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Event Instances

An event instance is a single, specific occurrence of a calendar event — defined by its own start and end date and time. A recurring event like "Wednesday Night Bible Study" has one event record but many instances, one for each meeting date. Instances are synced from Planning Center Calendar and are read-only in GatherCMS.

What Is an Event Instance​

  • Think of an event as a TV show and instances as individual episodes that air on specific dates.
  • For example, "Sunday Worship Service" is one event. Each Sunday morning service is a separate instance.
  • Instances are what determine when an event shows up on your website's calendar and what date and time visitors see.

How Instances Are Created​

  • Instances are created and managed in Planning Center Calendar, not in GatherCMS.
  • Each scheduled occurrence in Planning Center becomes one instance in GatherCMS after the sync runs.
  • To add, change, or cancel an occurrence, make the update in Planning Center. The sync will reflect the change in GatherCMS within a few minutes.

Viewing Instances for an Event​

  • Open any event from the event list to access its detail view.
  • Scroll to the Upcoming Event Instances section.
  • The table shows only future instances — occurrences with a start time from now onward. Past instances are not displayed.
  • Each row shows the event name and the instance's Starts At date and time.
  • To view instances that have been removed (soft-deleted from Planning Center), enable the Trashed filter in the instances table.

How the "Starts At" Column on the Event List Works​

  • The Starts At column on the event list always reflects the event's next upcoming instance.
  • This value updates automatically as instances pass — you do not need to do anything to keep it current.
  • For example, if "Sunday Worship Service" runs every week, the event list always shows the coming Sunday's date, not a fixed date.
  • If an event has no future instances scheduled, the Starts At field may be blank or show no value, and the event will not appear in the default list view.

Instance Status Labels on the Website​

When visitors view your church's website, each event shows a live status label based on its next instance's timing:

  • Happening Now — the event is currently in progress.
  • Starting Soon (time) — the event begins within the next hour.
  • Today @ time — the event is later today.
  • Tomorrow @ time — the event is tomorrow.
  • Day, Month Date, Year @ time — the event is further in the future.

These labels are calculated in real time and update automatically — no manual action is required.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Why are there no instances showing in the Upcoming Event Instances table?

The table shows only future instances. If all scheduled occurrences of an event are in the past, the table will appear empty. Check Planning Center Calendar to verify that future dates are scheduled. If they were recently created, it may take a few minutes for them to appear in GatherCMS.

The Starts At date on the event list looks wrong. What controls it?

The Starts At date always reflects the next upcoming instance. If it looks stale or incorrect, check Planning Center Calendar to confirm the scheduled instances are up to date. Changes sync within a few minutes.

We need to cancel a single occurrence of a recurring event. What should we do?

Remove or cancel that occurrence in Planning Center Calendar. The next sync will remove the corresponding instance from GatherCMS and update the event's next Starts At date accordingly.

We moved an event occurrence to a different date. Will GatherCMS update automatically?

Yes. Update the instance date in Planning Center Calendar. The sync will reflect the change in GatherCMS within a few minutes, and the event's Starts At column will update to show the new next occurrence.