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Publishing announcements let you post an announcement to Church Center at the same time you send an email. The announcement is created in Planning Center Publishing and appears in your Church Center announcements feed, linking back to the email’s public page so people can read the full email. Because the announcement lives in your Church Center announcements feed rather than being pushed to a specific list, it’s visible to anyone who views the announcements page in Church Center — not just the people who received the email.
A Publishing announcement is created in Planning Center Publishing and shows up in your Church Center announcements feed. This is different from a Church Center Notification, which sends a push notification to the people on your email’s list. You can use either, both, or neither on any email. See How this differs from Church Center Notifications below.

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How Publishing Announcements and Church Center Notifications Differ

Both features connect an email to Church Center, but they do different things:
Publishing AnnouncementChurch Center Notification
What it isAn announcement posted to your Church Center announcements feedA push notification sent to people’s devices
Where it comes fromPlanning Center PublishingChurch Center Messages (the People app)
Who sees itAnyone who views the announcements page in Church CenterThe people on the Planning Center list the email is sent to
Recipient rulesWorks with any recipient selection — lists, multiple lists, or individual peopleRequires sending to a single Planning Center list
When it appearsGoes live the moment the email sends; can optionally hide at a later timeSent right after the email sends
FieldsTitle, description, image, featured, categories, campuses, hide timeTitle, body, button text
Planning Center scopeRequires the Publishing scope on your connectionUses your existing People connection
Both link recipients to the same public web version of your email, and both require your email’s category to be public.

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How It Works

When you enable a Publishing announcement on an email:
  1. You send (or schedule) your email as usual.
  2. At the moment the email sends, Flowforth creates an announcement in Planning Center Publishing with its show time set to the send time.
  3. The announcement links to the email’s public page so people can read the full email.
  4. If you set a hide time, the announcement automatically stops showing at that time.

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Viewing the Announcement After Sending

Once your email sends and the announcement is created, you can jump straight to it from the sent email page. In the email’s details, a Publishing Announcement link opens the announcement in Planning Center Publishing, where you can view or edit it. The link only appears after the announcement has been created — that is, once the email has sent and Flowforth has posted the announcement to Planning Center. If you also enabled a Church Center Notification, its link sits right alongside it, so everything you posted to Church Center for the email is reachable from one place.

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Setting Up a Publishing Announcement

  1. Go to your email’s detail page (the pre-send checklist).
  2. Open the Publishing Announcement section.
  3. If you haven’t connected Planning Center Publishing yet, choose Connect Publishing to expand your Planning Center connection to include the Publishing scope. See Connecting Publishing below.
  4. Toggle on Post a Publishing announcement when this email sends.
  5. Fill in the fields:
    • Announcement Title (required) — The headline of the announcement (up to 160 characters).
    • Description — A short summary (up to 300 characters).
    • Image — Upload an image or pick one from your asset browser.
    • Feature this announcement — Highlights the announcement in Church Center.
    • Categories — One or more Publishing announcement categories to file the announcement under.
    • Campuses — One or more campuses to associate the announcement with.
    • Hide the announcement after a specific time — Optionally choose a date and time when the announcement should stop showing.
  6. Click Save.
Categories and campuses are pulled from your Planning Center Publishing account. If you don’t have any set up, those options won’t appear.
Every Publishing announcement links to the public web version of your email, built from your content domain and the email’s category slug.
Publishing announcements require a public email category so the announcement can link to the email. If your category isn’t set to public, the section stays disabled until you make the category public. Update the category’s public page settings first.
To set up a content domain, see Setting Up Your Content Domain.

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Connecting Publishing

Publishing announcements require your Planning Center connection to include the Publishing scope, which is separate from the People scope used for the rest of Flowforth.
  • If your connection doesn’t yet include Publishing, the section prompts you to Connect Publishing, which expands your existing Planning Center connection.
  • Connecting the Publishing scope requires the person authorizing it to be a Publishing Administrator in Planning Center.
  • Adding Publishing never removes scopes you’ve already granted — People stays connected.
You can also manage which Planning Center apps are connected from the Planning Center integration settings.

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Permissions

Publishing announcements use the same permission as Church Center notifications. They’re 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.
Members without the Church Center permission can still see an existing announcement on the pre-send page, but they can’t create or edit one. Owners can grant the Church Center notifications permission from the Members settings page. See Roles and Permissions for details.

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Requirements

  • Your organization must have a connected Planning Center account with the Publishing scope.
  • Your email must have a public category assigned so the announcement can link to the email.
  • You need a content domain or subdomain set up for the public email link.
Unlike Church Center notifications, Publishing announcements are not limited to a single list — you can enable them no matter how your email’s recipients are selected.

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Replicating Emails with Publishing Announcements

When you replicate an email that has a Publishing announcement configured, the announcement settings are copied to the new email, so you don’t have to set them up again.
If you have questions about Publishing announcements, reach out to support@flowforth.co.