App Privacy Policy
What the Christchurch Miami app collects, who can see it, and what we never touch. This covers the mobile app specifically — the website has its own policy.
Last updated: September 14, 2026
This policy covers the Christchurch Miami mobile app. Our website is covered separately by the website privacy policy.
The Short Version
You can read the prayer wall, watch sermons and read the daily devotional without an account. If you sign in, we know your name and email. If you post a prayer request, we store what you wrote — and a person reads it before anyone else sees it. We never touch your payment information. We never sell anything about you, and we share nothing with anyone for advertising.
Sensitive Information — Said Plainly
Two things about this app deserve saying directly rather than burying.
Using this app reveals something about your religious life. That is treated as sensitive information under Apple's and Google's rules, and it should be. Downloading a church app, signing in, and asking for prayer says something about you. We collect it because the app cannot work otherwise, and we handle it accordingly.
A prayer request can contain health information. "My mother goes in for surgery on Thursday" is health data. It isn't in a health field — it's in a sentence you typed — and because your request is attached to your church record, it is connected to you by name. We are not going to pretend otherwise. Write what you need to write; just know that is how it works.
What We Collect
| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Name and email | When you sign in | To know who you are and reply to you |
| Phone number | Only if you enter one on a care request | So a pastor can call you |
| What you write in a prayer or care request | When you post | So the church can pray for you |
| Your Planning Center record ID | When you sign in | To connect the app to your church record |
| Which devotional you opened, and your streak | As you use the app | To show your progress |
| A notification token for your phone | Only if you turn notifications on | So we can send the daily reading to this device |
| Your notification choices and quiet hours | When you set them | So we send only what you asked for, when you asked for it |
| What you report, and why | When you report a request | So a moderator can look at it, and so it leaves your wall |
| Who you have blocked | When you block someone | So the two of you stop seeing each other |
| An anonymous device code | Only if you report something without signing in | So the request leaves your wall even though we do not know who you are |
| The reading circles you are in, and the name someone gave each one | When you start a circle or join one | So the people reading alongside you can see each other finish |
| Invite codes for a circle | When you invite someone | So the link you share opens the right circle. Codes expire after 7 days |
| Messages you send in a circle | Only in adult circles that are part of the messaging test | So the other members can read them |
| A message you send to the youth inbox, and who it was delivered to | When a student writes to their youth pastor in the app | So the adults who received it can read it and reply — see below |
| A question you send to the youth question box | When a student asks one | So the youth pastor can answer it. Other students never see who asked |
| Which youth night you tapped, and how it landed | When a student taps the check-in | So the group can see how the room answered. Only the totals are shown, never a name |
For most people a circle still carries no messages at all — no chat, no notes, no captions, nowhere to type anything to another member except the circle's name.
We are testing messaging in a small number of adult circles. If your circle is one of them you will see it; if it is not, there is nowhere in your circle to type a message, and that is enforced in our database rather than by a setting. The test is adults only. A circle with anyone under 18 in it does not get messages.
In a circle that has messaging, what you send is stored on our servers so the other members can read it. You can report a message or block a member, and church leadership can see and end any circle. If you delete your account, your messages are deleted with it.
Your Devotional Reflections Stay On Your Phone
When you write a reflection in the daily devotional, it is saved on your device and is not sent to us. Nobody at the church can read it. We cannot recover it for you, and if you delete the app it is gone.
This is deliberate. A reflection written honestly in the middle of a hard week is nobody's business but yours and God's. If that ever changes, this page will change with it, before the change ships.
Who Inside the Church Can See What
This table is a promise, not a description of intent. Access in Planning Center is configured so that it is true.
| What you post | Who reads it |
|---|---|
| A public prayer request | The whole church — after a person reviews it |
| An anonymous prayer request | The whole church. Your name is never shown, and is never sent to the app |
| A private prayer request | Pastors and staff only. Never published |
| A care request | Pastors and staff only. Never published |
| A devotional reflection | Nobody. It stays on your phone |
| Your reading streak | The reading circles you choose to join — your first name and streak, to those members only. Nobody else |
Every prayer request is read by a person before it appears anywhere. Nothing publishes automatically.
What We Never Collect
- Payment information — ever. Giving goes through Church Center, run by Planning Center. The church never sees or stores your card number, and neither does this app.
- Your location.
- Your contacts.
- Your browsing history outside the app.
- Advertising identifiers. There is no advertising in this app.
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with anyone for advertising. There is no exception to that sentence.
Other Companies Involved
Planning Center holds our church records and runs Church Center, where giving happens. When you give, you are on their system and their privacy policy applies to that transaction.
YouTube plays our sermons, full services and song library. The app uses YouTube API Services to do that, so when you watch, YouTube collects what its player collects, as described in the Google Privacy Policy. Google's terms and privacy policy apply to what happens inside the player, including any comments you read.
Expo delivers our notifications. If you turn notifications on, your phone gives us a delivery code for that device, and we hand that code and the text of the notification to Expo so they can pass it to Apple or Google. The code identifies a phone, not a person — it carries no name, no email, and nothing you have written. Turning notifications off, or signing out, removes it.
One thing about the text of a notification, since it does pass through Expo: if you are in a reading circle, the people in it are told when you finish the day's reading, and that message uses your first name — "Ana finished today's reading." Only your first name, only to the circles you chose to join. No notification this app sends ever contains a prayer request, a reflection, or anything else you have written.
Giphy provides the GIFs in group rooms. When you search for one, the words you type are sent to Giphy so they can answer — that is the only thing that goes. We do not send your name, your email, or anything identifying you, and Giphy is not told which church or which group the search came from. Results are limited to Giphy's most restrictive content rating, and that limit is set on our server, not on your phone.
Listening Instead of Reading
The devotional and our blog posts can be read aloud to you. Those recordings are made ahead of time from text we have already published, and they are the same file for everyone — nothing about you is sent anywhere when you press play, and no recording is ever made of anything you wrote.
Prayer requests are different. When the app reads the prayer wall aloud, that is your own phone's voice doing it — the words never leave your device and are never sent to a speech company. Care requests are never read aloud at all.
Reporting and Blocking
If you report a prayer request, we keep which request it was, the reason you picked, anything you chose to add, and who reported it — either your account or, if you were not signed in, a random code for your device. The author is never told who reported them.
Reporting something takes it off your wall straight away. It does not take it off anyone else's; only a moderator can do that, and if they do, the person who wrote it is told why.
The Youth Inbox
A student can write to their youth pastor in the app at any hour. There is one thing about it we want a student and a parent to read before anybody uses it.
Every message goes to two adults, every time. Not one adult with a second who could look if they wanted to — both of them receive it. The app will not let a student send at all unless two adults are set up to receive it.
One of those two is named on the screen where a student writes — the person they are writing to. The second adult is not named, and does not appear in the conversation or reply to it. But the app tells the student plainly, before they type anything, that a second adult sees everything they send.
We name one and not the other on purpose. A student writing something hard should feel they are writing to a person, not to a committee. But they should never believe it is private when it is not — so we say the second reader exists, even though we do not say who.
This protects everyone. A student knows what they write will not disappear into one person's phone. And there is no private channel between one adult and one student for anyone to misuse, because no such channel exists.
Messages from girls and messages from boys go to different pairs of adults. If we do not know which, the inbox does not open at all — we would rather it be closed than send a student's message to the wrong people.
What a student writes is stored on our servers so those adults can read it and come back to them. The app promises someone reads it within a day; it does not promise an instant reply. If a student needs help right now, the app sends them to a crisis screen with a phone number instead, and that is the right place for it.
The youth question box works differently: the youth pastor sees the question without a name attached and other students never see who asked. It is anonymous to the room, not to the church — we can tell who sent a question if we ever have to, and we would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise.
Students never message each other in this app. There is no student chat, no student feed, and nowhere for a student to write something another student will read.
If you are a parent and want to know what your child has sent, or want it deleted, email jeff@christchurchmiami.org or call (305) 271-5262.
When You Delete Something
You can remove anything you posted. If you remove a message you sent someone, it comes off your side. The person you sent it to still has their copy — the same way a letter you regret is still in the other person's drawer.
If you delete your account, you are signed out and gone from the app immediately. Other members stop seeing you and your content stops appearing. We keep the underlying records for 90 days, and then they are permanently erased.
That delay exists for one reason and we would rather say it than hide it. If somebody uses this app to harm a young person, the people harmed usually come forward days or weeks later — after they have talked to each other, and often after the person who did it has already deleted their account. Ninety days means the evidence is still there when they do.
If a message is reported, we keep it. That message, the conversation around it, and the accounts involved are preserved even if anyone later deletes — for as long as it takes to deal with it properly, including handing it to the authorities where the law requires that. Preserved material is not readable inside the app by anyone, including staff. It exists to be given to the people who need it, and nothing else.
Outside of those two cases, deleted means deleted. We do not keep an archive of everything said in this church against the day it might be useful.
Children
This app is made for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. You need to be 13 or older to have an account. We do not knowingly collect information from a child under 13, and if we learn that we have, we delete the account and its content.
If you are a parent and believe your child has an account here, email jeff@christchurchmiami.org or call (305) 271-5262 and we will remove it. You do not need to explain why.
Removing Something You Posted
In the app, open your own request and use the ⋯ menu to take it down. It comes off the wall immediately — you do not need to ask anyone.
If you would rather someone did it for you, or you cannot find it, email jeff@christchurchmiami.org and we will take it off.
One thing to know: when a prayer request comes down, our pastors keep a copy so they can keep praying for you. If you would rather they did not, say so and we will delete it completely — including from their records. We would rather tell you that plainly than have you find out later.
Deleting Your Account
You can delete your account yourself, in the app, under Me → Delete my account. You do not have to ask anyone and you do not have to explain why. It takes effect straight away.
That removes your app account, your prayer and care requests along with any notes on them, notes you sent to other people, your reading streak, the reading circles you were in, and the notification code for your phone.
Your record in Planning Center is separate — it is your church membership record, not app data, and it holds your giving history, your family and your membership. Deleting the app account does not touch it. If you want that removed too, email jeff@christchurchmiami.org or call the church office at (305) 271-5262 and we will help you with it.
Prayers you offered for other people stay counted. Those counts were true when they were made, and they belong to the people you prayed for.
Questions
Email jeff@christchurchmiami.org, call (305) 271-5262, or come by 8485 SW 112th Street, Miami, FL 33156. A person answers.