Notifying leadership of distress/prayer needs

Purpose

1.1. Automate the process of notifying church leadership about member distress, prayer needs, or urgent spiritual support requests.
1.2. Ensure timely, confidential, and accurate communication to minimize human error and facilitate rapid pastoral responses.
1.3. Centralize prayer/need intake from diverse channels (online forms, emails, texts, calls).
1.4. Automate tracking, escalation, follow-up, and closure for each pastoral care request.
1.5. Enhance oversight by automatedly compiling notification logs and insights for leadership.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Receipt of a submission from a prayer request form on the website or mobile app.
2.2. Incoming email to a designated pastoral care inbox.
2.3. Text message received on a dedicated church SMS number.
2.4. Mention of urgent keywords (e.g., “urgent,” “bereavement,” “crisis”) in monitored communication channels.
2.5. Manual flagging by staff or volunteers via a checkbox in the church CRM or management platform.
2.6. Inbound calls to a hotline, recorded and transcribed for distress indicators via speech-to-text.
2.7. Submission through API integrations from partner apps, chatbots, or kiosks.

Platform Variants

3.1. Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: Automate inbound SMS triggers; set webhook for “New Message,” forward content to leadership.
3.2. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Automatedly parse inbound emails with “prayer,” “help,” etc.; forward with filtered content.
3.3. Google Forms
• Feature/Setting: Automate form submission trigger; use Apps Script “onFormSubmit” to push alerts to leadership emails.
3.4. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Automate incoming message monitoring in #prayer-requests; configure “Keyword Alert” via webhook bot.
3.5. Microsoft Teams
• Feature/Setting: Automate channel message detection; send “Automate Alert” via Teams Bot or Logic App.
3.6. Gmail
• Feature/Setting: Automate filter for subject/body keywords, auto-forward to pastoral group.
3.7. Outlook
• Feature/Setting: Automated rule for keyword and sender; forward to assigned leadership emails.
3.8. Zoom Phone
• Feature/Setting: Automate voicemail transcription; trigger automated notification email on match.
3.9. Zapier
• Feature/Setting: Multi-channel entry automation; Zap hook for form, Gmail, or SMS triggers, distribute to group.
3.10. Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Automate lead/case creation via API on prayer request; trigger workflow to notify team.
3.11. Google Chat
• Feature/Setting: Automated bot posts in leadership room for each flagged message from monitored sources.
3.12. Mailgun
• Feature/Setting: Automate inbound routing and parsing of emails with attached prayer requests, forward.
3.13. AirTable
• Feature/Setting: Automate new record trigger for pastoral care log; integration sends alerts.
3.14. ServiceNow
• Feature/Setting: Automate incident ticket creation for urgent cases and notify the response team.
3.15. Discord
• Feature/Setting: Automate bot watches dedicated prayer channel and direct messages to leadership.
3.16. WhatsApp Business API
• Feature/Setting: Automate webhook for specific keywords; send group message to leaders.
3.17. HubSpot CRM
• Feature/Setting: Automate workflow for incoming form/email, assign contact, automated email to leadership.
3.18. Freshdesk
• Feature/Setting: Automate ticket creation from prayer requests, assign to Pastoral Care group with alert.
3.19. Trello
• Feature/Setting: Automate card creation in “Needs” board; enable power-up for instant leadership email.
3.20. Telegram Bot API
• Feature/Setting: Automate catch on messages to bot, filter for distress, send templated notification.
3.21. Intercom
• Feature/Setting: Automate conversation tagging with “prayer”; trigger automated message to leader inbox.
3.22. RingCentral
• Feature/Setting: Automate SMS/voicemail detection, push alerts to pastoral notification group.
3.23. Monday.com
• Feature/Setting: Automate new item in “Prayer Requests” board, notify stakeholders via automation.
3.24. Pipedrive
• Feature/Setting: Automate new deal creation for each request, trigger notification workflow.
3.25. Asana
• Feature/Setting: Automate task creation on new entry, notify pre-set leadership group.

Benefits

4.1. Automated notifications accelerate response to critical needs, minimizing manual delays.
4.2. Automation guarantees complete, auditable records for spiritual care activities.
4.3. Automate closure loops—leadership receives updates on resolved or pending requests.
4.4. Automatedly aggregates communication channels for unified tracking and reporting.
4.5. Automates escalation protocols, ensuring no request is overlooked or left unanswered.
4.6. Automating intake automates burden reduction for staff, boosting efficiency and spiritual focus.
4.7. Automation future-proofs communication workflows as congregation size or needs scale up.