How to Streamline Church Communications With Monday.com: A Comprehensive Workflow Guide
In today’s fast-paced, multi-campus ministry environment, balancing creativity with process is no easy feat. Managing graphic design, website updates, event registration, prints, social media, and internal approvals across nine campuses and over 50 staff members demands strategic coordination. That’s why I’ve built a complete communication management system using Monday.com to handle the entire event task lifecycle—from intake requests to proofing and final release. In this detailed guide, I’ll walk you through how I automated our entire church communications workflow to reduce friction, eliminate bottlenecks, and increase team accountability—all while saving time and money.
Whether you’re responsible for a church’s creative communications department, manage a media team, or oversee ministry organization, this article provides a step-by-step blueprint to empower your team with efficiency, visibility, and creative clarity.
I use a Stream Deck every day to enhance my workflows. (and clicking my affiliate links helps me make awesome content!)
Table of Contents:
- Why Use Monday.com for Church Communications?
- Step-by-Step: Building a Centralized Event Intake System
- Automating Event Approval Workflows
- Transitioning From Intake to Execution
- Subtasks & Assignments: How the Comm Team Works
- Streamlined Proofing with Automation and AI
- Managing Project Views & Roles
- Tracking Completion & Final Wrap-Up
- Advanced Automations with Make.com & ChatGPT
- Wrap-up & Resources
1. Why Use Monday.com for Church Communications?
Managing communications in a multi-site ministry is like conducting a symphony—everyone has to be in sync, following the same sheet music. That’s where Monday.com comes in. It offers:
- Centralized task and project visibility
- Custom workflows and automations
- Scalable guest accounts (free)
- File and comment tracking per task
- Tight Gmail and webhook integrations
- Visual Kanban and Timeline boards
This setup allows you to turn information chaos into organized action.
2. Step-by-Step: Building a Centralized Event Intake System
The entire workflow starts with a standardized form on Monday.com.
Step 1: Build the Intake Form
Create a form in Monday.com with fields that your ministry team must fill before any communications effort begins.
Key Fields:
- Event Title
- Event Date & End Date
- Ideal Advertisement Start Date
- Requester Contact Info
- Campus Location(s) (multi-select)
- Ministry Vision Team (Reach, Gather, Grow, Family)
- Start/End Times, Event Venue
- Event Description (what/why/who)
- Design Vision (colors, inspiration, tone)
- Design Extras (apparel, signage, social media needs, etc.)
- Registration Needs (Planning Center integration)
- Notes & Waiver Info
📌 Pro Tip: Set expectations with a 12-week lead time from form submission to event day. The last 4 weeks are for advertising, so actual prep span is 8 weeks.
Step 2: Set Automation to Create a New Board Item
Once someone submits the form, a new item (card) is auto-created in the “Design Incoming” board.
3. Automating Event Approval Workflows
Your approval pipeline ensures no task moves forward without buy-in from the right ministry leaders and elders.
Step-by-Step Approval Structure:
- Column mapping assigns the card title, vision team, dates, requester, etc.
- Automation adds the correct elder approver (based on team).
- Email notification alerts the approver using Gmail integration.
- Approver chooses “Approved” or “Denied” from dropdown.
- If denied, requester gets an automated email with a reason.
- If approved, communication director does final check.
🎯 Automations:
- Trigger emails based on status change (requester gets confirmation, elder approval, final Comm Team approval).
- Auto-add subitems like “Design,” “Print,” or “Web Post,” based on request details.
💡 Cost-Saving Tip: Use guest accounts in Monday. They are free, and you can restrict access to specific columns or rows.
4. Transitioning From Intake to Execution
Once the communication director approves the task, automation moves the project from “Design Incoming” to the main working board—“Communications.”
Workflow Mapping:
- Design Incoming → Status = Approved → Moves to Communications Board → “Queued Team Tasks” group
Map Fields Like:
- Title
- Event Details
- Vision
- Advertisement Tier
- Notes (merged as needed)
- Live Date & Event Date
- Task Owner
5. Subtasks & Assignments: How the Comm Team Works
Everything moves through tightly defined task categories:
Roles Within the Comm Team:
- Graphic Designer
- Web Content Manager
- Social Media Coordinator
- Print Production Lead
Subtasks Are Auto-Created Based on Form Inputs:
- Print collateral? → auto-create print subtask and assign to print lead.
- Custom URL needed? → subtask for URL assigned.
- Apparel requested? → subtask to order/capture design.
Designer Deliverables:
- Concept → Proof → Final Design (multiple formats)
Web, Social, Print teams are assigned after final design is released.
6. Streamlined Proofing with Automation and AI
The proofing approval process is where many teams fall apart. Here’s how I’ve automated and optimized it.
Overview of Proof Flow:
- Designer uploads proof to column.
- Automation sends email to requester & comm director.
- If requester replies “approved,” ChatGPT reads the reply via Make.com.
- ChatGPT interprets response → updates status in Monday automatically.
- If “revisions needed,” it notifies the designer and changes status accordingly.
- Designer re-uploads → triggers proof flow again.
- Final proof approval triggers “release” of design files.
🤖 Tools Used:
- make.com (formerly Integromat)
- ChatGPT (for natural language response parsing)
- Monday Webhooks (to send/receive external updates)
7. Managing Project Views & Role-Specific Filters
Because each team member only needs specific info, each role has a custom view.
Design View:
Shows:
- Title
- Dates & Times
- Design Inspiration
- Event Description
- Color Preferences
Filtered Views:
Each team member sees a filtered view:
- Designer → Active tasks assigned to them
- Printer → Tasks with “Print” subtasks ready
- Web → Projects ready for website update
- Social → Events ready for social content scheduling
This eliminates clutter and helps team members prioritize.
8. Tracking Completion & Final Wrap-Up
Once all subtasks are marked “Done,” automation kicks in:
- Changes main status of project to “Done”
- Moves project from “Active” to “Done” group
- Sends notifications to ministry owners (e.g., “Copies are ready,” or “Live on the web!”)
- After event date passes, the item is archived—not deleted—for future reference.
⚠️ Key Automations:
- Reminder if elder hasn’t approved within 4 days
- Notify 2 weeks before live date if still not moving
- If ministry lead doesn’t respond to proof within 2 days, push forward automatically
9. Advanced Automations with Make.com & ChatGPT
Here’s where the geeky magic happens.
By using Make.com + Webhooks + ChatGPT, I’ve built a fully autonomous proofing system:
- Webhook sends file to Make.com when proof exists
- Make.com emails requester with PDF
- Requester replies → Make.com checks email account
- ChatGPT reads email’s intent: “Is this an approval?”
- Makes logical update in Monday:
- If approved → status changes, URL assigned, team notified
- If not → error message sent, revision task created
🔥 Why It Matters:
- Automatic file delivery to requesters
- Natural language response parsing—no need to click buttons
- Removes bottlenecks where emails used to go to die
10. Wrap-Up & Resources
Whether you’re managing a church’s creative team or handling media production elsewhere, using Monday.com can completely transform how you intake, track, and execute projects.
By standardizing submissions, layering intelligent automations, and integrating AI and third-party tools like Make.com, you empower your church communications team to move faster, stay aligned, and work ahead—not behind.
For more deep dives, automation walkthroughs, and creative systems, visit:
🌐 TechnicallyChurch.com
📺 YouTube: Technically Church
