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.
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.
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.
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 every AI price is public on the pricing page.
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.
“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.
“Which volunteers are scheduled Sunday but haven’t confirmed?”
The confirmation chase becomes one question with a drafted, warm reminder — Friday afternoon, handled.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.