David E.	David E.	Sam K.	Sam K.
Projection	Adam R.	Steph B.	Adam R.	Steph B.
Camera	Gareth T.	Sarah L.	Gareth T.	Sarah L.
Kids ministry	Ruth O.	Mary N.	Mary N.	Grace A.
Refreshments	Team A	Team B	Team A	Team B
Backup / on-call	Jo M. (07…), Peter H. (07…)

Three rules that make this template work:

Agree how often each person wants to serve. Check assignments across all teams, not just one row. Twice a month can be a starting point, but ask what works for your volunteers.
Every role has a backup row. When someone drops out, the coordinator calls the on-call list — not the entire congregation.
Arrival time lives in the header. “You’re on the rota” should never require a follow-up question.

The rhythm matters more than the template

A rota is only as good as its delivery. Whatever tool you use, keep this cadence:

Draft 4–6 weeks ahead — long enough for diaries, short enough to remember.
Publish two weeks before the month starts so swaps happen early.
Remind every Wednesday or Thursday: “Hi team — you’re serving this Sunday on [role], please arrive by [time]. Need a swap? Contact [backup].”
Let volunteers swap among themselves, then simply update the sheet.

The spreadsheet isn’t the hard part. The hard part is being the human reminder system, every single week, forever.

Signs you’ve outgrown the spreadsheet

You run more than one team, so you’re maintaining several sheets and several group chats.
More than ~15 volunteers — too many for “everyone just checks the sheet” to be true.
Your midweek routine includes manually messaging reminders and chasing “did you see the rota?”
Swaps happen in WhatsApp but never make it back into the sheet, so the rota lies.
New volunteers ask “where do I find the rota?” — because it has no fixed home.

If these problems sound familiar, try one team’s rota in Levites and compare the work involved.

The same rota in Levites — without the admin

Create a ministry for each team in your church workspace (Welcome, Media, Kids…).
Add your services in the Rota tab — weekly services take seconds to set up.
Assign named roles exactly like the template rows: Camera, sound desk, projection.
Skip the reminder routine. Levites notifies each volunteer automatically, and everyone sees their own dates under My Assignments — no grid-scanning.
Changes stay true. When an assignment changes, the rota and the team chat live in the same app, so there’s no stale spreadsheet to forget about.

Frequently asked questions

What should a church rota template include?

Roles down the side, dates across the top, one name per cell, a backup contact per team, and the arrival time in the header.

How do I make a church rota in Google Sheets?

One sheet per month, roles in column A, Sunday dates in row 1, names in the cells. Share with view access and re-share the link weekly.

When should we switch to a rota app?

When you have multiple teams, 15+ volunteers, or your week includes hand-typed reminder messages. Try it with one team and check whether it reduces the manual follow-up you do each week.