Rock Christian Centre
Privacy Policy
Information we may collect about you…
What we use this information for.
Introduction To better serve each person’s individual and spiritual interests as they engage with the church we have to collect and maintain a certain amount of information from you, including basic contact information so that we can get in touch and keep you informed. We may also collect additional “optional” information from you or third parties. We only use the information given to us by you (as set out in greater detail in this privacy policy) to…
• Keep you informed about church news, events, ministries and mission,
• Provide you with appropriate pastoral care and support where this is requested,
• Provide suggestions to move you on in healthy Christian discipleship,
• Help you build life-giving friendships within the church community,
• Operate efficiently and effectively using the resources provided to the church.
Name
Your name is used to help identify you in the church’s database to users, and subject to your own privacy settings, also to other church members. We may address you personally by name or using your preferred title in our communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Optional name fields such as your middle name or middle initial are helpful where there are several people with the same name as you. You may also optionally prefer to be known by a formal name or former name.
Privacy settings
You can always manage your privacy settings, which determines whether any of your contact details (name, email, mobile, telephone or address) can be seen by others in the church. The nature of church community is that people want to get in touch with one another, especially if they’re serving as part of a team or they are in a small group together. By default, none of your contact details are visible to other church members. No further personal details can be seen by other church members.
Communication
You can always manage your communication preferences, choosing by which means the church is able to keep in touch with you – email, SMS, telephone or by post.
Sex
Your sex is used to help us understand the demographic makeup of the church, and also to send you relevant communications about gender-related initiatives, for example a men’s/women’s event (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Your sex can be recorded as either male, female, or unspecified/unknown.
Date of birth
Your date of birth, used to calculate your age, is used to help us understand the demographic makeup of the church, and also to send you relevant communications about age-related initiatives (if you have agreed to receive these from us).
Marital status
Your marital status is used to help us understand the demographic makeup of the church, and also to send you relevant communications about relationship-related initiatives (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Your marital status is also used to correctly reflect your relationship status between linked family members such as your spouse/partner and children who are also in the database.
Job & employer
From time to time the church has need of particular skills, trades or professions, either for a need within the church, for a ministry or event, or for compassion initiatives. We can also connect you with others in the church that have similar skills, trades or professions.
Profile image
In a growing church the pastors, staff, ministry/group leaders and fellow church members will find a profile image helpful to ‘put faces to names’, making it easier to identify one another at services and events. Your profile image (if you have optionally provided this to us) is visible to the church’s database users and church members in the member-facing My ChurchSuite platform, to which you can have access.
Telephone & mobile
From time to time we may need to be able to contact you quickly. Additionally, if you are part of a small group or serve on a rota, fellow group/rota members, or their leaders, may need to call you, for example, to organise a rota swap or to communicate a change to a rota or group meeting, or to circulate a request for prayer (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Some ministries send SMS rota reminders, and occasionally the church may also communicate a last-minute announcement by SMS (if you have agreed to receive these from us).
The church communicates primarily by email because it’s free and accessible to most people. Your email address is also used to send confirmation emails when you submit information to the church, for example,
• When signing up to an event or small group,
• When submitting contact details and areas of interest as a newcomer,
• When making an online donation,
• When checking in a visiting child through our child check-in system.
We communicate about church announcements, news, events and ministries (if you have agreed to receive these from us). From time to time our communications may also include information about another church’s event that we’re supporting or recommending. Your email address is used by you to log in to the church’s member facing My ChurchSuite platform, within which you can manage all your contact details, privacy settings and communication preferences.
Address
Without an address we won’t know where to send letters or forms used by the church (if you have agreed to receive these from us) – for example, parent consent forms, statements of donations. We use your postcode to understand the geographic makeup of the church and to better provide relevant information about events/ministries and initiatives in your geographic area, such as midweek Growth Groups. We are required by HMRC to maintain a record of your address and postcode in respect of Gift-Aided donations that you may make to us.
Site
Rock Christian Centre Church is a multi-site church, operating in multiple locations. We record the primary site you are part of against your contact profile. Your site is used to deliver site-specific communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us), and to help us better understand the demographics of each site.
Other [custom] fields
We currently maintain the following optional fields of information in our database with the following purposes…
• Membership status – the church maintains a list of its members. We designate you as either ‘Partner or non-partner although certain roles, ministries and events may be Partner only activities. Membership status is also used as a basis for receiving appropriate Partner related communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us).
• Care overseers – pastoral care is shared among the church’s pastoral staff. Each person in the church is assigned a care overseer who will serve as your primary point of contact should you require assistance from the pastoral team. As the church considers new initiatives and opportunities in the future, we may begin to collect further optional information about you in our database. We will let you know about such initiatives, and the purpose for collecting your additional information before this happens. You can then choose whether that is information you wish to share with us.
Key dates
We maintain a timeline of certain key dates, milestones, anniversaries and events throughout your involvement with the church. This begins with the key date you first connect with the church, but will subsequently include other key dates, such as your participation in certain events and ministries. For example, we’ll record a key date when you join/leave a serving ministry or small group or attend a newcomer event or discipleship course. Knowing these key dates helps us stay organised and is a useful basis for sending appropriate communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us), for discipleship, and for pastoral care. For example, we may invite married couples to a “marriage refresher course”, but only if they’ve previously participated in a marriage course within the last two year, which would be designated by a ‘marriage course’ key date. We also use the absence of certain key dates too. For example, we would like to invite those without a ‘newcomer event’ key date to the next newcomer event. Some key dates are maintained for safeguarding purposes; such as the date your DBS Check is taken, so that we know when to renew it. The key dates we maintain about you are only visible to authorised users of our admin-facing database.
Tags
We use tags to categorise and group people together in our database. Like key dates, tags help to keep us organised and are a useful way of directing communications to the right groupings of
people (if you have agreed to receive these from us). While some of the tags we create are based on the presence or absence of information you have provided to us, no automated decisions are made using tags; and a human being is always involved in decision-making or communications concerning you and your data. For those in the church that have decided to become Partners and have been welcomed into partnership by the leaders of the church, a ‘partnership of RCC’ tag will be put to your name. This will give you the opportunity to ‘search for others’ through the MyChurchsuite app. Allowing you to see their contact details, home address etc (if their privacy settings allow for others to see this information). If for any reason we have not seen or heard from you in a period of 6 months we will then delete the ‘partnership of RCC’ tag, thus not allowing you to search for others in the MyChurchsuite app.
This is in line with point 6 of the ‘Partnership Agreement’.
‘Demonstrating the Love of God to others: welcoming newcomers, encouraging fellow believers, supporting leaders and building meaningful relationships through regular attendance (Circumstances permitting) at Sunday services and a Growth Group.’
In line with GDPR and a pastoral heart we will endeavour to get in touch with you before removing the partnership tag, but sometimes this may not be possible or appropriate.
Notes
From time to time we may add notes against your contact details in the church’s database. These might be a note about a conversation we have had with you or something you’ve asked us to do for you. Notes ensure that things don’t get forgotten. We only retain notes for as long as they are relevant and then they are deleted from the system.
Student details
As a church in a university city we welcome lots of students through our doors. If you choose to tell us that you are a student and provide details of your university/college and course, we can use that information to help connect you with other students in the church if you wish, and to communicate with you about student-related events and initiatives (if you have agreed to receive these from the church). You may optionally wish to provide us with your home address and telephone number, should you wish to be contacted outside of term time.
Service attendance
For compliance with fire regulations, the church records an anonymous “body count” of those present at weekend and midweek services. We don’t record your personal service attendance! This numerical service attendance data is also helpful for statistical and reporting purposes. For example, to help us understand the suitability of our venues as the church grows.
Sent communication history
We maintain a record of all communications sent to you by us. Where your email software returns an “open/read” response to our email system, our communications history shows the date and time the message was opened. We periodically review email open rate statistics to better understand the reach and effectiveness of our communications.
Event sign-up
If you sign up to an event run by us, we will maintain an historic record of the sign-up information you provide us, including your name, email address, telephone number, and also details of any tickets selected and payments made. We do not keep a record of payment card details used to purchase any tickets. Some events may have additional questions on the sign-up form that are relevant to the event – for example, details of dietary needs for an event with catering. Your question responses help us with event management. We’ll send you a sign-up confirmation email. That confirmation will serve as your receipt if there are tickets and payments. The confirmation also serves as the event ticket and may be required for entry to the event. Your sign-up details are used by the church’s designated event overseers, those responsible for running the event. We often welcome people who may be considered vulnerable, at risk and children at church events. For safeguarding purposes, we may record attendance at these events. We may communicate with you before and after the event, and we may communicate with you about other similar events or initiatives (if you have agreed to receive these from the church). Your participation (or absence) from an event you have signed up for may also form the basis for future event invitations – for example, in follow up to attending a newcomer event we may notify you about some helpful next steps with the church and things you might like to get involved in. Similarly, if you’ve signed up for an event and are later absent – we may contact you as a courtesy or to offer you an alternative event if that is possible.
Growth Group membership and attendance
In addition to weekend services, many people find their primary place of belonging is expressed through being part of one of our small groups. Small groups are also where people primarily receive pastoral care within the church and are a great place to find deeper friendships, to receive prayer support, discipleship, form accountable relationships, and encouragement in your spiritual journey. We record the date you join (or leave) a small group and we will add your name to the member list that the group’s leaders maintain within our database for their group. We’ll remove you from the group member list when you leave the group. Since small group membership reflects a deeper level of church engagement, small group members are an important audience for many church communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us). By nature, we often welcome people who may be considered vulnerable, at risk and under 18’s into our small groups. For safeguarding purposes, we record attendance at small groups. Additionally, we use small group attendance data to produce statistical reporting on the number of unique individuals attending groups, which may be different to the group’s weekly attendance count as people may attend with varying frequency. This attendance data informs our decision-making of when to multiply or plant new groups, and to identify groups that have available capacity to accept new people. We also want to care for you well
– our experience is that group membership is not necessarily the same as group participation! Our pastors and group leaders may periodically refer to Growth Group attendance and reach out to you if you’ve been absent from the group for any period. In this regard, be assured that our desire to reach out comes from an attitude of genuine care for you. You are free to not be known as a group member (to opt out) and you may attend the group simply as a visitor if you wish. You will then be excluded from the group’s member list and your attendance will only be noted when you visit; but no contact will be made if you are absent or if you choose not to visit the group. Growth group attendance helps us understand each group’s demographics, enabling us to better direct newcomers to appropriate groups they may wish to try, based on those who are already members of the group.
Ministry serving commitments, roles, past, active and future rotas, unavailability
Serving on a team is more than just meeting a need within the church; teams are a helpful place to make friendships and enjoy discipleship. We produce rotas for those who serve on teams in the church’s ministries. For those serving on a ministry/team, we record the date you join (or leave) that ministry and we add your name to the ministry’s member list that the ministry’s overseers maintain within our database about their ministry. We’ll remove you from the ministry member list when you leave the ministry. In order to distribute rotas, send timely rota reminders, facilitate rota swaps and communicate changes or important information about the rotas you serve on, we need to contact you. This will usually be done by email but may also be by SMS (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Your name and your contact details are made available to other rota members, and your name and any roles assigned to you are shown on the rota. Regrettably we may be unable to include you in a serving rota if you choose to opt out of receiving communications. Since serving on a team reflects a deeper level of church engagement, and because we place a trust in people when they serve, ministry members are an important audience for many church communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us). It’s possible that people who are vulnerable, at risk and under 18’s may be serving on rotas too. For safeguarding purposes, we will maintain an historic record of past rotas you may have served on. Additionally, we use serving rotas to produce statistical reporting on the number of unique individuals participating in serving teams. This serving data informs our decision-making of when we need to recruit for vacancies, when we need to make changes to rotas and when we may start new serving opportunities in the church. We also want to care for our serving team members, including providing training when appropriate, and to communicate about social and other team events. Our pastors and ministry overseers may periodically refer to past and active rotas to consider whether it is appropriate to reach out to you if you’ve been absent from the rota for any period. In this regard, be assured that our desire to reach out comes from an attitude of genuine care for you. You may optionally provide us with dates of unavailability. This helps us with advance rota planning and avoids us assigning you to rota dates when you are not available, reducing the need for unnecessary rota swaps/changes. Your serving involvement and serving patterns helps us understand each ministry’s demographics, enabling us to identify serving opportunities for others and to ensure you are not overstretched or serving in roles that may not be appropriate for you.
IP address and device type
If you access the church’s My ChurchSuite member-facing platform, for security reasons we will log your IP address and the type of device you use to log in. We will use this information to reach out to you if we notice any unusual activity on your account, perhaps from a new IP address or unrecognised device. A valid email address is a requirement in order for you to be able to log in to the church’s system, should you wish to. We may also monitor login history to report on levels of engagement with the member-facing My ChurchSuite platform, including if your login has been inactive for a period. We can also determine the strength of your password and the date your password was last changed. We may request you increase your password strength or suggest you renew your password. When you submit information to the church via our website, your IP address is recorded at the point of submission.
Information we may collect about your children…
What we use this information for
Introduction
If your child (aged under 18) is participating in groups, events or ministries run by the church, we will collect certain information about you (as parent/guardian) and also about your child. Some information is required for legitimate interests and safeguarding purposes, and some information is collected with your consent so that we can better serve your family and communicate with you, and where appropriate, with your child too. Children details are not visible to other church members within the member-facing My ChurchSuite platform, except where your child serves on a rota or is a member of a small group; in which case their name only is visible to fellow rota and group members and group/ministry overseers. If they have signed up to an event their sign-up contact details will be visible to the event’s overseer(s).
Child name
Your child’s name is used to help identify them in the church’s database to users, and also to others on any rotas, small groups or events they participate in. We may address them personally by name in our communications (if you have agreed you/they receive these from us). Optional name fields such as their middle name or middle initial are helpful where there are multiple children with the same name. You may also prefer your child to be optionally known by a formal name.
Sex
Your child’s sex is used to help us understand the demographic makeup of the church, and also to send relevant communications about gender-related initiatives based on your child’s sex (if you/they have agreed to receive these from us). Your child’s sex is recorded as either male, female or unspecified/unknown.
Date of birth
Your child’s date of birth, used to calculate their age and school year, is used to help understand the demographic makeup of the church, and also to send relevant communications about age related and school year-related initiatives for your child (if you/they have agreed to receive these from us). Your child’s date of birth is also used to determine their eligibility for the correct age-appropriate groups at our weekend services and mid-week groups and clubs. As you child gets older we will use their date of birth to process them up into their next age-appropriate group(s).
Site
Rock Christian Centre is a multi-site church, operating in multiple locations. We record the site your child is part of against their profile. Their site is used to deliver site-specific communications (where you/they have agreed to receive these from us), and also to understand the demographics of each of site.
Child image
You may optionally upload a preferred profile image for your child if you wish. In a growing church the pastors, staff, ministry/group leaders find a profile image helpful to ‘put faces to names’ – making it easier for leaders to identify your child. Their profile image displays in their contact profile in the database.
Linked parent name(s) and relationship to child
If you, as parent/guardian, are part of Rock Christian Centre too and your details are in our database (see previous section), we will link your child to your contact profile in the database. In doing so, your child will also be linked to any spouse/partner that you are also linked to in our database; essentially linking family members together.
Unlinked parent name(s)
If you as parent are not part of Rock Christian Centre, we will still need to know some of your information, including your name, emergency contact details and your relationship to the child. This information is required for safeguarding purposes, to enable us to address you by name should we need to contact you about your child, and also to communicate with you church news, events and information (if you have agreed to receive these from us).
Child address
Without an address we won’t know where to send letters or forms used by the church as part of caring for your child and for safeguarding e.g. consent forms. We may use your child’s postcode to understand the geographic makeup of the church members and to provide relevant information about events and initiatives in your child’s geographic area, such as mid-week small groups and clubs.
Parent telephone and mobile
From time to time we may need to contact you quickly, and your telephone or mobile number will be used for that purpose. Additionally, where your child is participating in church events, groups or ministries, the leaders may be provided with your telephone and/or mobile contact details so that they can contact you in the event of an emergency, or to communicate any changes or important information that you need to know that affects your child.
Parent email
The church communicates primarily by email because it’s free and accessible to most people. Your email address is also used to send confirmation emails when you submit information to the church, for example,
• When signing up your child to an event or small group,
• When checking in a visiting child through our child check-in system.
We communicate about church announcements, news, events and ministries (if you have agreed to receive these from us). From time to time our communications may also include information about another church’s event that we’re supporting or recommending. Ordinarily we communicate with a child’s parents only. On occasion where we with older children (youth), we’ll endeavour to copy you in on those communications so that you know what has been sent to your child. In the absence of a child’s own email address, we can use your email address e.g. for the purposes of sending rota reminders for your child.
Additional parent contact mobile
You may wish to provide us with an alternative contact parent mobile number which will be used for communication to a second parent/guardian that is not the spouse/partner we have linked to you in the church’s database e.g. where parents are separated or divorced. This information enables us to contact them in the event of an emergency and to keep additional parents equally informed about information, news and events concerning their child.
Additional parent contact email
You may wish to provide us with an alternative contact parent email address which will be used for communication to a second parent/guardian that is not the spouse/partner we have linked to you in the church’s database e.g. where parents are separated or divorced. This information enables us to keep additional parents equally informed about information, news and events concerning their child.
Child email
The church communicates primarily by email because it’s free and accessible to most people. Your child’s email address is also used to send confirmation emails when you/they submit information to the church, for example,
• When signing your child up to an event or small group,
• When checking in a visiting child through our child check-in system.
If your child serves on a rota, they’ll receive rota reminder and rota related emails to their email address. If your child is a member of a small group, they’ll receive group-related emails to their email address.
Child mobile
From time to time we may need to be able to contact your child quickly. Additionally, if they are part of a mid-week small group or serve on a rota, their fellow group/rota members or leaders may need to call them, perhaps to organise a rota swap or to communicate a change to a rota or group meeting, or to circulate a request for prayer. Some church ministries also send SMS rota reminders. Occasionally the church may communicate a last-minute announcement by SMS (if you/they have agreed to receive these from us).
School
Knowing a child’s school, if you choose to share this information with us, can help us connect your child with other children in the church at the same school. We also run school-based initiatives throughout the city. Knowing your child’s school will enable us to communicate with you or your child about initiatives we are running at their school (if you/they have agreed to receive these from us).
Check-in barcode
The church operates a child check-in system for groups at weekend services and some events. If you wish, we can provide you with a unique check-in barcode that you can optionally use to quickly locate your children in the church’s check-in system. We record your family’s barcode against each of your children in our database.
Other [custom] fields
We currently maintain the following optional fields of information about your child in our database with the following purposes…
• Dietary needs – food and refreshments are often provided at events your child is participating in. You are required to inform us of your child’s special dietary needs and to keep this information up to date. As the church considers new initiatives and opportunities in the future, we may begin to collect further optional information about your child in our database. We will let you know about such initiatives, and the purpose for collecting this additional information about your child before this happens. You can then choose whether that is information you wish to share with us.
Key dates
We maintain a timeline of certain key dates, milestones, anniversaries and events throughout your child’s involvement with the church. This begins with the key date they first connect with the church, but will subsequently include other key dates, such as their participation in certain events and ministries. For example, we’ll record a key date when they join/leave a serving ministry or small group or attend a newcomer event or discipleship course. Knowing these key dates helps us stay organised and is a useful basis for sending appropriate communications (if you/they have agreed to receive these from us), for discipleship, and for pastoral care. We also use the absence of certain key dates too. For example, we would like to invite those without a ‘newcomer event’ key date to the next newcomer event. Some key dates are maintained for safeguarding purposes; such as the date your child’s DBS Check is taken, so that we know when to renew it. The key dates we maintain about your child are only visible to authorised users of our admin-facing database.
Tags
We use tags as a way to categorise and group together children in our database. Like key dates, tags help us stay organised and are a useful way or directing communications to the right groupings of people (if you have agreed to receive these from us). While some of the tags we create are based on the presence or absence of information you have provided to us, no automated decisions are made using tags; and a human being is always involved in decision-making or communications concerning you and your data.
Notes
From time to time we may add notes against your child’s contact details in the church’s database. These might be a note about a conversation we have had with you/them or something you/they have asked us to do. Notes ensure that things don’t get forgotten. We only retain notes for as long as they are relevant and then they are deleted from the system. Photo/Video consent preferences for internal and external presentation We sometimes use still photos and video footage taken during our weekend services and events run by the church for publicity purposes. By default, your child will not be included in photo/video used for internal (shown at weekend services) or external (on flyers or the church website) presentations. We maintain a record of any photo/video consent you give for your child to be included in internal and external presentations. Where permission has been given, we will also endeavour to show you the photos/videos being used prior to use or publication. However, if permission is subsequently withdrawn, we cannot guarantee to be able to retract the past use of photos/videos already in circulation.
Medical e.g. allergies, dietary requirements etc
We maintain a record of relevant medical information you share with us about your child, including allergies, dietary requirements, and medical conditions that we may need to know about in order for your child to participate safely in the events, services and activities of the church. It is always the parent’s responsibility to keep us informed of medical information changes. A shortened version of your child’s medical needs e.g. “allergic to nuts”, will be printed on your child’s check-in name badge, so that group leaders are aware of this information when your child is attending a group or event that they are checked in to.
Special needs
We maintain a record of and special needs you share with us about your child. This information is used to ensure those responsible for caring for your child when they are in our care are aware of your child’s special needs. It is always the parent’s responsibility to keep us informed of changes in special needs.
Doctor contact details
You may optionally provide us with doctor contact details for your child. In the event of a medical emergency involving your child we will contact you, but we may also need to seek advice from the child’s GP using these details, if provided by you. Usually this information is only requested when you child is participating in a residential event run by the church.
Child’s group(s)
We maintain a record of your child’s participation in the children/youth groups that we run at weekend services, mid-week and at certain events. For safeguarding purposes we maintain attendance records. Groups are a great place for your child to build deeper friendships in the church, to receive and extend prayer, for discipleship, to form accountable relationships, and to receive encouragement in their own journey of faith. We will record the date your child joins (or leaves) a group and we will add their name to the member list for that group. We’ll remove them from the group member list when they leave the group. Since group participation reflects a deeper level of church engagement, group members (and their parents) are an important audience for many church communications (if you/they have agreed to receive these from us). Additionally, we use group attendance data to produce statistical reporting on the number of unique individuals attending groups (which may be different to the group’s weekly attendance count, since different people attend at different times or frequency). This attendance data informs our decision-making about when to multiply or add new groups, and to identify groups that have available capacity to take further children. We also want to care for your child well – our experience is that group membership is not necessarily the same as group participation! Our pastors and group leaders may periodically refer to children group attendance to consider whether it is appropriate to reach out to you or your child if they’ve been absent from the group for any period. In this regard, be assured that our desire to reach out comes from an attitude of genuine care for your family. You are free for your child to not be known as a group member (to opt out) and they may attend some groups simply as a visitor if you wish. They will then be excluded from the group’s member list and their attendance will only be noted when they visit; but no contact will be made if they are absent and choose not to visit the group. Group attendance data helps us understand each group’s demographics, enabling us to better direct newcomers to appropriate groups, based on those who are already members of the group.
Child event attendance
When you sign up your child to participate in an event, we will maintain an historic record of the sign-up details provided, including your name and/or your child’s name, email address, telephone number, and also details of any tickets selected and payments made. We do not keep any record of payment card details used to purchase any tickets. Some events may have additional questions on the sign-up form that are relevant to the event – for example, detail of dietary needs for an event with catering. Your question responses help us with event management. We’ll send a sign-up confirmation email. That confirmation will serve as their receipt if there are tickets and payments. The confirmation also serves as the event ticket and may be required for entry to the event. Event sign-up details will be accessible to church’s designated event overseers who are responsible for running the event. By nature, we often welcome those who may be considered vulnerable, at risk and children at church events. For safeguarding purposes, we may record attendance at events. We may communicate with you and/or your signed-up child before and after the event, and we may communicate with you both about other similar events or initiatives (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Your child’s participation (or absence) from an event you have signed up for may also form the basis for future event invitations – for example, in follow up to attending a newcomer event we may notify you about some helpful next steps with the church and things you and your child might like to get involved in. Similarly, if you’ve signed up for an event and are later absent – we may contact you as a courtesy and may offer you an alternative event if that is possible.
Child small group membership and attendance
In addition to weekend services, many people find their primary place of belonging is expressed through being part of one of our small groups. Small groups are where people primarily receive pastoral care within the church and are a great place for your child to find deeper friendships, to receive prayer support, discipleship, form accountable relationships, and encouragement in their spiritual journey. We record the date your child joins (or leaves) a small group and we will add their name to the member list that the group’s leaders maintain within our database about their group. We’ll remove your child from the group member list when they leave the group. Since small group membership reflects a deeper level of church engagement, small group members are an important audience for many church communications (if you have agreed to receive these from the church). By nature, we often welcome people who may be considered vulnerable, at risk and under 18’s into our small groups. For safeguarding purposes, we will record your child’s attendance at small groups. Additionally, we use attendance data to produce statistical reporting on the number of unique individuals attending groups, which may be different to the group’s weekly attendance count as different people attend at different times with varying frequency. This attendance data informs our decision-making of when to multiply or plant new groups, and to identify groups that have available capacity to accept new people. We also want to care for your child well – our experience is that group membership is not necessarily the same as group participation! Our pastors and group leaders may periodically refer to small group attendance and reach out to you if your child has been absent from the group for any period. In this regard, be assured that our desire to reach out comes from an attitude of genuine care for your family. You are free for your child to not be known as a group member (to opt out) and they may attend the group simply as a visitor if you wish. They will then be excluded from the group’s member list and their attendance will only be noted when they visit; but no contact will be made if they are absent and choose not to visit the group. Small group attendance also helps us understand each group’s demographics, enabling us to better direct newcomers to appropriate groups they may wish to try, based on those who are already members of the group. Child’s ministry serving commitments, roles, past, active and future rotas, unavailability Serving on a team is more than just meeting a need within the church; teams are a helpful place to make friendships and enjoy discipleship. We produce rotas for those who serve on teams in the church’s ministries. For those serving on a ministry/team, we record the date you join (or leave) that ministry and we add your name to the ministry’s member list that the ministry’s overseers maintain within our database about their ministry. We’ll remove you from the ministry member list when you leave the ministry. In order to distribute rotas, send timely rota reminders, facilitate rota swaps and communicate changes or important information about the rotas you serve on, we need to contact you. This will usually be done by email but may also be by SMS (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Your name and your contact details are made available to other rota members, and your name and any roles assigned to you are shown on the rota. Regrettably we may be unable to include you in a serving rota if you choose to opt out of receiving communications. Since serving on a team reflects a deeper level of church engagement and because we place a trust in people when they serve, ministry members are an important audience for many church communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us). It’s possible that people who are vulnerable, at risk and under 18’s may be serving on rotas too. For safeguarding purposes, we will maintain an historic record of past rotas you may have served on. Additionally, we use serving rotas to produce statistical reporting on the number of unique individuals participating in serving teams. This serving data informs our decision-making of when we need to recruit for vacancies, when we need to make changes to rotas and when we are starting new serving opportunities in the church. We also want to care for our serving team members, including providing training when appropriate, and to communicate about social and other team events. Our pastors and ministry overseers may periodically refer to past and active rotas to consider whether it is appropriate to reach out to your child if they’ve been absent from the rota for any period. In this regard, be assured that our desire to reach out comes from an attitude of genuine care for your family. You will also have the opportunity to advise your child’s serving unavailability. This helps us with advance rota planning and avoids us assigning your child to rota dates when they are not available, reducing the need for unnecessary rota swaps/changes. Your child’s serving involvement and serving patterns helps us understand each ministry’s demographics, enabling us to identify serving opportunities for others and to ensure they are not overstretched or serving in roles that may not be appropriate for them.
Sent communication history
We maintain a record of all communications sent to you by us. Where your email software returns an “open/read” response to our email system, our communications history shows the date and time the message was opened. We periodically review email open rate statistics to better understand the reach and effectiveness of our communications. Information we may collect about you if you make financial donations to the church…
The church is also a registered charity and as such we are required to maintain accurate records about all donations made to us. Where your donation can be identified as coming from you (perhaps because of the donation method, like a cheque, or because you have explicitly identified yourself with the donation), we are required to maintain a certain amount of information about you and your donation(s). If you Gift Aid any of your donations, we will share certain information about you with HMRC, including your name, address, postcode and donation amount(s). We keep financial records for six years from the end of the financial year in which your donation was made.
Giver’s name
Your name is used to help identify you in the church’s database to finance team users. We may address you personally by name in our communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us).
Giver’s site
Rock Christian Centre is a multi-site church, operating in multiple locations. We record the site you are part of against your giver profile. Your site is used to deliver site-specific communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us), and to understand the demographics of each of our sites.
Giver’s address, inc postcode and country
Without an address we won’t know where to send letters or forms used by the church e.g. Gift Aid declarations, statements of donations or financial reports on church income. Your address and postcode are required by HMRC in respect of Gift- Aided donations that you may make to us.
Mobile & telephone
From time to time we may need to be able to contact you quickly about a donation you have made.
The church communicates extensively by email because it’s free and suits the church to most effectively keep people informed about news and events (if you have agreed to receive these from us). Your email address is also used to send confirmations when you make an online donation, and when sending you an annual statement of donations.
Tags
We use tags to categorise and group people together in our database. Like key dates, tags help to keep us organised and are a useful way or directing communications to the right groupings of people (if you have agreed to receive these from us). For example, we maintain tags to indicate whether you have a current Gift Aid declaration. While some of the tags we create are based on the presence or absence of information you have provided to us, no automated decisions are made using tags; and a human being is always involved in decision-making or communications concerning you and your data.
Notes
From time to time we may add notes against your contact details in the church’s database. These might be a note about a conversation we have had with you or something you’ve asked us to do for you. Notes ensure that things don’t get forgotten. We only retain notes for as long as they are relevant and then they are deleted from the system.
Giver reference
When you first make a donation, we will create a giver profile for you and assign you a unique giver reference number. Your giver reference allows us to run anonymised reports about donations made to the church in a way that doesn’t directly identify you as the giver.
Bank reference(s)
If you make a donation to us from your bank account, perhaps by standing order, the donation appears on our bank statement with your bank reference, which we use to match the donation to your giving records. We record that bank reference against your giver profile in order to automatically match future donations against your giver record when we import donations from our bank statements. Whether the giver is a ‘couple’ giver Where you have made a donation on behalf of yourself and a partner/spouse, we can optionally set your giver profile as a ‘couple’ giver so that Gift Aid is correctly claimed for each individual based on the Gift Aid split you will have previously advised us on your Gift Aid declaration. Donation history, inc dates, amounts, funds, method and gift aid status We maintain detailed records of all donations made by you to us, including the date, amount and the method by which you gave. We allocate donations against the funds you have specified at the time you gave and we track the reclaim of any Gift Aid on your donations if they are eligible. We’ll maintain an historic record of your donations for at least six years from the end of the financial year in which a donation was made.
Gift aid declarations
If you wish us to reclaim Gift Aid on your donations, and in compliance with HMRC requirements, we’ll ask you to complete a Gift Aid declaration, which we will keep retain with your giver profile. You may provide us with a paper declaration, which we will scan and record against your giver record in our system; or you may complete an electronically signed declaration within My ChurchSuite or when making an online donation to us.
Pledges
If you are giving to the church as part of a stewardship campaign, we will maintain a record of your financial pledge(s). Pledges are not legally binding, but help the church produce budgets based on pledged (anticipated) income from donations. You are not required to complete a pledge in order to become a member of the church. However, if you do make a financial pledge, we’ll periodically keep you informed on your pledge progress and let you know when you pledge has been completed. You may amend or cancel a pledge at any time.
Sent communication history
We treat financial communications separately from the church’s general communications, and these are only accessible to certain authorised users. We maintain a record of all communications sent to you by us. Where your email software returns an “open/read” response to our email system, our communications history shows the date and time the message was opened. We periodically review email open rate statistics to better understand the reach and effectiveness of our communications. Information we may collect about you if you are a bookings customer…
If you are a customer that hires any of the churches facilities, whether paid or for free, we will need to maintain a certain amount of information about you and the bookings you make. We keep customer and booking information entirely separate from the church database used for our members.
Customer name
Your name is used to help identify you in the church’s booking system to users. We may address you personally by name in booking related communications, and in our other communications, if you have agreed to receive these from the church. Customer telephone and mobile From time to time we may need to be able to contact you quickly in relation to a booking you have made. A contact telephone and/or mobile number are therefore essential for all bookings.
Customer email
The church communicates extensively by email because it’s free and suits the church to most effectively keep people informed about bookings. An email address is required in order for us to send you a booking confirmation and to communicate other booking-related information such as our terms of service, variations of terms, and when your booking needs to be amended or cancelled.
Company name
We may record the company name you represent when you make a booking. We can then group together booking customers by company name.
Customer job title
Used in conjunction with a company name, your job title ensures that booking-related communications are sent to the appropriate person in your organisation. For example, you may require charge related communications to be sent to a billing contact in your company’s finance department, but you might prefer the booking confirmation to be sent to a different account contact.
Customer address
Without an address we won’t know where to send letters or booking forms used by the church e.g. booking confirmations, policies, terms of service etc.
Customer site
Rock Christian Centre is a multi-site church, operating in multiple locations, each with their own facilities that they let commercially for bookings. Each site maintains a separate booking planner. We record your booking site against your customer profile. Your site is used to deliver site-specific communications, for example when we need to send you a change of terms of service or updated policies and procedures. We also use your site to provide site-specific and “all site” reporting, such as forward bookings and revenue projections.
Bookings history
When you place a booking enquiry with us, we’ll need certain information from you about the specific requirements for your booking. This will include details of the resources you require, the times they’re needed, and your responses to our booking form questions. We’ll also maintain a record of booking charges raised and deposits and payments made, including dates, amounts and payment method. Sent communication history Since booking communications are separate from the church’s other communications, and since your booking-related information is only accessible to certain authorised users, we maintain a separate sent communications history for all outbound booking-related communications sent to you through our church database. This communication history includes the user who authored the communication and the date and time it was sent, as well as the email content. Information we may collect about you if you are a user of the church’s admin facing database… We maintain a list of all authorised active and archived users of our admin-facing church database. Each authorised user will create their own secure password that is used with their designated username to access the database securely.
Username
We will assign you a unique username, which may identify you by name. Your username is used to identify your activity in the database system to other users.
Password
You will create your own secure password. We are not able to view your password, although you/we can request a password reset.
Name
Your name is used by Administrator users to identify you with your username. Your user profile may also be linked to your contact record within the church member Address Book. User email address The church will provide you with your own email address to be used for church purposes. This will also be the user email address to which you’ll receive password reset emails when requested. User type and permissions You will be assigned permission appropriate to your role and responsibility. This may mean that you do not have access to all areas of the system, and that your permissions may be different to those of other users.
IP address and device
We will record the IP address and device that you use to log in to the church’s database. We use this information to identify unrecognised devices that may indicate that your user account has been compromised. Details of changes you make within the system. Your user activity within the system is logged and may be periodically reviewed. This will include all content you add, remove or change in the system. The system records the date, time, your user name, and the details of the change you have made. Change logs cannot be edited or deleted and are maintained indefinitely. Details of communications you send from within the system We maintain a sent communications history for all outbound communications sent by you as a user to individuals or groups of people through the church database. Send communication logs cannot be edited or deleted and are maintained indefinitely. Information we may collect about you when you sign up for one of our events…
When you sign-up to participate in an event run by us, we will maintain a certain amount of information about you for the purpose of event management.
Name, email and phone number
When you sign-up to an event, you will be required to supply your name, email address, and contact phone number. We will use this information to identify you as the person coming to the event, and to communicate with you if we need to contact you about the event, including sending you an email sign-up notification, which also serves as your payment receipt (for pay event tickets) and may also serve as your ticket to gain entry to the event.
Tickets
We’ll maintain a record of any tickets you selected as part of the sign-up process, including the responses to ticket questions asked on the sign-up form. We do not retain a record of payment card details used to purchase ‘pay’ tickets, however we will maintain payment transaction details of ticket payments for the purpose of accounting and financial reporting.
Email and telephone number
In addition to communicating with you about the event, we may also communicate with you about church news or other similar events or initiatives (if you have agreed to receive these from us). For example, in follow up to attending a discipleship course we may contact you about some helpful next steps with the church and things you might like to get involved in. Similarly, if you’ve signed up for an event and are later absent – we may contact you as a courtesy and may offer you an alternative event if that is possible.
Attendance
We often welcome people who may be considered vulnerable, at risk and children at events. For safeguarding purposes, we may record attendance at events. Information we may collect about you if you sign up for a small group…
In addition to weekend services, many people find their primary place of belonging is expressed through being part of one of our small groups. Small groups are where people primarily receive pastoral care through the church and are a great place to find deeper friendships, to extend and receive prayer support, discipleship, form accountable relationships, and encouragement in your journey of faith. If you sign-up to one of our small groups, we will collect certain basic contact information from you at the point of signing up.
Name, email and phone number
When you sign-up to a small group, you will be required to supply your name, email address, and contact phone number. We will use this information to identify you to the group and its leaders, and to communicate with you if we need to keep you informed about the group, including sending you and the group’s leaders an email signup confirmation.
Email and telephone number
We may periodically need to communicate with you about the group, for example to advise a lastminute change of venue. We may also communicate with you about other church news or events (if you have agreed to receive these from us).
Group membership and attendance
If we are unable to match the name and contact details you provide at sign-up, we will add you to our database as a new contact. We will also record the date you join (or leave) a small group and we will add your name to the member list that the group’s leaders maintain within our database about their group. We’ll remove you from the group member list when you leave the group. Since small group membership reflects a deeper level of church engagement, small group members are an important audience for many church communications (if you have agreed to receive these from us). By nature, we often welcome those who may be considered vulnerable, at risk, and under 18’s into our small groups. For safeguarding purposes, we will record your attendance at small groups. Additionally, we use attendance data to produce statistical reporting on the number of unique individuals attending groups (which may be different to the group’s weekly attendance count as different people attend at different times or frequency). This attendance data informs our decision-making of when to multiply or plant new groups, and to identify groups that have available capacity to take additional people. We also want to care for you well – our experience is that group membership is not necessarily the same as group participation! Our pastors and group leaders may periodically refer to small group attendance and reach out to you if you’ve been absent from the group for any period. In this regard, be assured that our desire to reach out comes from an attitude of genuine care for you. You are free to not be known as a group member (to opt out) and you may attend the group simply as a visitor if your wish. In this instance, your contact details and group signup will be deleted and you will be excluded from the group’s member list; your name and attendance will only be noted when you visit; but no contact will be made if you are absent and choose not to visit the group. Small group attendance helps us understand each group’s demographics, enabling us to better direct newcomers to appropriate groups they may wish to try, based on those who are already members of the group.
Information we may collect about you and your child if you check your visiting child in to our groups…
We run a child check-in system at weekend services and some midweek events where children and young people are in attendance at groups within those sessions. Our groups are open to visitors and we would like to welcome your child too. If your child (aged under 18) is participating in groups, events or ministries run by us, we will collect certain information about you (as parent/guardian) and also your child. Some information is required for safeguarding purposes and some information is collected so that we can better serve your family and communicate with you or your child. Any personal data you provide about you or your child will be retained for a maximum to 6 months after the date of your child’s most recent visitor check-in i.e. after 6 months of inactivity we will automatically delete all the visitor contact information we hold about you/your child. However, for safeguarding purposes we will continue to maintain a record of your child’s name as having been historically in attendance at our groups.
Child name
Your child’s name is used to help identify them in the church’s database to users, and to the leaders of the groups they participate in. We may address them personally by name in our communications, if you have agreed they receive these from the church. Your child’s name is displayed on the name badges we use as part of our check-in/out processes.
Sex
Your child’s sex is used to help us understand the demographic makeup of the church, and also to send you relevant communications about gender-related initiatives based on your child’s sex (if you have agreed you/they receive these from us). Your child’s sex is recorded as either male, female or unspecified/unknown.
Date of birth
Your child’s date of birth, used to calculate their age and school year is used to determine the correct age-appropriate group for your child at our weekend services and mid-week groups and clubs. At your request we can override the suggested group in order to place your child in a group with a preferred sibling or known friend.
Medical
You can tell us about any medical conditions or special needs your child has that are relevant to their participating in the group. We may serve snacks or refreshments during group sessions, so it’s important the group leaders are aware of any allergies your child may have.
Parent/Guardian
Your name is used to help identify you in the church’s database to users, and to the leaders of the groups your child participates in. We may address you personally by name in our communications, if you have agreed they receive these from the church.
Your email address is used by us to send a confirmation of the information you have provided about you and your child at checkin. As a courtesy we will also contact you by email after your child’s first session to check how your child got on. In that email you will have the opportunity to opt in to receive further communications from the church if you wish. This may be useful if you are looking for a church and would like to find out more about us.
Mobile
We may need to contact you quickly during the session that your child is attending. We may therefore contact you by mobile telephone if you have provided this information.
Notes
You are able to add an optional note against your child’s details if your wish; for example, to let us know about something important about you or your child that doesn’t fit in any of the other visitor fields.