Privacy Policy

Effective date: May 23, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Vineyard Church Kansas City ("VCKC", "we", "us") collects, uses, and protects information you share with us through the Curation Platform. We take your privacy seriously and we want you to know exactly what we do with the information you trust us with.

1. What information we collect

Information you give us directly

Your name and preferred name
Your email address
Your phone number (optional — required only if you opt in to SMS)
Your mailing address (so we can connect you with the right campus)
Your date of birth and gender
Your responses to the questions in the self-intake form and curation session

Information generated during your curation session

A full transcript of the session, including the time spent on each question
An AI-generated narrative summary of the session
An AI-generated curation plan with recommended next steps

Information from third-party identity verification

If you choose to verify your identity by logging into Planning Center during the intake flow, we receive your name, email address, and (with your consent) your mailing address from Planning Center. We do not store your Planning Center password.

2. How we use your information

We use your information for the following purposes only:

To complete your curation session — running the conversation, preparing your summary and plan, and matching you with a curator.
To follow up with you — sending you your results, scheduling follow-up conversations, and connecting you with ministry opportunities at VCKC.
To record your engagement in our church management system — your summary and plan are attached to your profile in Planning Center so curators and ministry leaders can support you in context.
To improve the platform — anonymized, aggregated statistics about how the curation flow performs (e.g., session durations). We never use identifiable curation responses for product improvement.

3. Who we share your information with

Within VCKC

Your curation summary and plan are visible to authorized VCKC staff and curators who need to see them to support your next steps. Pastoral staff treat the content with the same care as any other private pastoral conversation.

Service providers we use

We use a small set of trusted third-party services to operate the platform. Each receives only the information they need to do their job, and each is contractually obligated to handle your data securely.

Planning Center — our church management system; receives your curation summary, curation plan, and basic profile information.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) — hosts the platform and stores your generated PDFs.
OpenAI — processes the text of your curation session to generate your summary and plan. OpenAI's API does not train on data we send.
SendGrid — delivers email notifications to you.
Twilio — if and when SMS messaging is enabled, Twilio delivers text messages to the phone number you provided.
Heroku — hosts the application infrastructure.

What we never do

We do not sell your information. We do not share it for marketing or advertising purposes. We do not give your phone number to anyone other than the SMS provider above, and only when you've opted in to SMS.

4. Phone numbers & SMS data

If you provide a phone number and opt in to SMS, we use it only to send you transactional and pastoral messages related to your curation engagement — for example, session reminders, a brief follow-up from your curator, or important updates about a program you've expressed interest in.

We do not share mobile numbers or SMS opt-in information with any third party for promotional purposes. Your SMS consent and opt-out status are stored alongside your candidate record so we can honor your preferences.

You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any message; we'll send one confirmation and remove your number from our SMS list. Reply HELP for help.

5. How long we keep your information

We keep your curation records (intake responses, summary, plan, and session transcript) indefinitely so that curators and pastoral staff can refer back to them as they support your ongoing journey at VCKC. If you ever want your records deleted, contact us and we will remove them within a reasonable timeframe, subject to any obligations we have to retain certain information.

6. How we protect your information

Access to the platform is gated by individual staff accounts. Files are stored on encrypted cloud infrastructure (AWS S3). Connections to and from the platform are encrypted (HTTPS/TLS). We follow industry best practices but, like every online service, cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your rights

You can ask us, at any time, to:

Show you what information we have about you
Correct information that's wrong or out of date
Delete your information
Stop sending you email or SMS

8. Children and youth

The platform is intended for adults. Where minors use the platform (for example, a youth ministry curation session), we expect that a parent or guardian has given informed consent. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 without such consent.

9. International users

Some VCKC campuses are located outside the United States. When candidates intake through one of those campuses, their data is still processed and stored on infrastructure located in the United States. By using the platform you consent to this transfer.

10. Cookies and tracking

The platform uses a small number of essential cookies to keep you signed in to your intake session. We don't use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we'll update the "Effective date" at the top. Material changes will be communicated in advance through the platform.

12. Contact us

Questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy? Reach us at info@vckc.com.