The Planning Center Playbook Objective: Transform Your Database into a Thriving Community Engine
In today's fast-paced ministry environment, staying connected with your congregation and fostering a sense of community is more crucial than ever. You've taken the first step by using Planning Center, but are you harnessing its full potential to build lasting relationships and help people find their place in your church? As we look ahead to 2025, let's dive into how you can utilize Planning Center for future growth, deeper engagement, and stronger community bonds.
The Hidden Gold in Your Planning Center Database
Your Planning Center People database is your church’s story. The data stored within it tells you who your congregation is. It houses their contact information, their history and activity of ministry milestones, event registrations, small group involvement, donation frequency, and more.
If you haven’t been using Planning Center to its full potential or if you would like to utilize additional features in 2025, we’re going to look at some of the most important ones in this article.
Forms: Your Path to Meaningful Connections
Forms serve as more than just data collection tools; they act as your digital welcome mat, providing your congregation with a way to ask questions, submit prayer requests, and express interest in volunteering, just to name a few uses. Here's how to make forms work more effectively for you:
Simplify and Streamline: Keep your forms short and sweet. Ask only for essential information that will help you connect people to the right opportunities.
Use Conditional Logic: Tailor the form experience to each individual. Use conditional fields to show relevant questions based on previous answers. This not only simplifies the form but also makes respondents feel understood and valued. These fields could help you to consolidate multiple forms into one form.
Follow-Up Automation: Set up automated email responses for form submissions. A personalized "We're excited to connect with you!" can go a long way in making people feel welcomed into your community and start a conversation. You can also add your respondents to a Workflow where a series of connection steps will continue the conversation and begin to develop the relationship.
Custom Field fields: Use these fields to allow your congregation an opportunity to provide answers to their profile custom fields. Fields like baptism date, military service, spiritual gifts, and more can be automatically added to a profile using these special fields.
Lists: Personalization for Deeper Connections
Lists are the backbone of filtering your database and effective communication when community building.
Here's how to leverage them:
Segment Thoughtfully: Break your main list into smaller, more targeted lists based on interests, involvement, or life stages. This allows for more personalized communication and helps people find their niche within your church community.
Use Profile Custom Fields Wisely: Implement a custom field system to refine your lists further. Create a Custom Tab with fields like New Visitor, Young Families, or Outreach Volunteer can help you connect people with the right opportunities and support.
Keep Lists Fresh: Regularly update your lists to ensure you're reaching out to people in ways that match their current involvement and interests. This shows that you are attentive to their journey in your church.
List Synergy: Create automations with your lists that automatically add people to relevant workflows based on their activities in Planning Center apps ensuring they're always connected to the most relevant information and opportunities.
Workflows: Building Pathways to Belonging
Workflows are where the community-building magic happens. They are the key to ensuring no one feels overlooked or disconnected:
New Member Journey: Create a workflow that guides new members through their first few months, introducing them to different aspects of your church community (such as small groups, equipping classes) and helping them find their place.
Volunteer Engagement: Set up a workflow that regularly checks in with volunteers, asking for feedback, offering support, and helping them feel valued in their service.
Deeper Connection Sequences: Implement workflows that guide individuals from being observers to active participants in your church community, nurturing them toward deeper involvement and relationships.
Life Event Support: Use workflows to provide support and resources during significant life events (new baby, loss of a loved one, etc.), showing your congregation you care about their whole life journey.
Automations Are Your 24/7 Community-Building Assistant
Use Automations with Lists and Forms to free up your time to focus on what matters most - building genuine relationships:
Personalized Follow-Up: Set up automations to send follow-ups to new families and visitors, as well as salvation decisions, baptisms, and more.
Milestone Celebrations: Use automations to recognize and celebrate personal milestones, church anniversaries, or spiritual growth markers.
Engagement Tracking: Implement automations that track involvement patterns and alert you when someone's engagement level changes, allowing for timely personal outreach.
Resource Recommendations: Set up automations to suggest relevant resources, classes, or groups based on an individual's interests and involvement.
Overcoming Adoption Hurdles
Getting your team on board with new processes can be challenging, but it's crucial for creating a cohesive community-building effort.
Start Small: Begin with one feature at a time. Master forms before moving on to workflows, for example. Once mastered, link them together by adding an automation.
Provide Training: Offer regular training sessions, both in-person and via recorded videos, focusing on how these tools help build stronger connections. Utilize outside training resources such as the Threefold Solutions YouTube channel for additional training.
Celebrate Wins: Highlight team members who are using Planning Center effectively to foster community. Share their success stories and their impact on individuals.
Make it a Team Effort: Assign Planning Center champions within different ministry areas to provide peer-to-peer support and share best practices for community building.
The Road to a Thriving Church Community
Structuring your Planning Center database for future growth and deeper connections is not a one-time event but an ongoing journey. By focusing on forms, lists, workflows, and automations, you're laying a solid foundation for increased engagement and a stronger sense of community within your church.
Remember, the goal isn't just to use a tool; it's to build meaningful relationships and help every individual find their place in your church family. Every form filled, list segmented, workflow created, and automation set up is a step towards more personalized, effective ministry and stronger community bonds.
As you implement these strategies, keep in mind that your ability to consistently connect with your congregation is directly responsible for the strength of your church community. Planning Center is your relationship-building superpower - use it wisely, use it often, and watch your church family grow and thrive.
Are you ready to unlock the full potential of Planning Center and build a more connected, engaged church community? Your journey to a more effective, relationship-focused ministry starts now. Let's make it happen!
Jason Silbernagel
Co-founder, Threefold Solutions
P.S. We assist with coaching, training, strategy, and support.
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