Recurring Events

TimelyChurch offers two ways to set up recurring events: a quick Repeats toggle inside the Create event drawer, and a full-featured Event Series system with RRULE-based recurrence patterns. Both paths create a managed Event Series behind the scenes, so you can edit or cancel individual occurrences later either way.

Quick Recurring Events

When you create an event, you can flip on Repeats to generate a whole pattern of occurrences in one step.

Setting Up Recurrence

1. On the Events page, click New event to open the Create event drawer.
2. In the Repeat step, turn on the Repeats toggle (it's off by default, so a single event stays a one-time event).
3. The recurrence options appear below the toggle.

Recurrence Frequency

Choose a frequency from the segmented control, then set how often it repeats:

• Daily -- Repeats every day (or every N days using the Every interval).
• Weekly -- Repeats every week on the selected days (use Every 2 for an every-other-week / biweekly pattern).
• Monthly -- Repeats once a month.

Next to the frequency you'll find an Every field where you set the interval (every 1, 2, 3... periods).

Configuration by Frequency

For Weekly:

• On these days -- Tap the weekday circles to choose one or more days of the week when the event should occur (e.g., Sunday, Wednesday).

For Monthly, pick a Repeat by option:

• On day N of the month -- Repeats on a specific day number (taken from the start date).
• On the [first / second / third / fourth / last] [weekday] -- Repeats on a relative weekday, such as "the first Sunday" or "the last Wednesday."

Recurrence End

Under Ends, choose how the recurrence stops:

• Never -- The series keeps generating occurrences indefinitely (TimelyChurch materializes a rolling window and tops it up over time).
• On date -- Pick the last date through which occurrences are generated. Must be after the start date.
• After N occurrences -- Stop after a set number of occurrences (up to 730).

A live summary banner shows the pattern in plain language as you make changes.

What Happens on Save

When you save, TimelyChurch creates an Event Series and generates the individual occurrences for the pattern. Each generated occurrence gets:

• The same title, description, location, address, and capability settings
• Its own date and time based on the recurrence pattern
• Room bookings (if a room is selected), each created automatically
• Team schedule templates applied to each occurrence (auto-applied by event type)

A confirmation message tells you how many recurring events were created.

Note: Because quick recurring events create a managed Event Series, you can later edit or cancel individual occurrences, or change the whole pattern, from the Event Series tools. For more control at creation time -- such as RRULE presets, custom patterns, or serving-position templates -- use the full Event Series flow described below.

Event Series (Advanced Recurring Events)

Event Series provide a more powerful way to manage recurring events. A series defines a recurrence pattern using the RRULE standard, and individual occurrences are generated from that pattern.

Creating an Event Series

1. Navigate to Events in the sidebar.
2. In the Events page header, open the More menu and click Event Series.
3. On the Event Series page, click New Series.

Series Fields

Recurrence Pattern (RRULE)

The recurrence pattern uses the RRULE standard. TimelyChurch provides preset patterns for common church schedules:

You can also build a custom RRULE by selecting:

• Frequency -- Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.
• Interval -- How often (every 1, 2, 3, etc. periods).
• Days of Week -- Which days for weekly/biweekly patterns.
• Ordinal Position -- First, Second, Third, Fourth, or Last (for monthly patterns like "first Sunday").

Series Feature Toggles

Event Series have their own set of feature toggles:

• Registration Enabled -- Allow people to register for occurrences.
• Max Registrations -- Capacity limit per occurrence.
• Waitlist Enabled -- Enable a waitlist when capacity is reached.
• Check-In Enabled -- Allow check-in at each occurrence.
• Serving Enabled -- Enable volunteer serving positions.
• Service Order Enabled -- Enable service/worship planning.
• Public -- Visible on the public calendar.
• Active -- Series is live and generating occurrences.

Serving Position Templates

For each series, you can define serving position templates that are automatically applied to every new occurrence:

1. From the series detail page, find the Serving Positions section.
2. Click Add Position.
3. Enter the position name, description, number of slots needed, and optionally associate it with a serving team.
4. The position is created for all future occurrences.

Tip: Serving position templates save you from manually setting up volunteer needs for each weekly service.

Managing Event Series

For detailed information on editing, deleting, and managing series, see Managing Event Series.