Skip to main content

Creating a Newsletter Email in Empower

One powerful tool in Empower is the ability to create and send an email Newsletter to your membership.  The recipients can be automatically filtered initially or with each Issue of the newsletter, making the communication possibilities endless!


Newsletters are designed to be a series of recurring messages that utilize the same recipient list (or set of parameters) or the same template design.  Here are a few examples of how you could utilize the Newsletter feature:


  • Pastor’s Monday morning update (sent to all Active Members, uses the same template each week)
  • A Happy Birthday email (parameters set to Birthday is Today, a templated message using Merge Fields to add personal information)
  • Kid’s Ministry Update (Sent to those Households who are a part of children’s Activities)

Newsletters can also be published to a fixed URL that can be publicized outside of email messages.  


Let’s walk through the creation of a Newsletter.  Keep in mind that we will not hit every customization option in this article.  For more tips and tricks for design and format, be sure to view our blog articles.  

Your First Newsletter

Creating Your First Newsletter


To get started, let’s navigate to the Messaging>Newsletter page by hovering over the Messaging in the top menu and clicking on the Newsletter icon.  


In the Page Menu, you will find the buttons to Add, Delete and Archive Newsletters.  Click on the +Add button.  

The Add Newsletter pop-up window will appear.


Our first step will be to decide who the Newsletter should be delivered to.  This filter works just like the Advanced Search in other tools, limiting the People shown with each filter added. You can also upload your saved searches.


For our example letter, we will create an email sent to all members without a physical address on file. We will send this periodically to update our records.  Each time, this same filter will run and only include those people we have not added a physical address.  

Clicking Next will take you to the Newsletter Options page.

Newsletter Options

Let’s look over those options:


Default Sender- this is the default sender for this specific Newsletter. It might be your pastor. Other times, it might be the church secretary or other staff members.  Remember, only verified emails might be selected.


Title- this is how the Newsletter will be listed in the Navigation pane.  Not what the recipient will see, but what you will see in Empower.


Default Subject-  This is the Default email subject line.  You can change the subject line for each issue, but if no change is applied, this field is the default.  


Make Issues URL Public selecting this will automatically create a published URL from Empower.  You can share this URL with others as a published “web” version of your emailed Newsletter. 


Issue URL-  Empower give you the option to make each issue publicly accessible with a URL (that you can also link to or post on social media).  For this field, use a keyword or title that is specific for each Issue.  

The URL will be https://yourchurchname.empowerchms.com/Newsletter/Directory/…. 

The keyword you use here will make up the last part of the URL.  


When you’ve filled out all of these fields, click Save.

The Newsletter Display Pane/Profile Tabs


Your newsletter is now started.  It will show up in the navigation pane on the left-hand side of your window. Click it if it’s not already selected.  


The profile tabs show different details regarding the specific newsletter.