Integrations

Audience: This article is for church administrators.

The Integrations tab in Church Settings is where you connect TimelyChurch to external services. Three integrations live here today:

• Stripe - Online Giving — accept online giving (donations) from your members.
• Telegram Bot & Broadcasts — send announcements, volunteer reminders, digests, and form-submission alerts to your church's Telegram chats.
• MCP Connector — let your team use their own AI assistant (such as Claude or ChatGPT) with your church's data, within each person's own permissions.

Important — two different uses of Stripe:

• Online giving (this page) — your church connects its own Stripe account; payouts go to your church's bank account.
• Your TimelyChurch subscription (Billing & Plans tab) — paid by card through Stripe's checkout. They are separate. Connecting one does not affect the other.

Accessing Integrations

1. At the bottom of the left sidebar, click Church Setting.
2. Click the Integrations tab.

The tab shows stacked cards: Stripe – Online Giving at the top, Telegram — Bot & Broadcasts below it, and the MCP Connector card further down. Each card shows its current connection status along with the relevant setup and management actions.

Stripe Connect for Online Giving

Stripe Connect lets your members donate online through your church's giving page. Stripe processes the payments and pays out directly to your church's bank account.

Plan requirement

Online giving is included in the Pro plan and the Multi-Campus plans. On the Starter and Growth plans the Stripe setup actions are blocked and you are sent to the upgrade options instead.

Connecting Stripe (First-Time Setup)

1. Open Church Settings → Integrations (or expand Finances → Giving and click Activate online giving).
2. In the Stripe - Online Giving card, click Connect with Stripe.
3. You will be redirected to Stripe to:
   • Verify your church's legal name, EIN, and address
   • Provide a bank account for payouts
   • Identify a representative (typically the treasurer or pastor)
4. After completing Stripe's onboarding, Stripe redirects you back to TimelyChurch.
5. The Stripe card now shows your account status, with a checklist of Details Submitted, Charges Enabled, and Payouts Enabled.

If onboarding is incomplete, click Continue Setup to resume where you left off.

Your Giving Page

Once Stripe is connected and ready, online giving is on. An Online Giving card appears below the Stripe card with Your Giving Page URL and a copy button -- share that link, or add it to your website and bulletin.

The card also has an About Online Giving panel with the standard Stripe fees ("Standard Stripe fees apply: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge. Non-profit discounts may be available.").

To stop online giving, disconnect Stripe (see below).

Opening the Stripe Dashboard

Click Stripe Dashboard to access the Stripe Express Dashboard for your connected account. From there you can:

• View payouts and timing
• Update bank account details
• Download tax documents (1099-K, etc.)
• Review payment disputes

Disconnecting Stripe

To fully disconnect:

1. Go to Church Settings → Integrations.
2. Click Disconnect on the Stripe card.
3. Confirm in the Disconnect Stripe? window. Online giving is disabled and donors will no longer be able to give online.

Note: While a newly connected church's first payout is being reviewed, Disconnect is not available -- see Stripe Connect Setup.

Note: Disconnecting does not affect historical donation records in TimelyChurch — those remain in your Giving history. To stop receiving payouts entirely, also close the account in the Stripe Dashboard.

Telegram Bot & Broadcasts

The Telegram — Bot & Broadcasts card lets you push church updates to Telegram. Once connected, your bot can post announcements, a weekly events digest and reminders, new-sermon alerts, Sunday service reminders, volunteer assignment reminders, prayer requests, birthday/anniversary shout-outs, a daily verse, and new form-submission alerts to any group or channel you register.

Telegram is available on all plans — there's no plan requirement. You only need permission to edit Settings.

See also: For the big-picture guide — what members receive, the two-tap actions (volunteer Yes/No, meeting RSVP, booking approvals, giving heads-up), and how to connect your own Telegram — see Telegram — Messages and Two-Tap Actions.

Step 1 — Connect a bot

1. In Telegram, search for @BotFather and send /newbot. Follow the prompts; BotFather replies with a bot token that looks like 7234567890:AAH-….
2. In TimelyChurch, open Church Settings → Integrations and find the Telegram card.
3. Paste the token into the Bot token field and click Connect Bot.

Your token is encrypted at rest and is never displayed again after this step. Once connected, the card shows the bot's @username and a connection status.

Note: If your bot stops receiving messages from Telegram, use the Reconnect webhook button on the connected card.

Step 2 — Add the bot to a group or channel

1. On the connected card, use the t.me/your-bot link to open your bot and pick a group or channel to add it to.
2. In that chat, send /register (only group admins can register a chat).
3. The chat appears under Registered chats with a Pending approval status. Click Approve to activate it.

For each active chat you can also Send test (post a test message), Pause (stop posting without removing it), or remove it entirely.

Step 3 — Choose what to send (post categories)

Under each active chat, tick the Post categories you want sent to that chat — for example Church announcements, Weekly events digest + reminders, New sermon published, Sunday service reminder, Volunteer assignment reminders, Prayer requests, New form submissions, or Daily verse of the day. Changes save automatically as you toggle each checkbox; a small status pill shows "Saved" / "Saving…" / "Couldn't save".

Step 4 — Schedule the time-based digests

When you enable a time-based category (such as the events digest, service reminder, or birthdays/anniversaries), a Schedule card appears under that chat. For each one you can set:

• Day — a specific day of the week, or Daily.
• Time — in your church's timezone.
• Lookahead (days) — how many days ahead to look for events (0 = today only).

Birthday and anniversary digests add audience filters: Who to include (Everyone opted-in / Members + regular attenders / Members only), an optional Minimum age (birthdays), and an Active people only checkbox. The card also shows the next scheduled run.

Step 5 — Route form submissions

The Form submissions section controls where alerts go when someone submits one of your forms, so responses don't have to post in your main group. Choose one of:

• Post to group chat(s) — the default.
• Send to a private chat — pick one of your registered chats (tip: make a leaders-only group, add the bot, register it, then choose it here).
• Direct-message people — pick specific people who have linked their Telegram. Leave all unchecked to notify every admin who has linked Telegram.
• Don't notify on Telegram — turn off form alerts entirely.

Note: A bot can only DM people who have first started a conversation with it. People link their Telegram from their Member Portal; until someone links, they can't receive direct messages.

Getting members connected — invites & auto-invite

For members to receive direct Telegram messages and use two-tap actions (volunteer Yes/No, RSVP, booking approvals), each person must first link their own Telegram to your bot. TimelyChurch makes this easy with invites you can send from three places:

• Church Settings → Integrations — the "Auto-invite to Telegram" card. Turn on Auto-invite new team members and TimelyChurch automatically emails a one-tap connect link whenever someone is added to a team, with gentle (capped) reminders until they connect. When people aren't connected yet, an Invite N un-connected member(s) button appears — click it to email a connect invite to everyone at once (you'll be asked to confirm). The same card shows a Linked members list of who on your roster has already connected and how long ago they linked.
• A person's profile — "Send Telegram invite". Open the person's profile, click the ⋯ (more actions) menu, and choose Send Telegram invite to email that one person a fresh one-tap connect link. (Shown only when a bot is connected and the person hasn't linked yet.)
• A team's Members tab — "Telegram invites". On any group or team, open the Members tab and click Telegram invites to email a connect link to every member of that team who hasn't connected yet (already-connected members are skipped).

Note: These onboarding tools appear only once a bot is connected. Invite links are valid for 7 days; sending a new invite refreshes a stale link so it always works.

Recent posts

The connected card includes a Recent posts table listing the last sends across all chats — with the time, chat, category, status (Sent / Failed), and a short preview — so you can confirm broadcasts are going out.

Disconnecting Telegram

Click Disconnect on the Telegram card and confirm. This removes the bot token and all registered chats. You can reconnect later, but you'll need to re-register each chat with /register.

Minimum age for direct messages. The Send team notifications directly to members aged ___ and over choice sets the age (13 to 18, 13 by default). Younger linked members get nothing directly, and their linked guardians get a notice-only copy ("For Rachel: ..."). A member under the age cannot connect Telegram and is asked to have a parent do it; existing links are kept. Telegram requires users to be 18 or older in the EU, UK and Australia, so churches there should choose 18.

MCP Connector (AI Assistants)

The MCP Connector card lets people on your team connect an AI assistant they already use, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to your church's TimelyChurch data. Each connection has exactly the same permissions as the person who connects it, nothing more.

• Enable MCP for this church turns it on (it is off by default). Turning it off immediately disconnects every connected app.
• Allow AI tools to propose changes lets connected assistants suggest changes to accounting, giving and events & serving schedules. With the default Approval in the chat setting (Every change (recommended)), nothing changes until the connected person answers "Approve" in the chat.
• Pending approvals -- a few changes, such as completing a bank reconciliation, also need a church administrator's approval on the website. Click Review to open the page. See Approving Changes an AI Assistant Proposes.
• The card also shows Recent AI changes, how to connect (Connect an AI assistant), the Connected apps list with Revoke, and a View AI activity link to the full history.

You need permission to edit Settings to change it.

See Also

• Online Giving Setup walkthrough — full giving module docs
• Subscription & Billing — your TimelyChurch subscription (Stripe Checkout, separate)
• Connect an AI Assistant (MCP Connector)
• What Your AI Assistant Can Read and Change
• Approving Changes an AI Assistant Proposes
• AI Activity, Connected Apps and Troubleshooting

Last updated: 2026-10-21 (8.205.306).