First-timers and Pipeline
A guest becomes a person with an owner, a stage, and a next action — not a name on a clipboard.
The welcome form is how most first-timers arrive. Follow-Up → Pipeline opens the board: every guest from first hello until they belong somewhere. Follow-Up → Overview shows how guests move toward belonging and how follow-ups ended. Follow-Up → Tasks is where connectors work.
Each guest has one open card. The starter Pipeline has five stages, but a church can add Pipelines, rename and reorder stages, choose each stage's action, and route different Connect Cards or campuses to different boards. An outcome closes the card; the Belongs results show whether follow-up led to meaningful connection.
01
Know what each column is for
New: press Assign, choose the owner, and leave a useful handoff note.
Assigned: make a real personal contact, then record the method and what you learned.
First Contacted: learn about the guest and invite them to the most suitable Next Step.
Invited to Next Steps: record whether they accepted, started, completed, deferred or declined. The selected step stays visible on the card.
Connecting: press Record Outcome. The dialog shows what will change before you confirm.
02
Let the card move itself
Assigning with a handoff note moves New to Assigned. A real call, text, visit or explicit contact log moves the card to First Contacted; email, admin and prayer work does not pretend a conversation happened. Choosing and recording the invitation moves it to Invited to Next Steps. Starting or completing the step, or a qualifying return visit, moves it to Connecting. Record Outcome closes the card and safely runs the configured completion action. Managers can drag or use Override stage, but both require a reason and are audited.
03
The finish line: they belong
The card closes on its own, with an outcome, when the guest joins a group (“Joined a group”), joins a serving team (“Serving on a team”), completes a Belong or Serve Next Step (“Finished a Belong step”), or their status moves past guest (“Became a member” when that status counts as converted). Growth carries on through Next Steps on their profile.
A guest not back for 60 days can be closed from Follow-Up → Next Steps. That records “Lost touch”.
04
Close a card by hand only when you know why
Record Outcome asks for one primary closing result and allows additional true achievements. A configured required action, such as joining a group or changing status, succeeds in the same transaction or the card stays open.
Follow-Up → Outcomes shows totals, exact dated activity, and Definitions & Actions. Renaming a definition never rewrites older history.
05
Keep the weekly rhythm
Sunday: mark known guests present on check-in. New faces get the Connect Card.
Monday: new cards start with the default owner. Open the board with the Unassigned filter and hand each card to a connector; its tasks go too.
Midweek: connectors work from Follow-Up → Tasks, or the board's Mine filter. One personal contact per guest each week, then Log contact.
Weekly, 15 minutes: use the Needs contact filter for anyone a week without contact, and check the Overview for who has not come back.