Every volunteer's background check and training, kept current for you.
Shepherd's Roster is a small safe ministry admin desk for churches. We keep one roster of every volunteer's background check, abuse-prevention training, and internal items across the vendors you already use, send renewal reminders from your church's own email address, and give your pastor a one-page report each month.
Get the free roster template See what the desk doesStart with the free version
Many churches only need a good spreadsheet. Ours tracks check and training dates for every volunteer, works out expiration dates and status on its own, and fills in a one-page monthly report for your pastor or elders. It is free to use whether or not you ever hire us.
Download the roster template (Excel) | See a sample monthly report (PDF)
Both files use a fictional church and fictional volunteers. Record statuses and dates only; never paste background check results into a spreadsheet.
Why this chore keeps slipping
Your screening vendor tracks its own checks. Your training vendor tracks its own courses. Nobody tracks your driver forms, first aid cards, or policy signatures, and nobody lines any of it up against who is serving this month.
Vendor lists drift from your real roster
Vendor reminder emails keep going to people who stopped serving, and new volunteers can start before anything is on file. Safe Gatherings, for example, asks churches to contact it so people no longer serving stop receiving renewal reminders (Safe Gatherings admin tip).
Insurers may ask you to show it
Many insurers require churches to run background checks for anyone working with minors and to renew them on a schedule, and if a church cannot demonstrate compliance, coverage may be denied or limited (ChurchTrac guide).
It lands on one busy person
Tracking who needs a check, when it expires, and what level was completed can quickly become overwhelming when it lives in spreadsheets, paper files, and scattered emails (same ChurchTrac guide).
What the desk does each month
- One reconciled roster. Every serving volunteer's background check, abuse-prevention training, driver form, and church-specific items, with dates and the source of each date, across whatever vendors you use.
- Renewal reminders from your own address. Friendly notes at 90, 60, and 30 days before an item expires, sent from your church's email address with the exact renewal link for your vendor. If your setup does not allow that, we draft the reminders and your staff clicks send.
- Follow-up you do not have to remember. If someone has not responded 14 days after a reminder, your ministry director hears about it.
- A one-page report for your pastor. Current, expiring, expired, and missing items, by ministry area, with a log of every reminder sent. A person reviews every report before it goes out.
- A roster that matches who actually serves. Each month we compare the status exports you forward against your serving schedule and flag anyone who has left or anyone serving without a record.
What stays with your church
Your church orders every check and receives every report. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the church is the user of any background check report. Shepherd's Roster holds statuses and expiration dates only, never report contents or Social Security numbers, and plays no part in any decision about a volunteer. We are not a background check company and we do not run checks or deliver training.
We never log into your screening or training vendor. Your office forwards the status export your vendor already provides, and we work from that and from the records you send.
Every serving decision is yours. Our report states recorded status as of a stated date, from stated sources. It does not certify that any person is safe, and it is not legal advice.
A written data-handling agreement comes first. Before any church shares a roster, we both sign a short agreement covering what we hold, how it is protected, and how it is deleted when you leave. That agreement is reviewed by an attorney before our first church signs it.
Pricing
One flat price per church. Month to month. No setup fee for the churches that start with us.
- Everything on this page
- Roster import and one onboarding call
- Reminders, follow-up, and the monthly pastor report
- Cancel any time; service runs to the end of the paid month
Who this fits
| A good fit | Probably not needed |
|---|---|
| Churches that choose their own screening and training providers, such as many non-denominational congregations, ELCA congregations, and United Methodist churches in conferences that let you pick a provider (for example, North Alabama Conference FAQ). | Churches whose denomination provides a single all-in-one vendor that already tracks everything for them. |
| Churches juggling more than one system plus internal paperwork like driver forms and policy signatures. | Churches that run checks through Planning Center, which includes a background check tracking dashboard (Planning Center help). That may be all you need. |
Questions
Do you use AI?
Yes. AI agents do much of the drafting and checking: lining up the exports you forward, drafting reminder emails, and putting the monthly report together. Troy directs that work, and a person reviews every report before it is sent. Reminder emails, the monthly report, and the data-handling agreement each carry a short line saying AI helped prepare them.
Are you a consumer reporting agency?
No. We never order checks, never receive report contents, and never take part in a decision about a volunteer. Your church orders each check from its own provider and keeps each report. We track only the status and the dates.
Will our volunteers hear from a stranger?
No. Reminders go out from your church's own email address, in wording your staff approved, with the renewal link for your vendor.
Do we have to switch vendors?
No. Keep the screening and training providers you use today. We work from the status exports they already give you.
Can we cancel?
Yes, any time, by email. Service runs to the end of the month you paid for, and we delete your roster data as the data-handling agreement describes.
Who is behind this?
Troy is a systems architect and former general contractor who builds and oversees agent workforces, and has taught the Bible for 20 years.