Backsliders

Backsliders helps you find members who have missed repeated services and need pastoral follow-up. Bethel ChMS detects members from attendance patterns, places them in a working list, and lets your team assign follow-up, update statuses, and record notes. Backsliders does not silently change a member’s lifecycle status. You decide when to set a member inactive.

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Open the backsliders list

1. In the sidebar, click Backsliders.
2. If you are organisation-scoped, choose the branch you want to review.

The page shows summary tiles for Open backsliders, Needs follow-up, Assigned to me, and Welcomed back · 30d. The table shows each member’s follow-up status, missed occurrences, last attendance, assignee, contact shortcuts, and the rule that detected them.

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Filter the list

Use filters to focus the list before you start follow-up.

• Use Search members to find a member by name.
• Use Status to filter by follow-up status.
• Click Assigned to me to see your own work.
• Use Rule to show members detected by specific rules.
• Use Age group, Gender, Lifecycle, Nationality, Missed, and More filters to narrow the list further.
• Click Clear to remove active filters.

Filters update the URL, so you can share a filtered view with another team member who has access.

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Work a backslider

Click a row to open the member’s detail drawer. The drawer shows:

• The member’s lifecycle status and follow-up status.
• The rule that detected the member.
• Missed occurrences and last attendance.
• A recent services strip showing attended and missed services.
• Contact details with copy actions.
• A Notes timeline.
• A Set inactive action.

Use Follow-up status to move the person through the pastoral workflow. The available statuses are Needs follow-up, Reached out, Reconnecting, Welcomed back, No response yet, and No concern. Welcomed back and No concern are terminal statuses. When you choose a terminal status, the open follow-up record resolves and leaves the default open list.

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Assign follow-up

Use Assigned to in the drawer to assign the backslider to a staff member or to unassign them. You can also select rows in the table and use Assign to… from the bulk action bar. The menu includes Assign to me, other staff members, and Unassign. Some rows may be skipped during bulk assignment if manual assignment is disabled for the rule that detected them.

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Add notes

Use the Notes section in the drawer to record follow-up attempts and pastoral context.

1. Type the note in Add a follow-up note….
2. Click Add note.

Notes are member-scoped. They remain available if a backslider record is resolved and the member is detected again later.

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Set members inactive

Use Set inactive only after your team decides that the member’s lifecycle status should change. From a drawer, click Set inactive, then confirm. Bethel ChMS changes the member’s lifecycle status to inactive, closes the open backslider follow-up, and logs the action. To update several members at once:

1. Select rows in the backsliders table.
2. Click Set inactive in the bulk action bar.
3. Confirm the action.

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Empty the list

If you need to clear all open backsliders currently in view, click Empty list and confirm. Bethel ChMS moves the open records to history as No concern. They can reappear if detection later finds that they continue to miss services.

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Configure rules

Rules define who Bethel ChMS detects as a backslider.

1. Open Backsliders.
2. Click Rules.
3. Click New rule.
4. Enter a Name and optional Description.
5. Choose a Recurring event.
6. Set the Missed-occurrence threshold.
7. Optionally set Only detect backsliders from.
8. Choose which member statuses the rule applies to.
9. Add conditions if needed.
10. Turn on Enable rule.
11. Configure follow-up options.
12. Click Create rule.

Detection runs nightly at 02:15 UTC while a rule is enabled.

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Rule conditions

Conditions let you limit a rule to specific members. A member must match all conditions on the rule. Supported condition fields include:

• Gender
• Age group
• Nationality
• Active member custom fields

Condition operators include is any of, is not any of, is set, and is not set, depending on the field.

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Follow-up settings

Turn on Enable follow-up when staff should own and work the backsliders created by a rule.

• Manual assignment lets staff claim backsliders for themselves or assign them to colleagues from the list.
• Auto-assignment shares new backsliders evenly across selected staff.

Organisation owners and organisation admins can edit all rules. Branch admins can edit rules for their own branch. Org-wide rules appear as read-only for branch admins.