Prospect vs member

The prospect / member distinction is the most important CRM decision. It defines who appears in health reports, who receives bulk communications, and who counts as “your church” when the pastor asks for numbers.

Definitions

Prospect: someone in the system whom the church does not yet count as part of the congregation. They usually enter as a Guest (kiosk, Connect Card, website form, cell group, or another source).
Member: someone the church decided to count as part of the congregation. That decision is pastoral — you make it, not the system.

This distinction changes reports:

Attendance rate: % of members present, not prospects.
Church growth: new members, not new prospects.
Denominational reports: members.

Relationship: Guest → Attendee (not Member)

On the record, the relationship values are Guest, Attendee, and External church guest.

After a configurable number of visits (default: 3), a Guest automatically moves to Attendee. That does not create a Member.
The church configures that visit threshold. You can still Promote to member before the threshold.
Attendee is not Member. Only Promote to member converts the prospect into a member.

Promoting a prospect to member

Promotion is manual with Promote to member. There is no automatic promotion by visit count.

If the prospect has enough visits, a Ready to promote badge may appear. It is only a cue: you confirm with Promote to member.

How to promote

Go to People & Connection → CRM - Prospects (/admin-church/crm).
Open the prospect → Promote to member.
Confirm.

The change is immediate. In the pipeline, the prospect moves to Converted. Ministrium marks the prospect Converted and links both records. It cannot be undone.

There is no “return to prospect in 30 days.” Prospect pipeline statuses are only New, Contacted, In a group, and Converted — not invented membership statuses such as Left or Deceased.

Removing someone from a group

Removing someone from a group never deletes them from the CRM. Only the group link is removed; the group may remain as historical reference. Leaders remove Guests only; removing a member from a group requires Admin or Pastor.

Good practices

Write down what makes someone a member in your church.
Use Start contact and the follow-up filters No one assigned, Overdue, and Stalled so nobody is forgotten.
Do not inflate the member count: the number only helps if it is real.

See the pipeline.