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Collie get started guide

Get started with Collie

This guide helps a pastor, executive pastor, or church administrator move from first sign-in to a useful Collie workspace without losing the ministry guardrails that make Collie different.

Quick answer

Start Collie by creating your church workspace, inviting the staff who should approve drafts, connecting church context, trying one low-risk task, and reviewing every external action in Pending before anything is sent.

Steps

  1. 1. Create the church workspace: Sign up, choose the church organization, and confirm the workspace name leaders will recognize.
  2. 2. Invite the right approvers: Add the staff who should review drafts, visitor follow-up, announcements, and Planning Center-aware work.
  3. 3. Connect approved church context: Add only the sources your church has approved for Collie to use, then keep sensitive counseling or crisis content out of the workspace.
  4. 4. Draft one low-risk workflow: Start with a church announcement, visitor follow-up draft, board packet outline, or sermon repurposing from existing material.
  5. 5. Review Pending before sending: Open Pending approvals and confirm every email, calendar invite, social post, or integration action before it leaves Collie.

Details

What to set up first

Collie becomes useful fastest when the workspace mirrors how your church already approves ministry work.

  • Use the real church name so staff recognize the workspace.
  • Invite staff who already own communications, follow-up, operations, and ministry coordination.
  • Keep external action approval with the person who would normally send or publish the work.

What to try first

The safest first win is a repeatable weekly task that a person can review quickly.

  • Draft a visitor follow-up email.
  • Prepare a Sunday announcement from approved notes.
  • Repurpose an existing sermon recording into discussion questions or social captions.
  • Build a staff meeting brief from approved church context.

What Collie will refuse

Collie is intentionally narrow around sensitive ministry boundaries so pastors do not have to remember a hidden policy checklist.

  • No sermon generation from scratch.
  • No counseling, confessional, crisis, or abuse content processing.
  • No AI summaries about specific children.
  • No writable financial actions.
  • No unapproved external sends.

Related questions

How long does it take to get started with Collie?

A small church can create a workspace, invite approvers, and draft a first low-risk workflow in about 20 minutes. Integrations can take longer depending on the church account and permissions.

What should pastors try first in Collie?

Start with a church announcement, visitor follow-up draft, staff meeting brief, or sermon repurposing from existing material because each task is easy for a human to review.