Church Center App

We love church center, but hate the new messaging format. I love the old format that had messages individualized to groups. This format is so frustrating. At first glance, I don’t know what group the message is even in and then you guys took away the ability to mute comments after the first post was originally made and I am in so many different groups. In a world where we’re constantly bombarded, it was nice to not receive church center notifications for every little thing all day every day. As a group leader, I also miss being able to give a title and type the message prior to “starting” a chat. Please change it back!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Church Center App is an app I would recommend to many of my friends who I like and want saved. It’s clean cut, easy to navigate, and has all my favorite Bible stuff in one place. Finding my home church was a breeze. I simply allowed the government to track me and listen to all my conversations, and it knew what church I attended instantly. Before Church Center App, my faith was just in my head, but now with its in my hands too. For so long I’ve wanted a passive aggressive way to let people know how much better I am than them. Now with Church Center App, that’s easier than ever. My favorite setting in the Church Center App is its notifications. I often times when at work meetings, dinner parties, or nephews baseball games like to make sure my phone volume is turned all the way up and if possible, have my phone face up on a table for all to see. Church Center App with its bright and easy to read displays will alert me and more importantly all those around me numerous religious based selfless deeds that are coming up in my life. My top notification settings include: daily tithing, men’s group, kids group, women’s group, moms expecting group, international evangelism group, and PhD nuance ancient greek theologian group. Church Center App has truly changed my life and how those around me view me. I would 10/10 highly recommend. Not to be confused with Church App. Never ever download Church App. It’s demonic.

Who is this app actually for? I think it’s trying to be too many things to too many people. The navigation is terrible and there are so many features that I rarely or almost never need, yet they are always in my face. The “Home” tab for example, is completely useless. The donations tab is also never helpful since I use automatic recurring donations to my church. As a small group leader/member I want to access those features immediately almost every time I open the app, but have to tap multiple times to get to them. There are also poor assumptions built-in to the design of the small group features. The calendar events seem like a good idea at first glance, but my group seldom engages with them. My group offers hybrid, but there’s no options for RSVPing to an event as a virtual or in-person attendee. We used to use GroupMe, which had the ability to create custom polls/surveys which worked really well for us to get RSVPs and boost engagement.

I use this app to set up recurring donations to my church. Updating credit card information is awkward. To update the expiration date and cvv you need to delete the entire card and re-enter everything all over. But worse than that, when you delete the card, it also deletes some, but not all, of your donation schedule information and furthermore does not tell you about the partial donation schedule deletion, preventing the donations from restarting. After a few weeks of wondering why no donations and a donation failure email, I had to relogin and figure out what went wrong. Two suggestions would be a way to update just credit card expiration data and cvv. Also provide, after a credit card change, a pop-up telling you the donation schedule information has been partially deleted and also needs to be re-entered.

This app IS very useful for churches big or small. However, I have two BIG gripes about the Church Center App that bring frustration into my life on more than one occasion. #1) There is only ONE place in the iPhone version of ChurchCenter to log out. But it is not easily found unless you are privy to the "secret "location, or as I did, click through literally every option under every menu, every arrow, etc. hoping to locate it. Many other iPhone apps these days have a "logout" button that is easily found. Please understand. It is critically important that the Church Center App make this easier to access since users may use the app to give (via bank account or credit card) to their church. For this reason, I will not use the Church Center App to give. #2) Just as frustrating is the fact that there is ABSOLUTELY NO help section provided within the app! Zero! Nada! Zip! Furthermore, the website accessible via PC similarly has no entry when searching for "log out". I would be glad to change my review to 5 stars if these two problems were adequately addressed. Thanks!

I have friends and relationships at two churches that I regularly attend. When you go to your profile it usually won’t show you my organizations in the app 1sr time. You have to kind of go in and out for it to finally decide to present both organizations at which point you can select the one that you didn’t login with to go over to it and re-log into that one. For the web version dates do not show up for your messages, only the original date and time, so if you use a thread to message new information you’re not sure when it was sent, fortunately the app version does not have this issue.

I love this app! However I just discovered that it is not possible to edit my monthly automatic giving. I can’t delete it either. I’m sure this is a glitch! I have 3 different apple devices. Same problem on all 3 devices. Maybe it is only on my account because it is a serious unacceptable glitch! I’m sure you would have tons of complaints if this was happening to all your users. I need a method of contacting tech support. If you reply to this post I will find it and contact your tech support. I’m giving you 5 stars for a great app and believing that you will respond quickly to this complaint!

As a church we want a place to designate if users are Church members and if they are for us to know when their next membership checkin / renewal is due and also see when they became members. Also, we would like to designate certain church center users with Elder access. This allows those users who are Elders at our church the ability to do members checkins with an easy to fill out form that is only visible and seen to Elders. Then there would be an elder dashboard that shows active members, lapsed checkins, next or upcoming checkins, results of previous checkins. The recent additions of chat feel clunky and it’s odd that the chat is both in planning center and church center. You guys should consider combining those apps.

Hi! This app has been WONDERFUL for centralizing our church’s groups and prayer requests. One thing I’m really missing is the old messaging system. It was much more user-friendly, and it looked so much better. The new “chat” feature squishes all the text to the side, and it’s not aesthetically pleasing. It’s also much more difficult to navigate. We brought it up at our church staff meeting yesterday, and we all agree: we’d be so happy if you change the messaging back to the old design! Thanks for considering, and thank you for your ministry. 🙏🏻

Great for churches. I volunteered at a mega church who used church center and I totally understand how great it is for behind the action. We were able to schedule volunteers and room functions very easily. I have moved and am now trying to find a church and primarily a women’s Bible study. When browsing church websites who use church app, you must sign into THAT church to see any details such as what they will be studying, days, and times. It’s unbelievably annoying as someone new to the area. Again, loved church app when I used it as a member. But as a new person, I really wish church websites would give small group details on their websites instead of linking to the app.

I like this app. It allows us to have phone numbers and pics next to members when you need to call them or don’t remember their name. I’m also glad I can pay here. I would ask the developer to update the giving section. I give to multiple categories every month (tithe, missions, mortgage capital, etc). As it now I have to send three separate giving and each one costs 25 cents.

I am NOT a fan of this new messaging format. It used to be so user friendly and now I have notifications ALL THE TIME and I have NO IDEA where they are. I click on the message box with the red dot and it takes me back to the SAME message I’ve seen the last 10 times. I click “mark all read” and the red dot remains! I guess there are messages in there SOMEWHERE. I hope it’s not urgent. It’s so bizarre now. I actually hate using it. It’s SO frustrating! The Lord must be using it for my sanctification. If I were “queen,” our church would go find another system. It was so simple before (to edit, mute, etc). I cannot say enough bad things about it. Please put it back or at least give us the option for which format we want.

This newer version of messages/chats and notifications must not be working correctly yet… My app continues to show that I have “notifications “ on my app icon, but I cannot find the “unread” messages. I go in and out of the app multiple times checking my messages and my scheduling, etc. but nothing changes… Then, the new message process is cumbersome to say the least. I used to be able to start a message as a group leader and include the message after my subject line. Now I have to fill in a subject line, press submit/create, and then add the message. That just seems backwards. I have zero apps on my phone that do that, except of course, Planning Center/Church Center…

I love to watch and check up on churches I have attended in the past. On that note I would love to give money to those churches through the app. But since I have to Log Out and then search for the church and have another text or email confirmation and set up my bank information again.... then I can give and then repeat the process for another church. Please make this more convenient by having the option to switch churches while still Logged In and having your profile keep your saved Bank information. Other than that it’s great because the app have a great history of tithes or giving.

I loved this app for connecting with our various church events and groups ….but the latest update has made it more “chat” centric, which I don’t love. I also REALLY liked the ability from previously to mute replies to posts, but still be notified about the original posts themselves. I don’t want to be notified every time someone from our 400+ people church comments on something!!! But I DO still really want to see the original prayer requests, etc. I really wish they would give us more mute options again, because currently I can only mute ALL conversations, or none. No in-between.

***EDIT: you can disable Events by disabling the Registrations app in the Accounts panel**** If one of the 3 or 4 buttons of your app says “Events” and it says you have “No Events”, that looks really bad. It’s literally the reason we’re not using the app. Maybe if it said, “there are no events to register for, see individual groups for upcoming events” OR if the link was “Register”/“Registrations” OR you can optionally disable the button on the app. Right now, one of the main links in the app effectively says “your church has no life.”

I’ve deleted and re downloaded the app a few times but to no avail. I can enter my credit card, select the fund to give towards, opt to cover or not cover the fees, but when I click on next nothing happens. Donating to my church is the only reason I use the app so if it doesn’t work it sort of defeats the purpose for me. *The developer responded and has resolved the issue I am having. If you have Safari restricted you will not be able to donate with the app.

I am so grateful for this app! It brings community allows me to get connected to my church, which i love! I would really really like if this app had some way to connect to my google or iCal calendars so all the events I have RSVPd for for into my calendar. Its a first world problem, I know, but it would lessen my chances of missing meetings or events because I forgot to put transfer them over to my Calendar.

Initially the app was great but lately it won’t open 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. It never fails that its when I really need it. I always make sure I have latest update, I’m connected, I close and reopen, etc. It’s also a bit clunky in the attendance section. I shouldn’t have to constantly click an extra step when I click that I am at the 8:15 service. That should automatically mean worship. I shouldn’t have an extra step where I have to click worship too so that it will register my attendance. Same with class.

I second the reviews about the UX changes made to the messaging piece of the app. The new changes are SUPER confusing and increase frustration when trying to check back in on something or engage in conversations at all. I also find the home page to be a bit worthless. It just says the name and logo of my church… maybe that’s on my Church Admins but this page could specifically see some improvements as well. Glad this app exists. The UX/UI overhaul was just not an improvement at all.

The UI is pretty clean and the UX is pretty good, but there’s a critical flaw in my opinion. The bottom navigation is nice, but I’d move the 5th option for “more” to a top menu bar. Like a top right settings or ellipses icon, or broaden the account section when you click your profile and put the “more” there In replacement, I’d replace it with either the groups or messaging feature… ideally I’d find a way to have both in the same place. The groups/messaging feature seem like the weakest part of this app- which is a bummer because it’s directly how small groups and people can communicate to each other. Right now you have to click more, then groups, then your group, then a message, then you can see messages. That’s 5 levels deep. Ideally it should be 2-3. That would make the navigation so much better!

Combining all the various groups into a single chat interface is a bad move. You’ve just enabled everyone to put the message out to the wrong group. The group icons are nearly identical and those messages will end up going to the wrong group, with possible catastrophic consequences. Having each group separated in their own ‘bubble’ was perfect for this setting. Now imagine a woman sending a message asking for prayer about her abusive husband accidentally going into a group that he’s a member of. Bad move on your part!

I’m a part of several groups at our church that use the Group function of the app. In Groups there is a way to send messages to all group members, but I do not receive any notifications and have missed many important details as a result. I have confirmed that notifications are on in my iOS settings and in the church center app Groups settings as well. Notifications should be coming through but they’re not. Could be a bug? Please fix!

I have had issues with this church center for months, the church’s associate pastor has been on with tech support on my behalf but can’t get it fixed. It started with trying to link my checking account, they deposited two small amounts I checked the deposit amounts told them the amounts they deposited and they said no that’s not correct. It’s literally the amounts they placed in my account but they say it’s not so it costs more to give by debit card. Now I can’t give by debit they continue to flag my account and will not allow me to give to my church at all. So I would truly discourage anyone from using this app for their congregation.

This is an excellent app but it needs one important improvement. When people have the accessibility feature for large print turned on, the app menu and text is cut off and not visible in some cases. As a feature request can Home >>> Tasks from the web version be shown on the Church Center App too?

This app is ok but half the time it doesn’t open. Very frustrating when I’m trying to access key information and I see the eternal circling around but never landing! I usually can’t access it in the afternoon, have to wait until later in evening. In talking with others, they have same issue. I’m wondering if it is a volume issue. Too many people trying to access it at same time. I almost rated it 2 for this reason but decided to be generous.

This app is great and a great way for our church to communicate. I wish there was a way to turn off notifications to replies for every thread, and only get notifications when a new thread is open to have the ability to turn notifications on and off for certain threads would be great and save my phone battery insanity as well.

The app is great and it makes taking attendance, tithing, and communication easy all in one place. But...the giving tab has stopped working for me. Last week, it didn't even let me hit the button to confirm/give. This week, it let me hit the button but wouldn't go through with the payment. It just stopped in the loading screen. I checked to make sure my applepay/card were put in correctly but it still didn't work.

This app is really good in most areas. Except for the sermons section. If I have to pause the sermon more than twice it glitches and will not restart. Then when I reboot the app it has lost my place in the video. We definitely have plenty of ability to save someone’s place in a video, why can’t this app do that too?

Every time I try to add my card info, it appears to be successful (the "set up" button turns green), but then a popup appears saying "Oops! There was an error adding the payment method to your account. Please check the payment details and try again." I have done this no less than ten times over the past week, with the same result every time. I refuse to provide my banking info, so I will only ever be using a card. If this feature isn't usable, I wish they'd remove it as a payment option. Incredibly inconvenient.

So this app was working, and I have a recurring donation set, but after updating I was logged out and couldn’t log back in. I was able to make a “new” account using the exact same phone number and email, but there’s no giving history and the app won’t email me no matter what. I can’t find ANY contact info for this company so that I can get back to my old account or update giving or see a history of giving or anything. I tried to reconnect my bank and it said see email for instructions but there’s no email whatsoever.

I generally like this app but a recent change to the “give” part throws a real curveball which could cost churches significant money. The latest change defaults to Apple Pay and the charges are significantly higher than the ACH option. If people aren’t watching and don’t select “cover the processing fee,” it could hurt churches. It was not good customer service to make this change without any notice to the churches.

I love the app and being able to connect with my church and things that are going on. HOWEVER, I strongly dislike not being able to see info for the three churches that I - and my family - am a part of. I miss so many events and studies because I don’t get notifications for “this” church if I am logged in under “that” church. It really needs to be more user friendly in being able to access multiple churches under one login name.

The July update broke the chat feature. My church loves to use the chat feature, across multiple groups, and that’s great in theory. In practice it means we all get several dozen messages a day about topics that are not relevant to us. The old version of the app allowed us to mute with a single swipe. Now it takes three distinct button clicks to mute a conversation. TL;DR: major functions for the chat/message feature were removed, making the app annoying to use.

Love the app, we have created groups for all our small groups and is very helpful in organizing events. The only way I’ve found to give group leaders privileges to add and edit members is to give all group leaders admin rights which allows them to see all groups. It would be a better design if individual groups only have access to edit their groups.

I’m a group leader on the app and with the latest update (1/6/24) I can’t see which individuals have RSVP’d to my events! This is very frustrating because I can’t plan properly for my event. Would also be nice to be able to add/edit locations in the app and also be able to change group picture in the app without having to login to the site.

It’s so awesome to be a new user looking through reviews from a year or so ago and see all the requests for features that exist now. Some of them are even key reasons our church is going to start using Planning Center/Church Center. Wonderful stuff! Going to submit some of our own and keep our fingers crossed.

App is extremely useful for our church, however, I am disappointed that ApplePay has been removed as an option for giving. This takes away very easy and quick option for giving. Please consider bringing this function back.

This app is the only way to access Groups other than on the website. However as a leader I can only message the group here, I can’t send a group email. That can only be done on the website. I can let people into my group but the managing of the group is less than friendly. It’s easier to just login online. Maybe create a standalone app for Groups the same as you have for People and Services?

So far we’ve have been using the app for about one month now and we really like it. Our main suggestion is with an update with a push notifications option for the admin that could be utilized if needed to inform people of new changes to things going on with our church within the app.

This is the one piece PCO was missing: an interface that connects individuals with their home church. Users can edit their profile, giving info, and register for event all in one place. The giving function almost makes text to give obsolete. Of course, there is a lot to develop. This would be a great place to integrate a form of church communication as well. How about integrating some notifications? Some more things to consider: -Ways to contact the leadership -A place to upload featured resources -support for multiple campuses under one account -Groups integration -maybe check in integration

Sometimes improvements are like taking a step backwards. Lumping all the chats in one heap is a mess. Trying to fine one chat from one group amongst the many groups is like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. I do not understand why the change had to come about. Hopefully, you can undo this. Otherwise it is a fine app. Thank you.

At first I could not help my friend to install it as I could not go forward after finding the church. After all the struggles, we found the solution. We have to turn the iPad into vertical orientation in order to see the “choose this church” button. How could we notice that when we had a keyboard attached with the iPad?!

I like being able to connect with my church through this app. However, almost every day Church Center won’t load. I have to restart my phone to open the app and get to notifications. Restart only helps for a few hours before the problem happens again—forcing yet another restart to access the app.

The latest update moved all conversations to a consolidated location, which is ok, but sometimes I like to view conversations from just one of the groups that I’m in. It would be nice if there was an option to filter which conversations are presented

I’m just going to come on here and say, the new update is complete booty cheeks. i loved the old church center system because it was so easy to use and easy to learn. the new global chat things confusing. are all the messages for 1 group going to all the groups? the new system is so hard to understand and im 23 years old i can’t imagine how the older parishioners feel trying to navigate the new system. simplicity is key and the new update is nowhere simple at ALL..

Love the app. Can be a little flaky but nothing serious. For example, when adding a new church there is no way to back out and cancel it. You have to force quit to get back home. I’m thankful this app exists however. A good resource for any church. The directory is the most important part.

In the future, I want to get into software and user experience design, it’s what I love doing and I have a natural talent for it. Just within 2 minutes of downloading and using the app, I can already see so many ways the app can he improved, and ideas for features to be added. I’d love to help contribute to designing the app’s UI!

One of the biggest challenges is navigating notifications. If you provide a search bar at the top it be wonderful. It’s a challenge to scroll through many posts to find the one about a topic I need so I end up not searching and then not being up to date on info.

Love this app, so convenient. But there’s no way to change your church after you’ve added your church home. Also no way to add multiple churches. Now I can’t see events from other churches. Is there a way to do this?