Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: June 25, 2025

1. Acceptance

By creating a Churchy account or using any part of the Churchy service (“Service”), you agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you are using Churchy on behalf of a church or organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. The Service

Churchy provides an AI-powered church operations platform including: Eden (an AI assistant for church staff), automated guest follow-up via SMS, SMS check-in for first-time visitors, Planning Center integration for volunteer scheduling and service planning, Asana integration, proactive monitoring and alerts, and a web dashboard. The specific features available depend on your subscription plan.

3. Free trial and subscriptions

Paid plans (currently “Shepherd”) begin with a 14-day free trial. No payment is required during the trial period. At the end of the trial, you will be charged the applicable monthly fee unless you cancel before the trial ends.

Subscriptions renew automatically on a monthly basis. You authorize us to charge your payment method on the first day of each billing cycle. Upgrades take effect immediately. Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period — we do not provide pro-rated refunds for unused time. The Starter plan is free and has no billing cycle.

4. SMS messaging and TCPA compliance

Churchy enables churches to send automated SMS messages to guests and volunteers. You are solely responsible for compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), CAN-SPAM Act, and all other applicable federal, state, and local laws governing electronic communications.

Your responsibilities include:

  • Obtaining prior express written consent before sending automated SMS messages to any individual, except where a visitor has initiated contact by texting your church's Eden number (which constitutes consent to receive follow-up messages from that church).
  • Honoring opt-out requests immediately. Any reply of STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT must result in no further messages to that number.
  • Not using Churchy to send unsolicited bulk messages, spam, or messages to numbers obtained without consent.
  • Including your church's identity in outbound messages.

Churchy automatically processes STOP keywords and updates opt-out status in your dashboard. However, ultimate legal responsibility for TCPA compliance rests with your church, not with Churchy. We strongly recommend consulting legal counsel if you have questions about SMS consent requirements.

5. Eden AI — capabilities and limitations

Eden is an AI assistant powered by Claude (developed by Anthropic, PBC). Eden can make mistakes. AI-generated responses — including scheduling suggestions, guest follow-up content, service plans, and operational recommendations — may be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated.

You are responsible for reviewing Eden's outputs before acting on them, especially for:

  • Volunteer scheduling decisions that affect real people
  • SMS messages sent to guests or congregation members
  • Planning Center data modifications (service plans, rosters, song additions)
  • Financial or pastoral advice

Eden is not a licensed counselor, financial advisor, or legal advisor. Do not rely on Eden for pastoral care, financial decisions, or legal guidance. Churchy is not liable for decisions made based on Eden's outputs.

6. Your responsibilities

  • You are responsible for ensuring all data you provide or import is accurate and legally obtained.
  • You must keep your account credentials secure and notify us immediately at security@churchy.app of any unauthorized access.
  • You are responsible for your church's compliance with all applicable laws in your jurisdiction, including data protection laws, employment laws affecting volunteer scheduling, and communication laws.
  • You must not use Churchy to contact individuals who have not consented to be contacted, or who have previously opted out.
  • You are responsible for any Planning Center or Asana data modifications made through Eden on your behalf.

7. Acceptable use

You may not use Churchy to:

  • Send messages that are harassing, threatening, discriminatory, or illegal.
  • Impersonate another person, church, or organization.
  • Attempt to reverse engineer, scrape, or access non-public portions of the Service or its underlying systems.
  • Use the Service to develop a competing product or service.
  • Circumvent usage limits, rate limits, or access controls.
  • Upload malicious code or attempt to compromise the security of the Service.
  • Violate any applicable law or regulation.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, immediately and without prior notice, at our sole discretion.

8. Intellectual property

Churchy and Eden, including all underlying technology, designs, and content we create, are owned by us and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. These Terms do not grant you any right to use our name, logo, or branding without our written permission.

You retain ownership of all content you provide to Churchy — your church knowledge base, guest data, meeting notes, and conversation history. By using the Service, you grant us a limited license to use that content solely to operate and improve the Service.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR UNINTERRUPTED AVAILABILITY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE SERVICE OR THE SERVERS THAT MAKE IT AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT SMS MESSAGES WILL BE DELIVERED OR THAT EDEN'S AI OUTPUTS WILL BE ACCURATE.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CHURCHY AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF REVENUE, DATA LOSS, FAILED MESSAGE DELIVERY, INACCURATE AI OUTPUTS, OR SCHEDULING ERRORS, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIMS ARISING UNDER THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID TO CHURCHY IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Churchy and its officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms; (b) your violation of any applicable law, including the TCPA; (c) your church's SMS messaging practices; (d) any claim by a third party arising from your use of the Service; or (e) any data you provide to Churchy that infringes a third party's rights.

12. Termination

Either party may terminate the agreement at any time. You may cancel through your dashboard or by emailing us. We may terminate or suspend your access immediately and without notice if you violate these Terms or if we are required to do so by law. Upon termination, your access to the Service ends and we will delete your data within 30 days per our Privacy Policy.

13. Dispute resolution and arbitration

Before filing any formal legal action, you agree to contact us at legal@churchy.app and give us 30 days to attempt to resolve the dispute informally.

If the dispute is not resolved informally, you and Churchy agree to resolve any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service through binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. You waive any right to a jury trial and any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking emergency injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent irreparable harm pending arbitration.

14. Force majeure

We will not be liable for any failure or delay in performance resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, acts of government, internet outages, SMS carrier disruptions, third-party API outages (including Planning Center, Twilio, or Anthropic), or other force majeure events.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you by email at least 14 days before material changes take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service and cancel your subscription.

16. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict of law principles. Subject to the arbitration clause above, any disputes not subject to arbitration will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email us at legal@churchy.app.