You will need the Full Write Groups permission to manage the group, plus Limited SMS for texting and standard messaging access for email. See How do I send a text message? and How do I send emails? for the full permission details of each channel.
A campaign is any series of messages sent to the same audience over time — a stewardship push, a VBS sign-up drive, a new-member follow-up sequence. Rather than rebuilding your recipient list for every email or text, you can point each message at a Group and let One Church Software work out who is currently in it each time a message goes out.
Why use a Group instead of a one-time list?
When you add a Group directly as a recipient on an email or text, One Church Software looks up who is in the group at the moment the message actually sends — not when you built the message or scheduled it.
That means:
Someone who joins the group after your first touch is automatically included in the next one.
Someone who leaves or is removed stops receiving messages in the campaign without you having to edit anything.
You build the audience once and reuse it across every touch in the campaign.
Note: This also means a campaign group's membership can shift between touches without any warning on the message itself. If exact, frozen audience control matters more than staying current, such as a one-time invite list; in that case, consider a Query Builder report or a static People list instead.
Step 1: Build or choose your campaign group
If you don't already have a group for this audience, create one — see How do I add a group? Give it a name that makes the campaign obvious later, such as "Fall Stewardship 2026," rather than reusing a general-purpose group.
Add your starting audience with How do I add people to a group? in bulk from a form, a mass change, or a group registration.
Step 2: Send the first touch
Start your first email or text from Messaging Center > Logs > Email or Messaging Center > Logs > Text Message. In the Recipients field, add your campaign group directly rather than adding its members individually.
Write your message, choose Now or schedule it for Later, and send.
Step 3: Schedule the follow-up touches
For later touches in the campaign, repeat the process and point the message at the same group again. Because membership is resolved at send time, you don't need to re-check who's current before each one goes out.
Tip: Each new email or text builder opens blank, even if you already have other messages scheduled. To adjust a touch you already scheduled, open it from Messaging Center > Scheduled instead of starting a new one.
Step 4: Keep the group current between touches
As people respond to a form, sign up, or ask to be added or removed, update the group's membership using the same tools from Step 1. The next scheduled touch will pick up those changes automatically; you don't need to touch the messages themselves.
See How do I send a text message? for how the recipient list narrows down before a text actually goes out.