Your service time changes. The website needs an update, but the person who built it moved away. Someone remembers a password in an old group chat. The reset email goes to an address nobody recognizes.
Meanwhile, a family looking up your church sees the wrong time.
Last issue, you chose one communications goal, one progress signal, a starting number, and a review date. This week, keep that goal in front of you and ask:
Can someone else update the information people need if our usual volunteer is unavailable?
You need to know where the important accounts live, who can use them, and how someone else can take over. Start with the accounts supporting this month’s goal.
Start with the accounts behind your goal
If you’re helping local families plan a first visit, begin with your website and Google Business Profile. Include the domain account and the email used for password resets, even though visitors never see those.
If you’re promoting a public event, include the registration platform and the social account carrying the invitation.
For each account, check:
Can an authorized person sign in and make the changes the church needs?
Can a second approved person help if the first is unavailable?
Who receives recovery messages and renewal notices?
Finding the public Facebook Page doesn’t confirm access. Neither does knowing who created it.
Leave Canva, YouTube, and other tools for a later pass unless they directly support this month’s goal. Giving systems and donor information belong with the church’s financial administrators.
Two responsible people, with the right access
Ask leadership to name a primary person and a backup for the important accounts. They don’t both need to post every week, but the backup needs a tested way to help.
Use individual accounts and built-in permissions wherever available. Don’t share someone’s personal Facebook or Google password.
The permission matters as much as the login. Someone who can publish a post may not be able to manage access or help with a handoff.
For Google Business Profile, a manager can handle everyday updates but cannot add or remove users. A trusted backup responsible for managing access needs an owner role. For Facebook and Instagram, check permissions for each account separately.
Give routine helpers the access their work requires. Reserve broader control for trusted people approved by leadership.
Tools to use, and what for
Use what the church already has. You don’t need to buy several new tools this week.
An account inventory
Use a restricted-access Google Sheet or shared document. Record the account name, login URL, primary person, backup, permission level, access-tested date, MFA status, recovery contact, renewal date, and next action.
Mark each account Verified, Needs attention, or Unknown. Keep passwords, backup codes, and payment details out of this document.
A church-managed password manager
Use a shared collection for church credentials that genuinely need sharing. Give approved people their own access to it. Personal account passwords and personal recovery codes stay private.
Keep the password manager’s recovery instructions somewhere secure that remains accessible if the vault is locked.
Two-step verification settings
MFA adds another sign-in check beyond the password. Start with the recovery email and the accounts controlling your domain, website, and public listings.
Before changing sign-in settings, confirm what happens if a phone is lost. Securely store church-account backup codes where an approved person can retrieve them.
Your domain provider’s billing settings
This is the company where your church renews its web address. It may be different from your website host.
Check the renewal date, auto-renew setting, valid church-authorized payment method, and who receives notices. If the domain expires, your website and church email may stop working. Confirm how you would recover access without that email.
Finish the handoff
Sending an invitation is only the beginning. The backup needs to accept it, sign in, and confirm they can do the work assigned to them.
Keep the existing authorized access in place until the replacement is verified.
Do this in 55 minutes
After leadership approves the primary and backup people:
First 5 minutes: Open last issue’s goal note. Choose the three accounts most important to keeping that visitor path working.
Next 15 minutes: Fill in the inventory. Write “Unknown” wherever you cannot confirm something.
Next 15 minutes: Have the primary person demonstrate access. Have the backup test their own login and the permissions they need.
Next 10 minutes: Check MFA, recovery arrangements, and renewal dates. Complete one straightforward, approved fix.
Final 10 minutes: Give every unresolved item a named person and due date. Schedule a short follow-up.
An account-recovery process may take days. You can still finish this session knowing what needs attention and who will handle it.
What usually goes wrong
An invitation gets counted as a completed handoff. Have the backup test access before removing the previous administrator.
Everyone gets full control. A volunteer posting event reminders doesn’t automatically need control of billing or ownership.
The inventory goes stale. Review it when a volunteer, staff member, or agency changes responsibilities.
Every account becomes this week’s project. Start with the accounts behind your current goal. Put the rest on the follow-up list.
Before you finish, ask: “If I’m unavailable next Sunday, who can correct our service time online?”
You should have a name, a tested login, and instructions they can find.
Jesus
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