​

Planning Center People SQL Queries

​

Know Your Congregation Through Data

​

Quick Start

-- See the 10 most recently added people
SELECT 
    person_id,
    first_name,
    last_name,
    name,
    status,
    membership,
    created_at,
    CASE 
        WHEN child = true THEN 'Child'
        WHEN graduation_year IS NOT NULL THEN 'Student'
        ELSE 'Adult'
    END as age_group
FROM planning_center.people_people
WHERE status = 'active'
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 10;

​

What You Can Do With People Queries

​

👥 Understand Your Congregation

• Track membership growth and demographics
• Identify family units and relationships
• Analyze age distributions and life stages
• Monitor geographic spread of your church

​

📊 Measure Engagement

• Track attendance patterns across ministries
• Identify highly engaged vs occasional attendees
• Find people not connected to any groups or serving teams
• Monitor volunteer participation

​

🎯 Pastoral Care

• Identify people needing follow-up
• Track milestones (birthdays, anniversaries)
• Monitor spiritual journey progress
• Manage background checks and safety protocols

​

📈 Strategic Planning

• Demographic analysis for ministry planning
• Campus and location insights
• Communication preferences analysis
• Volunteer capacity planning

​

Available Tables

​

Understanding Relationships

• people_people_relationships - Links people to campuses, lists, inactive reasons
• people_household_relationships - Links households to people and campuses
• people_email_relationships - Links emails to people
• people_phone_number_relationships - Links phone numbers to people
• people_field_data_relationships - Links custom field data to people

​

Key Concepts

​

Person Status

• active - Current member/attendee
• inactive - No longer attending
• Other custom statuses your church defines

​

Membership Levels

• Member - Full members
• Regular Attender - Non-members who attend regularly
• Visitor - Occasional attendees
• Custom levels specific to your church

​

Age Groups

• child - Boolean flag for children
• graduation_year - Indicates students
• birthdate - For age calculations
• grade - Current school grade

​

Permissions

• site_administrator - Full system access
• people_permissions - Access to People app
• can_create_forms - Form creation rights
• can_email_lists - Mass email permissions

​

Next Steps

​

Common Questions

​

How do I find a specific person?

SELECT * FROM planning_center.people_people
WHERE LOWER(first_name) LIKE '%john%' 
   OR LOWER(last_name) LIKE '%smith%'
   AND status = 'active';

​

What’s the difference between name fields?

• name - Full display name
• first_name - First/given name
• last_name - Family/surname
• nickname - Preferred name
• middle_name - Middle name
• given_name - Legal first name

​

How do I calculate age from birthdate?

SELECT 
    name,
    birthdate,
    EXTRACT(YEAR FROM AGE(CURRENT_DATE, birthdate)) as age
FROM planning_center.people_people
WHERE birthdate IS NOT NULL;

​

How do I find household members?

SELECT 
    h.name as household_name,
    p.name as person_name,
    hm.pending
FROM planning_center.people_households h
JOIN planning_center.people_household_memberships hm 
    ON h.household_id = hm.household_id
JOIN planning_center.people_people p 
    ON hm.person_id = p.person_id
WHERE h.household_id = 'YOUR_HOUSEHOLD_ID';

​

What does status = ‘active’ mean?

​

Tips for Success

1. Filter by Status - Usually include WHERE status = 'active'
2. Handle NULLs - Many fields are optional, use COALESCE or IS NOT NULL
3. Use Relationships - Join through relationship tables for connected data
4. Consider Privacy - Be mindful of sensitive data like medical notes
5. Test with LIMIT - Add LIMIT 10 while developing queries

​

Getting Help

• 🐛 Found an issue? Report it at github.com/getparable/parable-api/issues
• 📖 Need more examples? Check our other query guides in this folder
• 💬 Have questions? Reach out to your Parable support team