Contact preferences: choose what your church sends you

How do I get to my preferences page?

Open any email your church has sent you through FlockConnect and look at the bottom. The link labeled Email preferences / unsubscribe takes you to your page. You do not need to log in or create an account; the link itself is what identifies you. Most mail apps also show their own unsubscribe button for these emails. Using that button unsubscribes you from all FlockConnect email from your church, the same as the master switch on the page.

There is no address to type in and no page to bookmark. Each email carries its own link, and that link keeps working for up to 180 days after the email was sent. If a link has stopped working, open a more recent email from your church, or contact your church directly.

• No login or account needed: the link in your church's email is the only key.
• The Email preferences / unsubscribe link appears in every email your church sends you through FlockConnect, and your mail app's unsubscribe button works too.
• Unsubscribe from all emails stops every FlockConnect email from your church; your church can still reach you directly outside FlockConnect.
• Texts are separate: reply STOP to stop and START to resume. The page shows your texting status but cannot change it.
• Preferences belong to you and apply per church. Staff can see your choices but cannot change them.
• Each link works for up to 180 days after its email. If yours has expired, use a newer email or contact your church.

What can I change there?

The page lists email categories you can turn off one at a time. Form and check-in invitations covers the emails that ask you to fill something out. Confirmations and thank-yous is there so the control already exists if your church ever sends those. Below the categories, after a divider, sits one master switch, Unsubscribe from all emails, which stops every email your church sends you through FlockConnect, the categories included.

Two more choices round out the page. Don't send me reminders about open forms turns off the follow-up nudge when a form sits unfinished; today that nudge is a single text message. And a language picker lets you choose English or Español (México); the page reloads in your new language once you save, and your choice is stored with your record at your church.

What does unsubscribing actually stop?

The master switch stops every email your church sends you through FlockConnect. Each category switch stops just its own category. Your choices apply to one church: if you are part of two churches that both use FlockConnect, each has its own preferences page, reached through that church's own emails.

Unsubscribing does not cut you off from your church. Your church can still contact you directly outside FlockConnect, by phone, in person, or from its own email address. Text messages have their own separate opt-out, described below, so turning off email does not change your texting status. And if you have opted out of form invitation emails, the form itself still exists, so you can complete it in person or at a kiosk.

How do I stop or restart text messages?

Texting works differently from email. The preferences page shows your texting status, with your phone number partly masked, but it cannot change that status. To stop texts, reply STOP to any text from your church. To start again, reply START. Reply HELP for help. Replying from your own phone is the only way you can change your texting consent yourself.

Reminder texts have their own extra control. A member with an unfinished form may get at most one reminder text, and only after the form has been open for 72 hours. Checking Don't send me reminders about open forms on the preferences page blocks that reminder text even if you have said yes to texts in general. The SMS assessment reminders guide linked below covers the full set of rules.

What if my link says it is no longer available?

Preference links expire 180 days after the email that carried them, and a few other situations can retire a link early. In every case the page shows the same plain message, in English and Spanish, saying the link is no longer available. It deliberately does not say why, so the link itself reveals nothing about you.

The fix is simple: open a more recent email from your church and use the link in that one, or contact your church and ask them to send you something new. Every email your church sends you through FlockConnect carries a fresh link.

What should church staff know?

Staff cannot change a member's preferences in the app; there is no edit screen, by design. Staff with the right permission can see that someone has unsubscribed, so you know why an email was held, but the choice itself always belongs to the member. When a member has opted out of form invitations, the form's completion link still exists, so they can finish it on a kiosk or with you in person.

Sending errs on the member's side. If an email cannot carry a working unsubscribe link, it does not go out. If FlockConnect cannot confirm a member's preference at send time, it holds the email rather than risk sending to someone who opted out, and the held email is recorded, or the send is rejected on the spot, so you can see why nothing went out. The page also keeps its own promise to members: it is just for them, and their information is never shared outside their church.