Next Steps: one invite at a time
A Next Step is what the church is inviting someone to do. The task is what the church must do to invite them.
Status is where someone is. A Next Step is what we have invited them to. A Follow-Up task is what we must do this week. A Journey is the path they walk once they belong.
Each person has one current Next Step. Each status has an aim (for a First-Timer, to comfortably return), and the catalog suggests steps that fit it first.
01
Choose a step from the profile
On a guest's profile, open Next Step and choose one. The owner gets one task: “Invite Grace to Newcomers lunch”. There is no second to-do list. Tick other adults in the household to give each of them the same step.
02
Use the recommendation, or don't
When someone has no Next Step, the panel recommends one from your catalog and says why: what they ticked on the Connect Card, baptism interest, children at home, how often they have come, whether they are in a group, and what suits their status.
Care comes first. An open care case or a prayer request in the last 30 days makes your care step the recommendation. The reason says a case or request exists and never quotes it.
Accept opens the usual chooser with that step picked. Choose another is always fine. Not now hides it until a date you pick. Follow-Up → Overview shows how often recommendations are accepted.
On plans with Advanced AI, Explain with AI turns the reasons into two plain sentences and a line you could say. It uses one AI credit, is kept for the next person who looks, and disappears when the reasons change. AI only sees the reasons listed, never notes, prayer or care, and care recommendations are never sent to it.
03
Invite, then record what happened
Completing the invite task marks the step Invited. When they take the step, press “They did it” and add a short note. Then choose the next one, update their status, or enrol them in the linked Journey. None of these happens on its own.
04
Review the tracker weekly
Follow-Up → Next Steps shows who has no Next Step, whose invite has gone quiet (21 days with no outcome), which guests have not been to a service in 21 days, and which paused steps are due back.
“Lapsed 60+ days” keeps the lists short. Close someone as still a guest and their card leaves the board without counting as a win or a loss, and their Next Step pauses for 90 days. Nothing closes on its own. If they come back to a service, the card reopens and its owner gets a welcome-back task.
“Looks done” lists steps whose linked group, ministry, event, class, Journey or form shows they have probably taken it. Open the profile and press Confirm: the note is filled in for you. Nothing is completed on its own.
05
Celebrate a completed step
In Workflows, the trigger “They complete a Next Step” runs when a step is marked done. Narrow it to one kind of step (for example any Serve step) or one step from your catalog. The outcome note is never passed to a workflow.
06
Shape the catalog
Next Steps → Catalog holds your church's invites, in seven fixed categories so the numbers compare like with like. Link a step to a group, class, event or Journey, add invite text for Send invite, and add campus-only steps if you have campuses.