Prayer Chain Spreadsheet

To download the spreadsheet, Click Here. The spreadsheet is based on the prayer chain we use; this one supports 49 families, but you can add more manually. The spreadsheet was designed in Microsoft Excel 97 SR-2. Here is a preview using president's names and bogus phone numbers:

a spreadsheet filled with president's names and bogus phone numbers. It's arranged as a flowchart. For example, Dwight Eisenhower is supposed to call Bill Clinton in this make believe prayer chain.

Note the spreadsheet you download only has George and Martha Washington in it (so you can see what data goes where); if for some reason you wanted the bogus spreadsheet above, Click here for the example spreadsheet.

To use either spreadsheet, you will either need Microsoft Excel or the free OpenOffice.org 1.1 Spreadsheet software (aka OpenOffice.org Calc); Click here to get OpenOffice now!

These Excel Spreadsheets (the example and almost empty one) are free for your personal, non-commercial or ministry (ecclesiastic) use. By downloading any files from this website, The author may not be held responsible in any way for any losses that occur via the use of these files. The author makes no guarantee as to the efficacy of any file on this website. No support is provided by the author.

How To Use These Spreadsheets

I'll assume you are not using the example sheet, although the instructions would be the same. After you have downloaded PrayerChain.xls, you'll need to open it with either Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc. You should see this:

A spreadsheet. The first column contains the word ROWS in bold. The next, COLUMNS; then NAME(S); LAST NAME; PHONE NO.; NOTES; and CHURCH NAME. The ROWS column alternamtes with lime and flesh-colored cells (lime is odd, flesh is even). The COLUMNS row yellow. The NOTES row is TEAL. All other rows are white. Only 'George & Martha' appear in the NAME(S) Column. Only 'Washington' appears in in the LAST NAME column. Only '555-0001' appears in the PHONE NO. column. And only 'CHURCH NAME' appears in the CHURCH HAME field.

That's because, by default, I send you to the DATA worksheet. To see the Flowchart, click on the FLOWCHART TAB. The tabs are located in the bottom left corner:

a picture showing two tabs: 'DATA' and 'FLOWCHART'

Anyway, for now ignore the Rows, Columns and notes fields. Begin entering your data by replacing the "Church Name" (on the same line with George & Martha Washington, not the one in bold) with the name of your church. Next identify who will start the prayer chain (likely, your preacher). Enter first names in the Name(s) field. Enter last names in the Last Name field. Enter telephone numbers in the Phone No. field.

Now it's time to consider the Rows and Columns. Whoever is in a Row 2 spot must call two people (the person to his/her right and the person below), with the exception of Row 2, Column 8. Thus, when we enter this:

an example containing the following data: 'George & Martha','Washington','555-0001';'John & Abigail','Adams','555-0002';'Thomas & Martha','Jefferson','555-0003';'James & Dorothy','Madison','555-0004';'James & Elizabeth','Monroe','555-0005';'John Q. & Louisa','Adams','555-0006';'Andrew & Rachel','Jackson','555-0007';'Martin & Hannah','Van Buren','555-0008';'William H. & Anna','Harrison','555-0009';'John & Letitia','Tyler','555-0010';'James K. & Sarah','Polk','555-0011';'Zachary & Margaret','Taylor','555-0012';'Willard & Abigail','Fillmore','555-0013';'Franklin & Jane','Pierce','555-0014';'James','Buchanan','555-0015';'Abraham & Mary','Lincoln','555-0016';'Andrew & Eliza','Johnson','555-0017'

It displays like this on the flowchart page:

an example of the flowchart: 'George & Martha Washington, 555-0001' are to call 'John & Abigail Adams, 555-0002', etc.

Continue entering names until finished. If you have too many fields on the flowchart worksheet page, you can either delete them or ignore them (they just show up with a "0", people shouldn't call the operator. I hope...).

Adding More Rows (advanced topic)

First off, let me congratulate you on the size of your congregation! And let me remind you that your prayer chain flowchart is going to be larger than one sheet of letter-sized paper (8 1/2" x 11"). Here's what you need to do:

On the DATA worksheet, you can just keep working down. You do not need to number the column nor rows (although you can if you want to). You just need data in the fields directly below the ones you've already filled.

On the FLOWCHART worksheet, you'll need to copy a row and paste it below. Additionally, the arrow images don't like to copy in Excel 97 (OpenOffice Calc did it fine), so you have to copy and paste them separately. (This is free, remember?). The pasted row will have the same data, as the cells will have the same formulas. So you have to change the formulas or if this seems too complicated, just type the data in directly.

Changing a cell's formula

On the DATA worksheet, cell V1 is in black. It's my spacer. Please don't modify or else you'll need to do some serious re-coding.

Take a deep breath, this sounds harder than it is. Once you've done one or two, you get the swing of it, and it becomes a routine; you can even put it on your resume!

If you click on a cell where the name displays (I've chosen the bottom right one; P20) you'll see code like this in the inputline in OPEN OFFICE CALC


        	OPEN OFFICE CALC

        		=$DATA.$C$50&$DATA.$V$1&$DATA.$D$50

For Microsoft Excel, those periods after DATA need to be exclamation marks, and Excel does not put a $ before DATA:


        	MICROSOFT EXCEL

        		=DATA!$C$50&DATA!$V$1&DATA!$D$50

I'll make the assumption that you have made a new row of prayer chain boxes. We'll pretend your next cell is A23. Therefore the A23 (or whatever your next cell is called)'s code would need to be:


        	OPEN OFFICE CALC

        		=$DATA.$C$51&$DATA.$V$1&$DATA.$D$51
			

			

			MICROSOFT EXCEL

        		=DATA!$C$51&DATA!$V$1&DATA!$D$51

Note that the color is used for emphasis.

If you click on a cell where the phone number displays (again, I've chosen the bottom right one; P21) you'll see code like this in the inputline:


			OPEN OFFICE CALC

        		=$DATA.$E$50
			

			

			MICROSOFT EXCEL

				=DATA!$E$50

And, as you've probably already guessed, the cell beneath =$DATA.$C$51&$DATA.$V$1&$DATA.$D$51 (A24 --if A23 was the "name" cell), will need to read


           	OPEN OFFICE CALC

				=$DATA.$E$51
        	

			

			MICROSOFT EXCEL

				=DATA!$E$51

Each cell increments the number by one, going left to right and then up to down.

I tested that in both Excel 97 and OpenOffice Calc, and it worked fine in both (for me).