Pastoral Care AI
AI-powered insights for identifying at-risk members, suggesting follow-up actions, and helping pastoral teams prioritize care across the congregation.
Quick Summary: Pastoral Care AI analyzes attendance patterns, group participation, giving changes, and interaction history to flag members who may be disengaging or going through difficult circumstances. It suggests specific follow-up actions for pastoral staff and helps teams prioritize who to reach out to first—without replacing the relational discernment that defines pastoral ministry.
Overview
In a growing congregation, it becomes difficult to notice when individuals start pulling away. Someone who attended weekly for two years may quietly stop coming, and by the time anyone notices, months have passed. Pastoral Care AI monitors engagement signals across the platform—attendance check-ins, small group participation, giving patterns, event registrations, and communication interactions—and surfaces members whose behavior has changed in ways that may indicate they need care.
The system presents these insights on a prioritized dashboard where pastoral staff can review flagged members, see the specific signals that triggered the flag, and choose an appropriate response. Suggested actions might include a phone call, a home visit, a care team assignment, or a personal email. All follow-up is tracked so the team has a shared view of who has been contacted and what the outcome was.
Key Features
At-Risk Member Detection
The AI identifies members whose engagement has declined based on configurable thresholds. It accounts for normal fluctuations (vacations, seasonal patterns) and focuses on sustained changes that suggest genuine disengagement or personal difficulty.
Prioritized Care Dashboard
Flagged members are displayed in a prioritized list based on the severity and duration of engagement changes. Members with multiple declining signals (attendance drop, giving cessation, group absence) appear higher than those with a single indicator.
Suggested Follow-Up Actions
For each flagged member, the AI suggests context-appropriate actions: a casual check-in call for someone who missed a few weeks, a pastoral visit for someone who has been absent for a month and stopped giving, or a care team assignment for someone with a known health issue.
Follow-Up Tracking
Log every contact attempt, note the outcome, and track follow-up status. The care dashboard shows which flagged members have been contacted, which are awaiting response, and which need additional follow-up.
Privacy Controls
All pastoral care data is access-controlled. Only authorized pastoral staff can view at-risk flags, care notes, and follow-up history. Members do not see their own risk scores. Data is encrypted and never shared outside your church account.
Getting Started
Step 1: Enable Pastoral Care AI
Navigate to AI Tools → Pastoral Care AI and toggle the feature on. You will be asked to configure which data sources the AI should monitor: attendance, giving, group participation, event registration, and communication engagement.
Select only the signals that are relevant and consistently tracked at your church. If you do not use check-in for attendance, for example, leave that signal disabled to avoid inaccurate flags.
Step 2: Set Sensitivity Thresholds
Configure how sensitive the detection should be. A lower threshold flags members sooner (after missing 2 weeks, for example), while a higher threshold waits longer before alerting (4+ weeks of absence). You can set different thresholds for different signals and adjust them as you learn what works for your congregation's rhythm.
Step 3: Assign Care Team Access
Grant dashboard access to pastoral staff and care team leaders. Each person with access can view flagged members, log follow-up actions, and add care notes. You can restrict access by campus, ministry area, or specific member groups to maintain appropriate boundaries.
Step 4: Review and Act on Flags
Check the care dashboard regularly—weekly is a good starting cadence. Review each flagged member, consider the AI's suggested action, and assign follow-up to the appropriate team member. Log the outcome of each contact so the team stays aligned.
Important Note on Privacy
Pastoral Care AI processes sensitive engagement data. Ensure your church's leadership has reviewed and approved the use of automated monitoring, and communicate transparently with your congregation about how data is used to support pastoral care. All data stays within your church account and is never used for external purposes.
Best Practices
- 1.Use AI as a supplement, not a replacement: The dashboard surfaces people who might need care, but pastoral discernment is required to determine the right response. A flagged member might be on a planned sabbatical, not in crisis.
- 2.Review flags weekly: Set a recurring time for your pastoral team to review the dashboard together. Discussing flagged members as a group leads to better-coordinated care than individual ad-hoc responses.
- 3.Log every follow-up: Even a brief note after a phone call helps the team know what has already happened. This prevents duplicate outreach and provides context for the next person who follows up.
- 4.Adjust thresholds over time: If you are getting too many flags for normal attendance variation, raise the sensitivity threshold. If members are falling through the cracks, lower it. The right settings depend on your church's size and culture.
- 5.Restrict access appropriately: Not every staff member needs to see pastoral care flags. Limit access to those who are directly responsible for member care to protect sensitive information.
Common Questions
Q: Do members know they have been flagged?
A: No. At-risk flags and care scores are internal tools visible only to authorized pastoral staff. Members see no indication of their status in the app, on their profile, or in any communication they receive.
Q: What data does the AI use to detect at-risk members?
A: It analyzes the data sources you enable during setup: attendance check-in records, small group participation, giving frequency and amount changes, event registration history, and email/SMS engagement metrics. It does not read the content of care notes or prayer requests.
Q: Can I dismiss a flag if I know the member is fine?
A: Yes. You can dismiss any flag with an optional note explaining why (e.g., "On vacation until August" or "Moved to Saturday service"). Dismissed flags are archived and will not resurface unless a new, separate signal triggers a fresh alert.
Q: How does this differ from the existing Pastoral Care module?
A: The standard Pastoral Care module provides tools for manually tracking care visits, prayer requests, and notes. Pastoral Care AI adds an automated detection layer on top of that—it proactively surfaces members who may need attention rather than waiting for someone to notice or report a concern.