The Weekly Check-In Format

Most pastors know somebody is struggling about two weeks after it would have mattered. Not from neglect. From volume. You cannot hold 200 people's weeks in your head, and nobody can.

This is a fifteen-minute weekly rhythm that surfaces the people who need you, using three questions. It works with a notebook.

---

The three questions

Sit down at the same time every week. Tuesday morning works well, far enough from Sunday to see it clearly and early enough to act.

1. Who did I not see?

List everyone who was there two weeks ago and not this week. Not everyone who was absent, only the change.

Absence is the earliest signal you get and almost nobody tracks it. People rarely leave a church in an argument. They come less, then not at all, and you hear about it in August.

Write down up to five names.

2. Who did I see, but not really?

Who was in the building but different? Quieter. Left early. Did not stay for coffee. Sat somewhere new.

This is the question that catches what attendance never will. A person in crisis often still shows up.

Write down up to three names.

3. What did I promise?

Every pastor makes verbal promises in the ten minutes after a service. A visit, a call, a phone number, a conversation. Most are forgotten by Thursday, and the person remembers.

Write down every promise you made since last Sunday, and who heard it.

---

What to do with the list

You will end up with eight to ten names. You are not calling all of them.

Pick three. Not more. Three real contacts beat ten items on a list you feel guilty about.

Rank them this way:

1. Anyone from question 3 you promised something. A broken promise costs more than a missed check-in.
2. Anyone appearing on the list two weeks running.
3. Anyone from question 2, because the quiet signal is the one nobody else catches.

---

What a check-in actually says

Keep it under three sentences and do not open with church business.

Hey [Name], you were on my mind this week. No agenda, just checking on you. How

are things?

Do not say "we missed you Sunday" as the opening line. It sounds like attendance enforcement, and for someone who stayed home because they are struggling, it lands as a rebuke.

---

The weekly sheet

Copy this into a notebook. One page per week.

WEEK OF: ____________

WHO I DID NOT SEE
1. ______________________  2 weeks running?  Y / N
2. ______________________  2 weeks running?  Y / N
3. ______________________  2 weeks running?  Y / N
4. ______________________  2 weeks running?  Y / N
5. ______________________  2 weeks running?  Y / N

WHO I SAW BUT NOT REALLY
1. ______________________  what seemed off: ____________
2. ______________________  what seemed off: ____________
3. ______________________  what seemed off: ____________

WHAT I PROMISED
1. to ____________  I said I would ____________  by ______
2. to ____________  I said I would ____________  by ______
3. to ____________  I said I would ____________  by ______

THIS WEEK I WILL REACH:
1. ______________________
2. ______________________
3. ______________________

---

Why three

Because you will actually do three. A list of ten becomes a list of zero, and then the exercise stops happening at all. Three a week is 156 real contacts a year, which is more pastoral care than most churches of any size manage.

---

LeadMyFlock builds this list for you from attendance and prayer activity, and drafts each message with the actual reason the person is on it. But the questions are the point, and they work on paper.