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Church Center notifications let you send a notification to Church Center at the same time you send an email. When people see the notification in Church Center, they can tap a button to view the full email in their browser. This is a great way to reach people who may not check their email regularly but are active in the Church Center app.
Flowforth calls this feature a Church Center Notification. In Planning Center, the same feature is called a Church Center Message — it was previously named Church Center Announcements. Whatever the label, it’s the same push notification your people receive in the Church Center app.
A Church Center Notification is a push notification sent to the people on your email’s list. It’s different from a Publishing Announcement, which posts an item to your Church Center announcements feed through Planning Center Publishing. You can use either, both, or neither on any email.
You can also send a Church Center notification as a step inside an automation, so it goes out automatically on your trigger or schedule. See Send Church Center Notification in the Automations guide.

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How It Works

When you enable a Church Center notification on an email:
  1. You send (or schedule) your email as usual
  2. After the email is sent, Flowforth automatically sends a Church Center notification to everyone on the list the email is sent to.
  3. The notification appears in Church Center for everyone on the list the email is sent to.
  4. Recipients can tap the button in the notification to view the full email in their browser

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Setting Up a Church Center Notification

Church Center Notification form with title, body, and button text fields
  1. Go to your email’s detail page (the pre-send checklist)
  2. Open the Church Center section
  3. Toggle on Send Church Center Notification
  4. Fill in the required fields:
    • Title — The headline of the notification (up to 70 characters)
    • Body — A short description or preview (up to 300 characters)
    • Button Text — The label on the call-to-action button (up to 25 characters)
  5. Click Save
The notification will be sent to the same Planning Center list you selected in the To section.

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What Recipients See

When the notification is sent, recipients receive a push notification on their device with the title and body you entered.
Church Center push notification showing the notification title and body
Tapping the notification opens it in the Church Center app, where they can tap the button to view the email in their browser.
Church Center app showing the full notification with a More Details button
When a Church Center notification is sent, Flowforth creates a public web link to the email so recipients can view it in their browser. This link is built using your content domain and the email’s category slug.
Church Center notifications require a public email category. If your category is not set to public, you won’t be able to enable a Church Center notification. Update the category’s public settings first.
To set up a content domain, see Setting Up Your Content Domain.

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Permissions

Church Center notifications are available to owners and members who meet all of the following:
  • Have the Emails permission with the Manager level (not Designer)
  • Have the Church Center notifications permission enabled
Designers and members without the Church Center permission can still see an existing notification on the pre-send page, but they cannot create or edit one. Owners can grant the Church Center notifications permission from the Members settings page when editing a member’s permissions. See Roles and Permissions for details.

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Requirements

  • Your email must be sending to a single Planning Center list — Church Center notifications are not available when sending to multiple lists or to individual people
  • Your organization must have a connected Planning Center account
  • You need a content domain or subdomain set up for the public email link
  • Your email must have a category assigned so the link can be generated

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Replicating Emails with Church Center Notifications

When you replicate an email that has a Church Center notification configured, the notification settings (enabled/disabled, title, body, and button text) are automatically copied to the new email.

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Common Use Cases

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Major Events

Use a Church Center notification for big events like Easter services, VBS registration, or a church-wide gathering to make sure it reaches people on both channels.

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Time-Sensitive Updates

For urgent messages like cancellations, schedule changes, or severe weather closures, the push notification ensures people see the update quickly.
If you have questions about Church Center notifications, reach out to support@flowforth.co.