Communication Tools Overview

TimelyChurch provides a comprehensive set of communication tools to help you stay connected with your congregation, staff, and volunteers. From church-wide announcements to direct messaging between members, these features ensure important information reaches the right people at the right time.

Available Communication Tools

Announcements

Create and publish announcements to inform your congregation about upcoming events, ministry updates, urgent notices, and general news. Announcements support rich text formatting, cover images, scheduling, expiration dates, and group targeting.

• Schedule announcements in advance or publish immediately
• Target specific groups or broadcast to everyone
• Pin important announcements to the top of the list
• Allow or disable member comments
• Set automatic expiration dates for time-sensitive content

Email Templates

TimelyChurch uses a template-based email system that sends beautifully formatted notification emails automatically. Templates cover scheduling, substitute requests, lessons, certifications, invitations, family management, group communications, and more.

• View and preview the system email templates
• Send test emails to verify formatting
• Turn individual templates on or off for your church
• Templates fill in real details (names, dates, links) when each email is sent

Email Templates is included on the Pro plan and above.

Email Automations

Email Automations let you send the right message automatically when something happens in your church — a new person joins, someone submits a form, a first gift comes in. Each automation pairs a trigger with one or more steps (an email, a Telegram message, adding someone to a group, and more), each with its own delay, so a whole multi-step journey runs on its own once you build it.

• Choose from triggers such as New Member Added, Person Joins a Group, Event Registration, Form Submitted, First Donation, First Check-in, and Manual Trigger (enroll-only, for journeys you add people to by hand)
• Narrow enrollment with conditions — a specific form answer, membership status, or group membership — or enroll people yourself, one at a time or in bulk from a filtered People list
• Add a goal so someone exits the sequence the moment they reach it, and a send window so messages only go out during your church's own waking hours
• Turn individual automations on or off without deleting them — pausing and resuming never loses anyone's place
• See per-step open and click rates once an automation has run
• See the Building an Email Automation and Enrollment, Conditions & Safe Editing articles for the full how-to

Email Automations are a separate, plan-gated feature from Email Campaigns. If Automations appears grayed out with a lock icon in the sidebar, it isn't included in your current plan.

Email Delivery Stats

The Email Templates page shows at-a-glance delivery health for your church's automated emails. At the top of the page you'll find counters for total templates, active templates, Sent Today, and Failed Today.

• Watch the Sent Today and Failed Today stats to monitor delivery health
• A high "Failed Today" count is a sign to check your email configuration

System Notifications

TimelyChurch automatically sends notifications based on events that occur within the platform. These include in-app notifications, email notifications, and push notifications to subscribed devices.

• Automatic schedule reminders for teachers
• Substitute request notifications
• Certification expiration warnings
• Lesson needed alerts
• Supply request updates
• Family and group membership notifications

Direct Messaging (Member Portal)

Members can send private messages to one another through the Member Portal. Messaging supports one-on-one conversations, group conversations (including messaging a whole team at once), and file attachments.

• Compose messages to individuals, several people, or a team
• Attach files and images
• Archive conversations you no longer need in your inbox
• Report a message that crosses a line, or block another member

Where to Find Communication Tools

In the admin sidebar, most communication tools live together under the collapsible Communications category. Click Communications to expand it and reveal the tools below.

Note: Announcements, Email Campaigns and Email Automations are plan-gated. If a tool isn't included in your plan, it appears in the Communications category grayed out with a lock icon, and clicking it takes you to the upgrade page.

How Communication Flows Work

1. Admin-initiated: Administrators create announcements that appear on the church website and member portal, and can email an announcement to members. Email Campaigns send one-off emails to the people you choose.

2. System-triggered: Actions like creating a schedule assignment, submitting a substitute request, or an expiring certification automatically generate notifications and emails using the template system.

3. Member-initiated: Members can message each other directly through the Member Portal messaging system. Notifications are sent to recipients when new messages arrive.

Tip: You can turn individual system email templates on or off from the Email Templates page, and set up your own trigger-based emails with Email Automations. This lets you tailor which messages go out and when, so communication frequency fits your congregation's needs.

Related Articles

• Announcements
• Email Templates
• Sending Emails
• Email Logs
• Notifications
• Messaging
• Email Campaigns
• Magic Link Login
• Permissions and Broadcast Roles
• Unsubscribe and Email Preferences
• Telegram — Messages and Two-Tap Actions
• Building an Email Automation
• Invite Members to Connect Telegram
• Email Automations: Enrollment, Conditions & Safe Editing
• Reviewing Reported Content