Three-week absence follow-up
This 175-attendance plant builds a Monday list of regulars whose last Sunday was more than 21 days ago. A person texts the same day from Text In Church. Unanswered texts become a Friday phone call. Planning Center attendance is the only trigger. Cost is $29-43/month.
What are the exact steps?
- Take attendance the same way every Sunday
They use one Planning Center Services plan each Sunday. Greeters check people in at the door from a tablet: search the name, tap, done. New guests get a people record that day. They do not pass a clipboard, and they do not rebuild attendance from memory on Monday. The three-week list is only as honest as this step.
- Open the list of people gone more than 21 days
In Planning Center People, a saved list shows people whose last Sunday was more than 21 days ago, who are marked attender or member, and who do not have a 'do not contact' tag. They leave out one-time guests and anyone marked traveling. The connections resident opens this list Monday at 10am. A typical week has four to seven households.
- Send a personal text the same day
Each household gets one text from Text In Church, written by the connections resident, not a mass blast. Include their name, her name, one sentence that they were missed, and one easy question. She spends about 20 minutes. If the list is over ten, the plant lead takes half.
- Call if there is no reply by Friday
Unanswered texts move to a Planning Center checklist step due Friday. The plant lead calls from the church number. Voicemail stays as short as the text: no guilt, one invitation to reply. After two no-contacts they stop until the household attends again. They do not chase.
- Write down what happened and clear the list
A reply, a call, or a stop-for-now note goes on the household, and they leave the list. If someone says they moved or found another church, status changes that day so they never show up again as a miss. Monday's list should be new names, not last month's unfinished ones.
Which tools does this church use?
- Planning Center People Church database (ChMS)
People database. Holds the absence list, last Sunday attended, household notes, and do-not-contact flags.
$14/mo
- Planning Center Services Scheduling
Sunday check-in lives here. If someone is not checked in on the service plan, the absence list will not see them.
$0 (already in stack)
- Text In Church Texting
Sends the first personal text. Replies land in a shared inbox, not a personal phone.
$29/mo
Common questions
How do they know someone has been gone three weeks?
Sunday check-in on a Planning Center Services plan. A People list shows last attended more than 21 days ago. They do not rebuild attendance from memory.
Do they text first-time guests who don't come back?
No. This list is attenders and members only. One-time guests get a separate first-visit follow-up (see the guest follow-up writeup from a different church in this library).
How much time does it take each week?
About 20 minutes of texts on Monday, plus a few Friday calls. A heavy week is ten households and the plant lead splits the list.
What if someone asks not to be contacted?
Add a do-not-contact tag the same day. They leave the absence list immediately. A later visit can clear the tag only if they ask.
What do you need before you start?
Sunday check-in must already happen the same way every week. Without that, this list lies. You also need Planning Center People, Text In Church (or another shared texting tool), and one person who opens the Monday list every week.
Why did this church build this workflow?
People were disappearing between month four and month nine of the plant, not in a fight, just gone. The plant lead would notice a missing face in week five, and by then the household had already decided they were visitors again. There was no list, only the feeling that the room was slightly smaller.
The rule: if someone they would call a regular misses three Sundays, a person reaches them that week. Not a “we miss you” email from a no-reply address.
What would they do differently next time?
They would have treated check-in as a pastoral tool from Sunday one, not as a metric. The first version of the list used “in the building sometime in the last month,” and it hid people who came to a midweek event but had already left Sunday. They also learned to add the do-not-contact tag the same day someone asks for space. Two households got a well-meant text they did not want.
Monday checklist
- Confirm Sunday check-in closed on the Planning Center Services plan.
- Open the saved People list: last attended more than 21 days, attender or member, no do-not-contact, not traveling.
- Text each household once from Text In Church. Personal wording. Shared inbox only.
- Log the send on the household. Move unanswered names to the Friday call step.
- Friday: church-number voicemail if still silent. After two no-contacts, stop until they attend again.
- Update status the same day if they moved or joined another church so Monday stays clean.
Common mistakes
- Building the list from memory or from midweek event attendance. Sunday is the trigger.
- Mass-blasting “we miss you.” Replies die, and people feel managed.
- Chasing forever. Two quiet attempts, then wait for them to reappear.
Field note after a quiet third week
Week three is when absence becomes a pattern, not a cold. One church waited for a perfect pastoral visit and lost the household to silence. A Tuesday text from a known name, asking only “how can we pray?”, reopened the door before the calendar turned over again.
Field note after a shame list
Absences were posted on a volunteer Slack channel. A family in quiet crisis felt hunted. Absence touches now leave from a pastoral-only list with a soft script. Noticing is not the same as broadcasting.
Field note after a soft-script save
A blunt “we noticed you were gone” text hit a grieving household. They now use a soft script and a pastoral-only list. Absence care needs gentleness, not a dashboard tone.
Small-church proof gate
Write the Monday owner and vacation backup on the invoice folder before you renew.
Size check for this church
Put processing fees and SaaS on the same elder page before the vote.
Keep the public checklist honest: named tools, ordered steps, real cost, last-checked date.
Ordinary operators, ordinary weeks: no seat should require weekly heroics on three week absence follow up.
Transparent fees
One elder page: subscription plus processing fees, nothing hidden (three week absence follow up).
Keep named tools, ordered steps, real cost, and a last-checked date on every public page you copy.
Nobody-maintains stacks lose to quiet ordinary faithfulness (three week absence follow up).
Keep dignity visible: no amounts in subjects, no private care in mass sends (three week absence follow up).
Thank-you discipline
Practice the guest text from the parking lot on cellular, not only office Wi-Fi.
Copy only what a tired volunteer can finish after second service (three week absence follow up).
Path proof
Prove the cancel path on a spare phone before you need it in a storm (three week absence follow up).
Copy and adapt
Monday check-in text
Hi {first name}, it's {name} from {church}. We missed you the last few Sundays and wanted to say so.
Anything we can be in the loop on? Totally fine if life is just full. Reply here.
Friday voicemail
Hi {first name}, this is {name} at {church}. I texted earlier in the week and didn't want the message to get lost. No need to explain anything. Just glad to check in. Call or text when you can.
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