Sign Up and Create Your Church

This is where every TimelyChurch journey starts. Setting up an account takes about five minutes, and by the time you finish this page you will be standing on your brand-new admin dashboard.

There are two steps:

1. Create your personal user account at /register.
2. Create your church workspace during onboarding.

We will walk through both in detail. Keep this page open in another tab if you'd like to follow along.

Before You Begin

Have these ready -- it will make the process smooth:

• Your full name as you'd like it to appear to your team.
• A work or personal email address you check regularly. This is where account notifications, verification links, and team invites will land.
• A phone number (mobile preferred -- some features use SMS).
• A strong password (at least 8 characters with letters and numbers).
• Your church's full legal or operating name, address, phone, and email.

Tip: Use an email address that is owned by your church (e.g., [email protected] rather than a personal Gmail). The first user to register becomes the founding administrator -- it's worth using an address that will outlast a single staff member.

Step 1: Create Your User Account

1. In your browser, go to timelychurch.com/register.

2. You'll see the registration form.

   

3. Fill in the form:

   • Full Name -- Your real name (letters, spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes only).
   • Email Address -- Must be unique across TimelyChurch.
   • Phone Number -- Used for account recovery and (optionally) SMS notifications.
   • Password and Confirm Password -- Use a strong, unique password. We enforce minimum length and complexity.

4. If you see a CAPTCHA challenge ("I'm not a robot"), complete it.

5. Click Create Account.

What Happens Next

• TimelyChurch creates your user account.
• You are automatically signed in -- no need to log in separately.
• A verification email is sent to the address you provided. You don't have to verify before continuing, but please do so within a day or two so your email is on file.
• You are immediately redirected to the next step: creating your church.

Tip: If you accidentally close the browser before finishing church setup, just sign in again at /login and TimelyChurch will pick up where you left off and route you back to the church onboarding screen.

Step 2: Create Your Church

After you sign up, you land on the Onboarding: Set Up Your Church screen. This is where you tell TimelyChurch about the church you are setting up.

Fill in the following:

Church Name

The full name of your church as you'd like it to appear in emails, on your portal, and on giving statements. Example: First Baptist Church of Springfield.

Slug (Web Address)

Your slug is the short, URL-safe name TimelyChurch uses to build your portal address. If your slug is first-baptist, your member portal lives at timelychurch.com/c/first-baptist/portal.

Slug rules:

• Lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes only.
• No spaces, no underscores, no special characters.
• Must be unique across all TimelyChurch churches.

We auto-generate a slug from your church name -- you can accept it or type your own. If your preferred slug is taken, TimelyChurch will append -2, -3, etc. until it finds one available. You cannot easily change the slug after creation, so pick one you'll be happy with long-term. (If you absolutely must change it later, contact support.)

Tip: Keep slugs short. gracechurch is better than the-church-of-grace-and-peace-2024. Members will type it.

Church Email

The primary email shown to your congregation -- on the portal, on giving receipts, and in your reply-to address for outbound church mail. Often your office or main pastoral inbox.

Phone (optional)

A public-facing phone number for the church.

Timezone

This one matters more than you think. Pick the timezone where your church physically meets. It controls:

• Event start and end times shown to members.
• When scheduled emails and announcements actually send.
• Daily reset cutoffs for things like volunteer reminders and serving stats.
• Date displays on dashboards, statements, and reports.

If your church is in Springfield, Illinois, choose Central Time (CT). If you are on the West Coast, choose Pacific Time (PT). We support all major US, Canadian, European, and Asia-Pacific zones.

Tip: If your church serves multiple campuses across timezones, pick the one where your administrative office is located. Per-campus timezone support is on the roadmap.

Address (optional but recommended)

Your church's street address. This shows up on your public portal, giving statements, and (eventually) in directions on your website.

What Happens After You Hit "Save"

When you click Create Church:

1. Your church workspace is provisioned with all the default settings, roles, and modules.
2. You are linked to it as the church administrator (the founding admin).
3. A 30-day Pro trial is automatically started -- you have full access to every feature on the platform for the next 30 days. See Trial and Plan Selection for what's included and what happens when the trial ends.
4. Default roles are seeded -- Administrator, Team Leader, Team Member, and Member -- so you can start inviting teammates immediately. (Finance-specific roles like Finance Admin and Accountant (Read-Only) are also created automatically once your plan includes the finance features.)
5. You are redirected to your brand-new admin dashboard at /c/your-slug/portal/admin.

You will see empty stat cards (zero people, zero events, no announcements yet). That's normal -- you're standing in a freshly-built house. Time to move some furniture in.

Bookmark These Pages

Now that your workspace exists, save these two URLs:

• Admin login: timelychurch.com/login
• Your admin dashboard: timelychurch.com/c/your-slug/portal/admin

Your members will use a different URL -- /c/your-slug/portal/login -- and they sign in via magic link. See Magic Link Login for Members.

Recommended Next Steps

You're now at the very start of the Quick Start Checklist. The first things we suggest:

1. Read How TimelyChurch Works -- understanding the layered architecture (People → Groups → Events → Activities) makes everything else click.
2. Read Trial and Plan Selection so you know how long you have full access.
3. Finish your Church Profile -- upload your logo, double-check your timezone.
4. Review Default Roles before inviting your team.
5. Then run through Inviting Team Members and Add Your People.

Troubleshooting

"This email is already registered." The address you tried to use is already attached to a TimelyChurch account. Sign in at /login instead, or use Forgot Password to recover access.

"That slug is already taken." Try a variation -- add your city (firstbaptist-springfield) or denomination (grace-bible). The slug must be globally unique.

The verification email never arrived. Check spam/junk. Ensure the email is correct on your profile. You can request a fresh verification link from your account menu after logging in. You can keep using TimelyChurch even if verification is delayed; we just nudge you periodically until it's done.

I picked the wrong timezone. Easy fix: go to Church Settings → Profile, choose the right one, and save. Existing event times stay accurate -- they were stored in UTC under the hood.

I want to set up a second church. TimelyChurch is multi-tenant. After you finish onboarding, you can join or create another workspace from your account menu (your role in each church is independent).

Related Articles

• How TimelyChurch Works
• Trial and Plan Selection
• Welcome to TimelyChurch
• Church Settings
• Quick Start Checklist