Does the AI do the follow-up for us?

No. It welcomes the guest, gathers their details, and organizes everything. A person makes the call, sends the invite, and builds the relationship.

Does the assistant change our Planning Center records?

Only by submitting our intake form for new guests and adding a note about where they came from. Everything else it does there is read-only.

Won't this create duplicate people in Planning Center?

That's the biggest risk, so the assistant searches by email, phone, and name first, stops if a search fails, and checks afterward that there's exactly one record.

What if a guest only gives a phone number?

We still add them. Our form needs an email, so we use a marked placeholder until the real one comes in. Keep placeholders off your email list.

Do I need to build a custom board?

No. A Planning Center workflow or a shared spreadsheet can do the same job. What matters is that every guest has a status and an owner.

Yes. Texting STOP unsubscribes them right away, and their card is marked as opted out.

Guide

Our first-time guest process, from a HELLO text to Planning Center

A first-time guest's next step should be easy, and our follow-up shouldn't depend on someone remembering who they met in the lobby. So we built the whole process around one small ask: text HELLO to the church's number.

Here's the full path a first-time guest takes now: what the text line says back, how staff hear about it, how the person ends up in Planning Center without creating a duplicate, and the simple board our connections leader works from. At the end there's a short setup list and a sample HELLO script you can borrow.

Step 1: A guest texts HELLO

The ask is simple: "If you're new, text HELLO to our number." That number belongs to an AI phone and text line (we use Bland). It answers only from a FAQ we wrote ourselves.

When someone's first message is a simple greeting like "hello," "hi," or "hey," the line treats them as a new guest who probably just visited. It then walks them through a short, friendly conversation, one question at a time:

A welcome. "Hi! So glad you visited! We'd love to stay connected. Can I get your first and last name?"
Their email address.
What they'd like to connect with. Kids ministry (Sunday mornings, up to 5th grade), the youth group, a small group, serving on a team, or talking with a pastor. They can pick more than one.
A thank-you. It tells them someone from the team will follow up soon and that they can text any time with questions.

If they skip a question, it moves on politely. It doesn't ask for anything else, and the welcome doesn't dump directions or an address on them. It only shares the service time, address, or parking if they ask. If anyone texts STOP, it confirms they're unsubscribed and goes quiet.

What else people can ask

The same line answers everyday questions from our FAQ, by call or text. Guests ask things like:

Service times, how long the service runs, and what to wear.
Parking and which door to use.
Kids ministry: ages (up to 5th grade), how check-in works, and that every volunteer is background-checked.
Youth: when the youth group meets and where to follow it for updates.
What we believe: a one-line answer that points to the historic creeds, without arguing theology.
Office hours and how to reach the church office.
Accessibility: for example, that there are accessible doors into the building.
Upcoming events: only the details we've written into the FAQ. If someone asks about something we haven't listed, it takes their question and says we'll follow up.
Volunteering: it texts the volunteer sign-up link right away, in the reply itself, rather than promising that someone will get back to them.
Small groups: it asks what kind of group they're interested in, takes their name and number, and tells them our connections leader will help them find one.

Anything that needs a person (baptism, membership, prayer requests, weddings, funerals, building use, or a request to talk with a pastor) gets a message taken and passed along. It never promises appointments, money, or dates, and it never shares private information about anyone. If someone is in crisis, it points them to 988 or 911 first.

Step 2: The follow-up

An assistant checks the text line for new calls and conversations on a schedule. For every new HELLO conversation it saves a simple guest record: phone number, the name and email they gave, what they're interested in, the date they first texted, and whether they've opted out. Saving the record doesn't send the guest anything.

From there, each guest goes two places:

The pastor's staff summary. Every call and text gets a short summary for staff. For calls, the summary includes a "likely caller" match from Planning Center when there is one. That match is only for staff. The line never says it back to the caller.
The connections board. Each new guest appears as a card with the whole text conversation attached, so whoever follows up can read exactly what the guest said instead of a secondhand summary.

The guest's answers also decide who follows up. If they said "small group," the card is tagged for small groups and our connections leader takes it. Serving interest gets a "serving" tag, and they've already received the volunteer sign-up link. Kids and youth interest are tagged on the card too, and a request to talk with a pastor is tagged for the pastor.

We've also drafted a short series of "we'd love to see you again this Sunday" texts for new guests. It isn't turned on. When it is, a person will approve it first, and anyone who has opted out will be skipped.

Step 3: Into Planning Center, without duplicates

Every guest who gives us a name and any contact information goes into Planning Center. The only way our assistant writes to Planning Center is by submitting our intake form for a new guest, along with a short note on that new profile saying where they came from. Everything else it does in Planning Center is read-only. Duplicates are the biggest risk, so this step is the most careful one.

Search first. The assistant looks for an existing person by email, then phone, then name. If any search finds a match, it doesn't submit the form. It points out the match in the staff summary so a person can update that profile.
Stop if the search didn't really run. "No results" only counts if all three searches worked. If Planning Center errors out or the connection needs signing in again, it stops and tells us instead of guessing that this is a new person.
Submit our intake form. For a real new person, it fills out our People intake form with their name, email, phone, and interests. It also checks the First time visitor box, which puts the guest into our First time visitor workflow in Planning Center, so the follow-up steps there start right away.
Add a note. It adds a note to the profile saying where the person came from (for example, "Texted HELLO to the church line"), the date, and what they asked for.
Check afterward. It searches again to confirm there's exactly one record for that person. If it finds two, it flags them for a person to merge.

Phone-only guests. Some people never send an email. Our intake form requires one, so for those people the assistant uses a clearly marked placeholder address built from their phone number. When the real email shows up later, update that same record rather than creating a new one, because that's the easiest place for a duplicate to sneak in. And keep placeholder addresses off your email list.

If you're nervous about letting an assistant touch Planning Center, start read-only and enter people by hand for a month. Our Planning Center + AI guide covers the connection and the privacy settings to check first.

Step 4: The connections board

The piece our connections leader actually lives in is a simple board we call the Connections Hub. We didn't buy it or hire a developer. Our team described what we wanted, and the assistant built it and set it up for us. It's a small password-protected web page that works on a phone, with five columns:

New → Contacted → Visited → Connected → Closed

Each card shows:

The guest's name (or "no name yet"), with their phone and email as tap-to-call and tap-to-email links
The date they first reached out
Interest tags, such as small groups, serving, kids, or youth
Where they came from: Texted In, Added By Hand, or Website Form
Who it's assigned to, picked from the people on our connections team in Planning Center
How many notes it has, and whether they've opted out of texts

Tap a card to read the whole text conversation, fix a name or email, assign someone, add a note, or move it to the next column. On a computer you can also just drag it.

How changes flow

New texters arrive on their own. Each run of the assistant adds new guests to the New column.
The automation never overrides a person. For a card that already exists, it only fills in blanks, like an email the guest sent later. It never moves a card someone has moved, and it never overwrites a name someone has fixed.
Deleted means deleted. If the leader deletes a card, a later text from that number won't bring it back. Adding the person again by hand will.
People are added by hand too. The + Add button covers the guest who filled out a paper card or talked to someone in the lobby.
The leader can just send an email. Our connections leader can email the assistant something like "Move the Smiths to Visited and add a note that they came back Sunday." The assistant makes the change and sends the pastor a quick FYI so nothing happens out of sight.
The board refreshes itself about once a minute, so more than one person can work from it at a time.

The point of the board is that nobody has to remember who texted. Every guest is a card, and every card is somewhere. If a card sits in New too long, everyone can see it.

What we learned the hard way

Test it end to end, then keep checking. Before you announce the number, text HELLO from a staff phone and make sure a new guest actually shows up on the board. Do it again after any change. A step can break quietly without throwing an error, so "no new guests this week" should send someone to look, not just mean a quiet week.
"No results" isn't proof. An empty search can mean "new person," or it can mean the connection failed. Treat errors as a reason to stop, not as a green light.
Use one phone number format everywhere. If one tool stores a number with the +1 and another stores it without, the same person can end up with two cards.
Keep a person in the loop for anything that goes out. The assistant gathers and organizes. People do the actual welcoming.

How to set this up at your church

Write your FAQ first. One page, in your own voice: service times, parking, kids, youth, beliefs, office hours, accessibility, events, and links for volunteering and giving. Decide what always goes to a person.
Get a text line. Set up an AI phone and text number, load your FAQ, and add the HELLO script below. Test it with staff for a week before you announce it.
Pick one connections owner. One named person owns new guests. Decide who handles small groups, serving, kids, youth, and pastor requests.
Set up your Planning Center intake. Create a simple People form with name, email, phone, interests, and a First time visitor checkbox. Connect your First time visitor workflow to that checkbox. Write down your duplicate rules: search email, then phone, then name, stop on errors, and check afterward.
Give the follow-up a home. A board like ours, a Planning Center workflow, or even a shared spreadsheet works, as long as every guest shows up there with a status and an owner.
Announce it every Sunday. "If you're new, text HELLO to …" on the screen, in the bulletin, and from the stage.
Review it monthly. Read a few real conversations, fix the FAQ where the line stumbled, and check that nobody is stuck in New.

Sample HELLO reply script

Paste this into your text line's instructions and change the details to match your church.

NEW GUEST FLOW
If the first message is a greeting like "hello", "hi", or "hey" (any
capitalization or punctuation), treat the person as a new guest who
recently visited. Ask one thing at a time. If they skip a question,
move on politely. Don't ask for anything else.

1. Welcome: "Hi! So glad you visited! We'd love to stay connected.
   Can I get your first and last name?"
   Don't include directions or the address unless they ask.
2. After their name: "Thanks! What's the best email for you?"
3. After their email: "Is there anything you'd like to connect with?
   Kids ministry (Sunday mornings, up to 5th grade), youth group,
   a small group, serving on a team, or talking with a pastor.
   Pick as many as you like."
   - Small group: "Great! Our connections leader will help you
     find one."
   - Serving: text the volunteer sign-up link right away.
4. Close: "Thank you! Someone from our team will follow up soon,
   and you can text this number any time with questions."

OPT-OUT: If they text STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT, reply
only: "You're unsubscribed. Reply START to rejoin." Then send nothing
else.

NEVER: promise appointments, money, or dates; share anyone's private
information; or guess. If it isn't in the FAQ, take a message.

If you'd like the full text-line setup, the guardrails and a free Grok Bot template are in our church phone and text line blueprint.

Add to Grok Bot Opens the free template for the church text line.

Questions pastors ask

Does the AI do the follow-up for us?: No. It welcomes the guest, gathers their details, and organizes everything. A person makes the call, sends the invite, and builds the relationship.
Does the assistant change our Planning Center records?: Only by submitting our intake form for new guests and adding a note about where they came from. Everything else it does there is read-only.
Won't this create duplicate people in Planning Center?: That's the biggest risk, so the assistant searches by email, phone, and name first, stops if a search fails, and checks afterward that there's exactly one record.
What if a guest only gives a phone number?: We still add them. Our form needs an email, so we use a marked placeholder until the real one comes in. Keep placeholders off your email list.
Do I need to build a custom board?: No. A Planning Center workflow or a shared spreadsheet can do the same job. What matters is that every guest has a status and an owner.
Can guests opt out?: Yes. Texting STOP unsubscribes them right away, and their card is marked as opted out.

More guides → · Browse all the blueprints →