Announcements
The Announcements module lets you create, schedule, and manage news and updates for your congregation. Announcements appear on your church's public website and member portal, and can be targeted to specific groups or broadcast to everyone.
Accessing Announcements
- Log in to the Admin panel.
- Click Announcements in the sidebar navigation.
You will see the Announcements listing page with summary statistics at the top showing your total, active, pinned, and archived announcement counts.
Creating an Announcement
- Click the New Announcement button in the upper-right corner.
- A creation dialog will appear with the following fields:
Required Fields
- Title -- A short, descriptive title (e.g., "Christmas Eve Service Schedule").
- Message -- The full announcement content. A rich text editor is provided with formatting options including headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text color, background color, ordered and unordered lists, and links.
- Category -- Select a category for the announcement. Default categories include General, Event, Ministry, and Urgent. Your church may have custom categories configured.
Optional Fields
- Cover Image -- Upload an image to display with the announcement (JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP; max 5 MB). The recommended size is 1200x675 pixels (16:9 ratio).
- Publish Date -- Set a future date and time for the announcement to become visible. Leave blank to publish immediately.
- Expires At -- Set a date and time when the announcement will automatically stop being displayed. Must be after the publish date.
Visibility Options
- Active -- Controls whether the announcement is currently displayed. Checked by default.
- Public -- When checked, anyone visiting your church website can see the announcement. When unchecked, only logged-in members can see it. Checked by default.
- Pin to Top -- When checked, the announcement will always appear at the top of the announcements list, above non-pinned announcements.
- Allow Comments -- When checked, members can post comments on the announcement through the member portal. Checked by default.
- Click Create Announcement to save.
Tip: If your church has the AI content generation feature enabled, you will see an AI Assistant panel below the message editor. You can use it to generate or improve announcement content by describing what you want (e.g., "Write about our upcoming Easter service" or "Make this text more engaging"). See the AI Assistant articles for how the AI panel works and how to enable it.
Editing an Announcement
- From the Announcements listing, click on any announcement title to open its detail page.
- The detail page has two tabs: Details and Comments.
Details Tab
On the Details tab, you can update:
- Title and Message (with the same rich text editor)
- Category
- Cover Image -- Upload a replacement image, or remove the current image
- Scheduling -- Adjust the Publish Date and Expires At fields
- Visibility -- Toggle Active, Public, Pinned, and Allow Comments settings using the switches in the sidebar
Target Audience
If your church has groups configured, a Target Audience section appears in the sidebar. Here you can select one or more groups to restrict who sees the announcement.
- If no groups are selected, the announcement is visible to everyone.
- If one or more groups are selected, only members belonging to those groups will see the announcement in the member portal.
The currently targeted groups are displayed below the group list for quick reference.
After making changes, click Save Changes.
Comments Tab
The Comments tab shows all comments posted by members on this announcement. For each comment, you can see:
- The author's name and avatar
- The comment text
- The date and time it was posted
- The approval status (Approved or Pending)
Managing Comments
- Approve -- Click the green checkmark icon to approve a pending comment, making it visible to all members.
- Hide -- Click the eye-slash icon to hide an approved comment (sets it back to unapproved).
- Delete -- Click the red trash icon to permanently remove a comment.
Tip: Comments require approval before they are visible to other members. This gives you control over what appears publicly on your announcements.
Quick Actions
The detail page sidebar includes quick action buttons:
- Activate / Deactivate -- Toggle the announcement's active status with a single click.
- Pin / Unpin -- Toggle whether the announcement is pinned to the top.
- Archive -- Soft-delete the announcement. It can be restored later.
- Delete Permanently -- Permanently remove the announcement and its associated image. This action cannot be undone.
Filtering and Searching Announcements
The listing page provides several ways to find specific announcements:
Search
Use the search bar to find announcements by title or content.
Filters
- Category -- Filter by a specific category (General, Event, Ministry, Urgent, or custom categories).
- Status -- Show only Active or Inactive announcements.
- Visibility -- Show only Public or Members Only announcements.
- Archived -- Choose between Active Announcements, Include Archived, or Archived Only.
Filters can be combined. Click Clear to reset all filters.
Sorting
The listing defaults to showing the most recently created announcements first, with pinned announcements always appearing at the top regardless of sort order.
Categories
TimelyChurch provides four default announcement categories:
| Category | Typical Use |
|---|---|
| General | Everyday church updates and news |
| Event | Upcoming services, events, and schedule changes |
| Ministry | Youth, children, missions, and ministry-specific updates |
| Urgent | Time-sensitive alerts requiring immediate attention |
Your church can customize categories (add new ones, rename existing ones, and assign custom colors) through the church settings.
Rich Content Features
Announcements support embedded media content through custom blocks:
- Video Embeds -- YouTube and Vimeo videos can be embedded directly into announcement content with configurable size and alignment.
- Audio Embeds -- Upload audio files, or embed from Spotify and SoundCloud. A native HTML5 audio player is displayed for direct audio URLs.
Announcement Visibility Rules
An announcement is visible to members when all of the following conditions are met:
- The announcement is Active.
- The Publish Date is either not set or is in the past.
- The Expires At date is either not set or is in the future.
- If group targeting is configured, the member belongs to at least one of the targeted groups.
- If the announcement is not Public, the viewer must be a logged-in member.
Archiving and Restoring
- Archive -- Soft-deletes the announcement. It no longer appears in the default listing but can be found using the "Archived Only" filter.
- Restore -- From the archived view, click the Restore button to bring the announcement back to the active listing.
- Delete Permanently -- Removes the announcement and its cover image from the system entirely. This cannot be undone.
Platform Announcements (TimelyChurch-Wide)
The announcements you create in this module are church announcements -- visible to your congregation only. TimelyChurch also has a separate system called Platform Announcements, which are broadcast by TimelyChurch staff (super admins) to all churches at once.
What You'll See as a Church Admin
When the TimelyChurch team publishes a platform announcement (for example, a new feature release, a planned maintenance window, or an urgent service alert), it appears as a colored banner at the top of your admin dashboard.
- The banner color reflects the announcement's style: info (blue), success (green), warning (yellow), or danger (red).
- High-priority announcements stay visible until you dismiss them.
- Each banner can include an action link (e.g., "Read More" or "View Status Page").
- Once you dismiss a banner, it does not reappear for your account.
What Church Admins Can and Cannot Do
- Cannot create -- Only TimelyChurch super admins can create platform announcements.
- Can read -- Banners appear automatically based on the announcement's audience (all users, church admins only, or teachers only).
- Can dismiss -- Click the close button on the banner to hide it for your account. Read tracking and dismissal are recorded per user.
Tip: If you ever see an unusual banner you don't recognize at the top of your dashboard, it is likely a TimelyChurch platform announcement -- not something added by your church staff. See the Platform Announcements article for details on how they work.