Telegram Notifications for a Group's Schedule
If your church uses Telegram, you can connect a group's own Telegram chat to TimelyChurch so that whenever something is scheduled for that group, the chat is told automatically.
This works for any group — a worship team, a preaching team, a fathers' group, ushers, a Sunday school class. The setup is the same in every case, and nothing is specific to one kind of team.
What the chat receives
Once a chat is linked to a group, three things reach it automatically:
| When someone… | The chat is told |
|---|---|
| Schedules an event and sets that group as the hosting group | Yes |
| Adds a group meeting | Yes |
| Creates a set list for that team | Yes — for a worship team, this is the rehearsal being scheduled |
You can also add a weekly summary — for example, every Monday morning the chat receives that group's schedule for the week ahead.
Only that group's schedule is sent. A worship team's chat never receives the fathers' group's meetings, and vice versa. Each chat only hears about the group it is linked to.
Before you start
You will need:
- Telegram already connected for your church (Church Settings → Integrations → Telegram)
- A Telegram group chat for the team
- Permission to manage church settings
Step 1 — Add the bot to your Telegram chat
In Telegram, open the group chat and add your church's bot as a member, the same way you would add a person.
Tip: Making the bot an administrator of the chat is recommended. It allows the bot to work reliably in larger groups.
Step 2 — Approve the chat
In TimelyChurch, go to Church Settings → Integrations → Telegram. The chat appears in the list of chats that have added your bot.
Click Approve next to it.
Step 3 — Link the chat to a group
On the approved chat you will see:
Group schedule — whose meetings go to this chat?
Choose the group from the list. Every active group in your church appears here, whatever its type.
The setting saves as soon as you choose. From that moment, anything scheduled for that group is posted to that chat.
To stop the notifications later, set the same field back to Not linked — church-wide chat.
Step 4 (optional) — Add the weekly summary
To have the chat receive the week ahead every Monday morning:
- On the same chat, tick the Events category.
- Add a schedule for that category, choosing the day and time — for example Monday at 9:00 AM.
- Leave the look-ahead at 7 days to cover the coming week.
Because the chat is linked to a group, that summary covers only that group's schedule.
Privacy
If a group is marked Confidential, its chat receives the schedule without naming members. This uses the confidentiality setting already on the group — you do not need to configure anything separately.
Frequently asked questions
Can one chat receive two groups' schedules? No. A chat is linked to a single group. If a second team needs notifications, give that team its own chat and link it to their group.
Can a chat still receive church-wide announcements? Yes. The group link and the post categories are independent. A linked chat can carry both its own group's schedule and church-wide categories such as announcements or sermons.
What if we do not link a chat to a group? Nothing changes. A chat with no group linked behaves exactly as before, receiving whichever church-wide categories you have ticked.
Do private team events appear in the group's chat? Yes. A team's own chat is made up of that team's members, so internal events and rehearsals are included. The public-only filter applies to church-wide summaries, not to a group's own chat.
Nothing is arriving in the chat. Check that the bot is still a member of the chat, that the chat is approved and active in Church Settings → Integrations → Telegram, and that the group selected is the one the event was actually scheduled for. An event only notifies the chat when that group is set as its hosting group.