Church Space automations help you automatically send emails based on activity in your Planning Center lists. You can use automations for welcome sequences, follow-ups, or any flow triggered by people joining or leaving a list.

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How to Create an Automation

  1. Go to Emails → Automations
    or visit https://churchspace.co/emails/automations
  2. Click New Automation
  3. Give your automation a name and description (for internal use only)

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Managing an Automation

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Rename or Edit Description

  • Click the title at the top of the automation page
    or click the three dots (⋯) in the top right and choose Edit Name
  • Make changes and click Save

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Delete an Automation

  • Click the three dots (⋯) in the top right corner
  • Choose Delete, then confirm

    If people are currently moving through the automation, their progress will be canceled.

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Triggers

Each automation starts with a trigger:

  • Person is added to a list
  • Person is removed from a list

You must also select:

  • The Planning Center list to monitor
  • The email category for the emails being sent

You must set all three: trigger type, list, and category for the automation to be enabled.

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Actions / Steps

You can add up to 10 steps in your automation and you can reorder them with the drag handles to the left of the step’s name.

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Wait

Delay the next step by a few hours or days.

Because Planning Center lists auto-refresh at 2:00am, we recommend adding a wait before sending your first email when using auto-refreshing lists.

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Send Email

Choose:

  • An email template
  • A subject line
  • A from name and from email

The content for the email will be pulled from your selected email template.

Emails sent through automations count toward your send limit.

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Steps must follow these rules:

  • You cannot end an automation with a wait
  • You cannot place two waits back-to-back
  • You can wait a max of 31 days

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Activation and Updates

  • An automation must have at least one email step to be enabled.
  • Once active, Church Space will monitor your chosen list and automatically trigger the automation for people added or removed.

People must meet the trigger condition while the automation is active to be processed. If it was inactive, they won’t be added retroactively.

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Editing an Active Automation

  • You can edit your automation at any time.
  • However, anyone currently in progress will be removed from the automation and will not finish the remaining steps.
  • You can change the email templates used in the steps at any time without canceling current runs. People will receive the updated email content when they reach that step.

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Viewing Automation Progress

Click the People tab of your automation to view all participants.

You’ll see:

  • Each person who has entered the flow
  • Their last completed step
  • Their status (In Progress or Completed)

A person can only go through the automation once.

After refreshing your list, allow a few minutes for Church Space to sync and begin processing people into the automation.

More step types and time-based triggers (like “Next Saturday at 6:00pm”) are coming soon.

Need help setting up or troubleshooting your automation?
Contact support@churchspace.co.