One of the first choices you’ll make in Hey Church is how much you want AI to help with your announcement emails. There are three modes — Manual, AI + Approval, and Full AI — and they range from “I’ll write every word myself” to “handle it for me.” None is more correct than the others; the right one depends on how much time you have and how much control you want.
Here’s what each does, why AI rewriting exists in the first place, and how to pick.
Why AI Rewriting Matters
Churches send the same announcements over and over — the fall retreat, the weekly small groups, the volunteer call. Send the identical wording three weeks in a row and people stop reading it; their eyes just slide past a message they’ve already seen.
The fix isn’t to write something brand new every week (nobody has time for that). It’s to keep the facts identical — the event name, date, location, sign-up link — while refreshing the hook, the details, and the call to action so each send doesn’t have to feel identical. That’s what the AI modes do. Manual, the default, does not rewrite anything.
You’ll set your mode on the Email page in your dashboard, and you can change it anytime.
Manual
What it does: This is the default. It resends your announcements exactly as you wrote them. No AI, no rewriting.
Best for: Churches that want full control over every word, or messages where the precise wording matters — a sensitive pastoral note, a carefully worded policy update, anything you’d want to sign off on letter for letter.
The trade-off is that keeping repeated announcements from getting stale is on you. If you send the same thing on a schedule, you’ll want to vary it yourself now and then.
AI + Approval
What it does: Previews are generated for sends within about 48 hours. The AI rewrites the hook, details, and call to action, and an admin approves each one before it sends. If nobody approves in time, the email is held and admins are notified, and it never auto-sends. You can preview the email, make any tweaks, and approve it — or approve the rewrite as it is if you’re happy.
Best for: Most churches, especially when you’re getting started. You get the time savings of AI drafting plus a safety net — you always see the message before your congregation does. It’s the middle ground between doing everything yourself and handing it off completely.
This is the mode we’d suggest trying first. It shows you what the AI produces without ever taking the final decision out of your hands.
Full AI
What it does: Full AI rewrites the hook, details, and call to action and sends on schedule. There is no approval step.
Best for: Busy teams that have used Hey Church for a while, trust the output, and want communication to simply happen without landing on anyone’s to-do list. Set your announcements and your schedule, and it runs on its own.
The trade-off is the mirror image of Manual: you’re trusting the AI to send without a final human check. Many churches are glad to make that trade once they’ve watched it work in AI + Approval mode for a few weeks.
How to Choose
A simple way to think about it:
- Want control and don’t mind the effort? → Manual
- Want help but still want the final say? → AI + Approval (great starting point)
- Want it fully off your plate? → Full AI
A common path is to start in AI + Approval, get comfortable with the quality of the rewrites, and then switch to Full AI once you trust it — moving from “help me” to “handle it” as your confidence grows. And because you can change modes anytime, nothing you choose today locks you in.
Getting There
Sending modes only matter once you have something to send, so if you haven’t yet, start with creating your first announcement and adding your contacts. Then set your mode and let Hey Church handle the follow-through. For the bigger picture on why automation helps churches specifically, see why churches need automated email.
Try AI + Approval on your next announcement. The Free plan includes 250 contacts and 500 emails a month.