Optional AI

Ministry stays human. Admin can take the help.

Simply Churches is complete with AI off, and it will never put AI between your people and their pastors. Turned on, Ask Simply helps the office with rosters, giving records, and follow-up lists — and your website can welcome newcomers at any hour, answer honestly from what you publish, and bring a real person in the moment it matters.

The ground rules

Four things that stay true, whatever you switch on.

AI in Simply Churches was built the way we would want it used on our own team: opt-in, supervised, explainable, and priced in the open.

Optional

Off until you say otherwise

Simply Churches is a complete product with AI turned off. Every AI feature is opt-in for your team — turn on what helps, skip what does not, and change your mind anytime. Nothing on this page is required.

Human

People decide; people answer

Ask Simply proposes — a person approves before anything changes. The website assistant answers — and hands the conversation to your team the moment someone asks for a person. AI here extends your people; it never replaces them.

Transparent

Answers show their work

Ask Simply cites the records behind every answer and previews every change before it happens. Website conversations land in your inbox with a per-answer trace for admins. Usage is metered visibly, spending caps are on by default, and the pricing page discloses published AI add-ons and the current usage policy. Any additional prepaid AI pack price is shown before purchase.

Secure

Your permissions are the AI’s permissions

Ask Simply can only see what the signed-in person is allowed to see — enforced by the platform, not by the AI’s good manners. The website assistant knows only the information you connect. It all runs on the same AWS infrastructure as the rest of Simply Churches, and your data is never used to train AI models.

Flavor one — for your team

Ask Simply: the colleague who read everything.

Ask Simply works under your church’s permissions — giving data stays with the people you trust with giving data — and it shows its sources, proposes changes for approval, and keeps a record of what it did.

The pastor

“How is fall attendance trending, and who is new this month?”

Attendance patterns and new faces in plain language with the records linked — awareness that used to take a staff meeting.

The office admin

“Which volunteers are scheduled Sunday but haven’t confirmed?”

The confirmation chase becomes one question with a drafted, warm reminder — Friday afternoon, handled.

The treasurer

“How does giving to the building fund compare to pledges?”

Fund-level giving against pledge commitments, from the same records that produce year-end statements — visible only to those with permission to see it.

The connections team

“Who filled out a connect card but hasn’t been contacted?”

The follow-up list that decides whether a first visit becomes a second — with drafted notes in your church’s voice.

The events coordinator

“Draft a signup page for the marriage retreat.”

Event pages drafted in your site’s style with registration wired in — reviewed by you, live by lunch.

The volunteer builder

“Add a background-check date field to volunteer records.”

Safety recordkeeping grows by conversation: proposed, previewed, approved — with the paper trail a church board appreciates.

From the big numbers to the missing-form chase to drafting the next page — if it lives in Simply Churches, you can ask about it in plain language. See Ask Simply live in a demo

On the go

Your whole system, in a back pocket.

In the lobby between services, ask your phone “is the Hendersons’ dedication this Sunday or next?” — Ask Simply is built into the Simply Anywhere mobile app, so the office fits into a Sunday morning.

Chat turns out to be the perfect mobile interface for a system like this: no menus to hunt through, no laptop to open — just the question, the cited answer, and the approval, wherever the work is happening.

The full Ask Simply, inside the Simply Anywhere appSame permissions, sources, and approvals as your deskAsk for the number on the way into the meetingReview and approve proposed changes from anywhereYour records, messages, and notifications ride along

Flavor two — for the people you serve

A website that answers back — honestly.

People check out a church online before they ever walk in — often on a Saturday night. A conversation widget on your site welcomes them warmly, answers from what you publish, helps them plan a visit or sign up — and hands prayer and pastoral needs straight to people, because that is not an AI’s job.

A newcomer

“What should we expect on a first visit?”

Service times, parking, kids check-in, what to wear — answered warmly from your pages, with a plan-your-visit form to make Sunday easier.

A parent

“What do you have for middle schoolers?”

Ministries and programs explained from your published pages, with the registration form right there when they are ready.

A member

“How do I give to the missions fund?”

Giving mechanics answered plainly and routed through your real giving flow — the same secure path as the button in your bulletin.

Someone hurting

“Can someone pray with me?”

The widget does not minister. Prayer requests and pastoral needs go straight to your prayer team through your real form, with the conversation attached and treated with care.

The voice guidance keeps it warm, humble, and honest about being an assistant — your congregation’s language, your tradition’s vocabulary, and hard rules about what belongs to pastors.

The assistant is always honest about being an assistant, and a human is always one ask away — because the fastest way to lose someone’s trust is to fake a person.

Your assistant, your rules

Customization, control, and a paper trail.

A public assistant speaks for you, so you hold the controls — what it knows, how it sounds, and what it is never allowed to do.

Voice

It sounds like you

Guidance and voice settings — tone, words to use, words to avoid, example answers — teach the assistant your way of speaking. Each widget can also choose a deeper or faster AI model.

Knowledge

It knows what you connect — nothing else

You choose the pages, knowledge articles, and workflows behind each widget. It answers from those, says so when it does not know, and cannot wander into data you did not connect.

Actions

Real actions, same safeguards

When a visitor registers, signs up, or pays, the assistant walks them through the same verified forms and payment flows as the rest of your site. It cannot write to your data any other way.

Handoff

People, one ask away

Visitors can reach your team at any point, and the assistant escalates on its own when it is unsure or the topic is sensitive. Conversations land in your inbox with full context — and offline hours are handled honestly.

Oversight

Every conversation, visible

Your team can read every conversation, see what the assistant consulted for each answer, test changes before publishing, and measure satisfaction — including the questions it could not answer, so you know what to publish next.

Budget

Costs with a ceiling

AI usage is metered transparently with spending caps on by default. Plans include monthly AI credit, and live website assistants carry a flat monthly price — all published on the pricing page.

Honest answers

If you never turn AI on, Simply Churches is still Simply Churches.

Prayer, care, counsel, and community are ministry — they stay with people, full stop. The AI answers logistics and chases forms so your office has more of the week left for them.

And if you do turn it on, it stays optional forever — feature by feature, widget by widget, with visible usage, spending caps, and public prices.

What’s included

Website conversation widgets

Let visitors ask for help from your website and keep the handoff attached to the page and topic they came from.

See how church teams use this
  • Visitors can ask questions and get answers grounded in your configured views and knowledge.
  • A conversation can hand off into a form — from question to signup in one thread.
  • Transcripts keep the context when a human follows up.
Add-on$29/mo per live conversation widget.

Ask Simply help inside the app

Ask Simply helps the church office understand records, draft copy, and move faster inside the app.

See how church teams use this
  • "What is this record, and what should I do next?" can be answered inside the app.
  • First drafts of messages and copy can start from your real data.
Included with allowancePaid plans include monthly AI credit sized to the plan; trials include trial credits.
Pricing details
  • Budget caps stay on by default, and larger prepaid AI credit packs are available when you need more.

AI help for website copy

Draft, refine, and rework website copy while keeping human review in the publishing flow.

See how church teams use this
  • A page can start from a solid AI draft and still get the human pass it deserves.
  • Rewrites for tone and length happen inside the editor.
Included with allowancePaid plans include monthly AI credit sized to the plan; trials include trial credits.
Pricing details
  • Budget caps stay on by default, and larger prepaid AI credit packs are available when you need more.

AI translations

Translate team-authored content where multilingual presentation matters, with language costs disclosed before activation.

See how church teams use this
  • Public content can carry additional languages without a manual translation cycle.
  • A human correction can override any machine translation.
Add-on$15/mo per AI translation language.

AI credits and budget caps

Give teams useful AI help without open-ended spend by showing included value, prepaid credit packs, and caps.

Included with allowancePaid plans include monthly AI credit sized to the plan; trials include trial credits.
Pricing details
  • Budget caps stay on by default, and larger prepaid AI credit packs are available when you need more.

Sunday keeps coming. Be ready for everyone it brings.

Show us how your church runs today — the lists, the giving tool, the group chats. We will show you the connected version, honestly priced.