How the Public Event Page Works

Every event has a public page anyone can open with a link. This is the page your visitors use to see the details and sign up. Knowing how it behaves helps you answer questions when someone gets stuck.

Where the page lives

Public events live at a short link, like churchday.com/e/k7m2p. The short link is the page itself, and it's the link Churchday hands out everywhere: the copy button in the event editor, the QR code and invite link on the page, emails, your church page's event list, and texts (where it appears as church.day/e/k7m2p). It stays the same even if you rename the event.
Private church events, and events only for people in your church, live at your church's web address followed by the event name, like churchday.com/yourchurch/easter-service. They never get a short link, because a short link is short enough for someone to guess.
Personal events that aren't public live at a churchday.com/e/... link with the event name.

Older links that use your church's web address and the event name keep working for public events too, and open the same page. Every page shows the cover image, date and time, location, and a sign-up card on the side, and the card works the same at any of these links.

If you change a public event to private or to people in your church, its short link stops opening it. Share the event's full link from the editor instead.

Add to calendar and Get directions

Every event page has two more quiet buttons in the same style as Contact host, stacked with it: under Hosted by on a laptop, and at the very bottom of the page on a phone. Add to calendar opens the same choices the date used to hide behind an arrow: Google Calendar, or Apple Calendar / Outlook. On an iPhone or iPad it offers Apple Calendar only, because the Google Calendar app there opens without adding the event. Apple Calendar saves into Google Calendar too when the visitor's Google account is connected in their iPhone settings. For a repeating event, both choices add only the date on the page. Get directions opens the same choices as tapping the address: Google Maps, Apple Maps, or copy the address. It only appears for a real address picked from the map search; a typed label like "Youth Room" has nowhere to point to.

Contact host

Every event page has a Contact host button under "Hosted by" (as long as someone receives the event's notifications, which is the creator by default). It sits with Add to calendar and Get directions (under Hosted by on a laptop, at the bottom of the page on a phone). It opens a short form: name, email, and a message. Churchday emails the message to the people on the event's notification list as a plain email, like one typed in Gmail: the person's name and email, then their message, with the sender shown as their name via Churchday. When they reply from their inbox the reply goes straight to the sender. Nobody's address is shown on the page. To change who receives these messages, edit the event's Notifications row in the editor. If an older event has nobody on that list, the button does not appear until someone is added there.

Signing in to register

Anyone can read the whole page without an account, but responding needs one. Tapping Register, Going, Maybe, Can't go, or Join the waitlist while signed out opens a window headed Sign in to register (Sign in to RSVP on an RSVP event). New and returning people use the same screen, and there is no password:

Email or Google. They type their email and tap Continue with email, or tap Continue with Google below it. Google is optional.
The code. Churchday emails a six-digit code, and typing the last digit moves them on. Resend sends a new one, and Change it fixes a typo in the address.
Name and phone, once. A new account, or an older one missing a name or phone, gets one short step: first name, last name, phone number, and an optional photo, then Continue. The line under the phone says your church uses it to reach them about this event. With Google, someone with no phone on file does this step on a separate Complete your profile page, then comes back.
Confirm. They land on one screen for the response they tapped: Register for this event, Join the waitlist when the date is full, or Confirm your response for Maybe and Can't go. A line reads Signed in as with their name and phone; they change either in their own account settings, and the screen only asks for one that's missing or can't be used. Below come household members, guests (plus-ones), your questions, and the stay-connected checkboxes, then one button. On a paid event the button reads Continue and payment comes next.

The two checkboxes, Email me updates and Text me updates, start checked on every response, and either can be unchecked. Text me updates only appears when texting is turned on for your church and the phone is a US number, and each checkbox disappears once that person has already opted in. Closing the window saves nothing.

Someone registering at your church for the first time, when your church already has a record with their name and phone under a different email, may first see Is this you?, which offers to email that address a link that brings their history together. Any answer, including Do this later, goes on to the confirmation.
Two people who share one email address share one Churchday account, so the second person comes along as a plus-one when the event allows guests. A plus-one with the same email as the person who brought them is named on your attendee list but isn't added to People separately.
The RSVP buttons in your event emails still answer without signing in, since the email already reached that person's inbox.
On an event for people in your church, visitors sign in before the page opens.
On an event that limits who can sign up, someone who isn't included sees "Only members of" your church "can sign up for this event" (or that sign-ups are limited to certain groups) instead of Register, and a signed-out visitor gets Sign in. See Choosing Who Can Sign Up for an Event. Someone signed in who isn't on your People list sees This event is for people in your church instead of the page. On your church page's event list, these events carry a Church only label.

Members who are already signed in skip all of this. They register with the details on their profile, and are only asked for a name or phone if their profile is missing one.

The one-tap path

A signed-in member whose profile is complete, on an event with no questions, no guest option, no payment, and no household members to bring, is signed up instantly when they tap Register. One tap and they are in. Everyone else sees the registration window.

The success card

Once someone is registered, the card turns into a confirmation that reads "You're registered!" Right after they register, a line under it says their confirmation is on its way to their email address and that they can find the event anytime on their home page. The card also includes:

Your invite link in a tap-to-copy pill with an Invite friends button, so they can pass the event along.
A link to edit registration when the event has questions or household members, or cancel registration when it does not.

If the event is full, the card reads "You're on the waitlist!" instead, with the option to leave the waiting list.

The email receipt links back to the event. A receipt to someone without a Churchday account, such as a person who answered from an RSVP button in your email or whose payment you marked yourself, also carries a Manage your registration button that opens the sign-in screen with their address already filled in.

Who's going

The who's going section appears beside the host information. Only people who are going can open the full list. A visitor who isn't signed in is asked to register (or RSVP) first, with a Sign in button for anyone who already did.

Service-style events can be configured to show the church community instead. In that case, the section is labeled Members, shows the church member roster, and is available to eligible signed-in church members. It does not depend on whether that member registered for the selected event date.

RSVP events

If you set your event up as an RSVP instead of a registration, the card shows three buttons: Going, Maybe, and Can't go. After a visitor answers, the card confirms with a matching message:

You're going! 🎉
You're a maybe 🤔
Can't make it 😢

Each confirmation has a change your response link so they can switch anytime until the event is over. Right after answering, Going shows the same line about the confirmation email as a registration, while Maybe and Can't go read "Saved. [Your church] will see your response." and send no email.

How households come along

When a visitor has family members in your church, their response sets a helpful default for the household. A Going or Maybe carries the whole family to that same answer, and each person can be adjusted individually from their own dropdown.

A decline is treated differently on purpose: answering Can't go for yourself does not file a "can't go" for your whole family. Only positive answers fan out, so no one gets marked absent without meaning to.

Repeating events: this date or every date

For a repeating event, the public page shows the next upcoming date. When the event is free, tapping Register or Going opens one screen with an Applies to choice: Just this date (the default) or Every week (it reads Every other week or Every month when that fits). Anyone signed in gets the same choice for Maybe and Can't go. If your repeating event is paid, or one of its upcoming dates has its own price, people sign up one date at a time. See Setting Up Registration and RSVPs for what every week covers, including full and closed weeks.

Each date has its own page. When someone opens a link to a specific date from your church's events list, that date's page loads, and their sign-up counts for that one. Tapping the date at the top of a repeating event opens Choose a date, the list of upcoming dates. To save the date shown, use the Add to calendar button under the details, which offers Google Calendar or Apple Calendar / Outlook (Apple Calendar only on an iPhone or iPad). On a one-off event, tapping the date opens those same calendar options directly.

After the event

Once the event is over (the day after its date, or after its last day when it runs several days, on the event's own time zone, which is your church's unless the event sets its own), the card reads This event has ended. Nobody can register, answer an RSVP, change a registration, add guests, or cancel from the page anymore, and the RSVP link in your emails says the same. This keeps your record of who came as it happened, and a refund can't follow an event someone already went to. The event day itself stays open, and a repeating event's other dates work as usual.

On a repeating event, a link to a date that has passed (an older confirmation email, a calendar entry) opens the next upcoming date instead, with a short note saying which date passed. A date you cancelled keeps its own page, and someone whose refund is still finishing stays on the date it belongs to.

If someone's card refund was already part-way through, they still see Finish refund so it can complete.
A date you cancelled keeps its own card, so people who paid can still cancel for their refund afterward.
You can still remove people and refund them from the Attendees tab.

When one date is cancelled

A cancelled date shows This date is cancelled and accepts no new registrations or RSVPs. Existing registrants can Sign in with the email they used. Someone on the list for every date sees Stop going to the rest, which lets them choose themselves or household members to take off the list from this date on. Earlier dates keep their record, and unselected people keep their responses. Card payments keep their separate Cancellation options and refund rules. When one payment covers several people, the confirmation explains that those registrations are cancelled together. Contact the host about payments made outside Churchday.