Invite Members to Connect Telegram

Telegram's best features — two-tap serving replies, meeting RSVPs, booking approvals, and private announcements — only work for members who have connected their own Telegram to your church's bot. This article shows how to invite people to connect: one member at a time, a whole team at once, or the entire church, plus an automatic option that invites new team members and gently follows up for you.

Before you can send any invites, your church's Telegram bot must be connected. See the Telegram section of Integrations for setup, and Telegram — Messages and Two-Tap Actions for the big picture.

Note: A member can only be invited if they have an email address on file — the invite arrives by email. People without an email are skipped.

Invite One Member

Use this when you want to nudge (or re-nudge) a single person.

1. Go to People and open the member's profile.
2. Open the ⋯ (actions) menu at the top-right of the profile and choose Send Telegram invite.
3. They receive an email with a one-tap link to connect.

This works even if the member is already partly linked. If their profile is tied to the wrong or an old Telegram account — the most common reason connecting gets stuck — it quietly resets the link and mints a fresh code, so the new invite works the first time.

Just sent one? To protect members' inboxes, a fresh invite to the same person is held for a few minutes. If you click again right away, you'll see a "please wait a few minutes" note — that's expected.

Invite a Whole Team

Use this to bring a serving team onto Telegram in one go.

1. Go to Groups and open the team.
2. Open the Members tab.
3. Click Telegram invites and confirm.

Every member of that team who hasn't connected yet gets a connect email. Members who are already connected are skipped automatically, so no one gets a pointless invite. You'll see a summary of how many were sent and how many were skipped (already connected or no email).

Invite the Whole Church, or Automate It

Church-wide invites and the automatic option live under Settings → Integrations → Telegram, in the Auto-invite to Telegram section.

Auto-invite new team members (recommended)

The Auto-invite new team members toggle is on by default. While it's on:

• When someone is added to a team, they automatically receive a connect invite.
• If they don't connect, they get a couple of gentle reminders (see Follow-up reminders below).

Turn the toggle off any time to stop automatic invites and reminders for your church. Manual invites (the buttons above) always keep working regardless of this setting.

Invite everyone not yet connected

Below the toggle, when there are team members who haven't linked Telegram, you'll see an Invite un-connected members button (it shows the exact count). Click it to email a connect invite to all of them at once. This is a deliberate, one-time send — handy right after you first connect your bot, to catch everyone already on a team.

Follow-up Reminders

When auto-invite is on, TimelyChurch follows up with members who were invited but haven't connected yet — so you don't have to remember to chase them.

• A second reminder goes out a few days after the first.
• A third reminder goes out about a week after that.
• Then reminders stop. No member ever receives more than three emails.
• The moment a member connects, their reminders stop immediately — connected people are always excluded.

Reminders run once a day, timed to your church's local morning, and only for churches with auto-invite turned on and a connected bot.

What the Member Receives

The invite is a short, friendly email from your church. It:

• Thanks them for serving (and names the team(s) they serve on, when it applies).
• Explains that connecting takes one tap — no password, and no app to install if they already use Telegram.
• Has a Connect on Telegram button that opens Telegram straight to your church's bot. They tap Start to finish linking.
• Includes a backup: if the button doesn't open Telegram, they can message your bot by its @username and press Start.

The link stays valid for 7 days. Each new invite you send refreshes it, so a resend always carries a working link.

Tips & Troubleshooting

• "Connect Telegram before sending invites." — Your church's bot isn't connected yet. Connect it under Settings → Integrations → Telegram first.
• A member has no email — They can't be invited by email. Add an email to their profile, or link Telegram together in person.
• Nothing happens after they tap the link — A bot can only message someone who has started a chat with it. The member must press Start in the chat for linking to complete.
• Someone's stuck as "connected" but isn't getting messages — Open their profile, use the ⋯ actions menu → Send Telegram invite; it resets a stale link and sends a fresh code.
• See who's connected — A Linked members list under Settings → Integrations → Telegram shows who can already receive direct messages.

Related Articles

• Telegram — Messages and Two-Tap Actions — what Telegram does once members are connected.
• Integrations — connect your bot, register chats, broadcast types.
• Managing Your Profile — how a member connects Telegram themselves.
• Notification Preferences — choosing what reaches you on Telegram.