Summary

Enable a Communication Flow step to trigger a Workflow on the same schedule as the flow step, allowing communication campaigns to include non-digital and staff-driven follow-up actions alongside Email, SMS, and Push messages.

Acknowledgement of Scope

This proposal intentionally pushes Communication Flows slightly beyond their original focus on messaging. However, it does so in service of a common ministry reality: follow-up is rarely digital only. The goal is not to replace workflows, but to allow Communication Flows to act as the orchestration layer for timing, while workflows handle process and execution.

Problem

Communication Flows currently support only Email, SMS, and Push notifications. This makes it difficult to build a single, cohesive follow-up campaign that includes:

• Phone calls
• Handwritten or mailed notes
• Pastoral or volunteer outreach
• Task-based follow-up

Today, churches must either:

• Maintain parallel workflows with separate timing logic, or
• Manually trigger workflows outside the flow, or
• Abandon Communication Flows in favor of custom workflows

All three approaches increase complexity and reduce consistency.

Proposed Solution

Add a Workflow Step to Communication Flows that:

• Allows selection of an existing Workflow Type
• Triggers the workflow at the scheduled time of the flow step
• Passes the same contextual data available to the flow (Person, Flow instance, Campus, etc.)
• Optionally supports per-person or batched execution

This step would behave like existing flow steps, but instead of sending a message, it launches a workflow.

Example Use Case: Guest Follow-Up

• Day 0 – Send “Thanks for Visiting” email
• Day 2 – Trigger workflow to assign a volunteer phone call
• Day 5 – Trigger workflow to generate a mailed follow-up note
• Day 14 – Send SMS invitation to return

All actions are coordinated in one Communication Flow with a single timeline.

Benefits

• Unifies digital and relational follow-up
• Eliminates duplicated timing logic
• Keeps workflows focused on what happens
• Keeps communication flows focused on when things happen
• Better reflects how churches actually care for people

Why This Matters

For many churches, meaningful follow-up depends on human connection, not just automated messages. Allowing Communication Flows to trigger workflows would significantly expand their usefulness without undermining the role of workflows themselves.