Approvals

Most ministry leaders send through Approvals: they write the message as usual, and it waits for the communications lead (or an admin) to check it before anything goes out. This keeps the church's voice consistent and gives every message a second pair of eyes, without slowing down leaders who have earned Send without approval.

When to use this

• Leaders: you've written to your ministry and want to see whether it was approved, or why it wasn't.
• Communications lead: each morning, and whenever a leader tells you something is urgent.

For leaders: send for approval

1. Write your message in Messages as usual: channel, your ministry's list, topic, words.
2. Send yourself a test first, to check how it reads.
3. Select Ask for approval. (If your permission includes Send without approval, the button says Send to … and sends straight away instead.)
4. Open Approvals to follow it. Your requests shows each message's status: Waiting, Approved or Declined.

If it's declined, the approver's note says what to change. Make the change in Messages and ask for approval again.

For the communications lead: decide

Waiting for you lists each leader's message with who sent it, the list, the topic, and how many people it would reach now (and when it was asked).

1. Read the message as a recipient would.
2. Choose one:
   • Approve: it goes out as written.
   • Edit, then approve: fix a typo, a time or a tone, then Save and approve. The record notes it was edited.
   • Decline: send it back with a note (see below).

When you approve, the consent check runs again, so anyone who opted out since the leader asked is still left out, and texts still wait for quiet hours.

Nobody approves their own message. A message to a sensitive ministry is visible only to an approver with a permission for that ministry.

Declining with a note

A decline always needs a short note to the leader. Make it something they can act on:

• Helpful: "Add the pickup time and where to park, then send it again."
• Not helpful: "Not approved."

The note appears on the leader's request, and the decision is kept in the audit trail.

Good to know

• In the sandbox, an approved message is captured in the outbox, never sent.
• Recently decided keeps the last few decisions to hand; the full history is in Team and permissions.
• While a Super admin is using View as, approving and declining are switched off.

Top tips

• Communications lead: clear the queue at a set time each day, so leaders know when to expect an answer.
• Prefer Edit, then approve for small fixes; save declines for anything the leader should rethink.
• Leaders: write the "when" and "where" in the first line. It's the most common reason a message is sent back.

Troubleshooting

Approve is greyed out. You may be viewing as someone else, or it's your own message, or nobody in the list can receive it now. The note under the buttons says which.

"Add a short note so the sender knows what to change." A decline needs a note of at least a few words.