Privacy Policy

Dunamis Worship Center International (“Dunamis,” “the Church,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy of every person who visits our digital ministry. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through our website, mobile experiences, and connected services (collectively, the “Platform”), how we use that information, when and with whom we share it, and the choices you have regarding your data.

We hold the trust placed in us by our members, partners, prayer requesters, and visitors as a sacred responsibility. Our handling of personal information is shaped both by applicable law and by the pastoral commitments of our ministry to treat every person with dignity, honesty, and care.

By using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with how we handle information, please do not use the Platform. Where you submit information on behalf of another person (for example, a prayer request on behalf of a family member), you confirm that you have the authority to do so.

We collect information in three broad categories: information you provide directly, information collected automatically when you use the Platform, and information we receive from third parties acting on your behalf.

2.1 Information You Provide

The following are examples of information you may choose to provide:

• Account information. When you create a member account, we collect your full name, email address, password (stored only in hashed form), and an optional profile photo. You may add a phone number, mailing address, household relationships, and ministry interests.
• Membership and pastoral care information. When you become a member, request pastoral care, share a testimony, submit a prayer request, or volunteer for a ministry, we collect the details necessary to respond appropriately. This may include sensitive matters of faith, health, family, or finances that you choose to share with our pastoral team.
• Giving and transaction information. When you make a donation or purchase items from our shop, our payment processor collects the financial information needed to complete the transaction. We retain a record of the transaction (date, amount, fund or item, and your contact information), but the full payment card number is processed and stored by our payment processor and not by us.
• Communications. When you contact us by email, web form, phone, or messaging, we keep a record of the correspondence and any information you provide so that we can respond and provide ongoing care.
• Event registrations and RSVPs. When you RSVP to or register for an event, we collect your contact information, any preferences (such as dietary needs or accessibility requirements), and, where applicable, the names of guests in your party.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Platform, certain information is collected automatically by your browser or device, including:

• Log and usage data such as your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, the pages you view, the time and date of your visit, the referring page, and the actions you take on the Platform.
• Device information such as device type, screen size, and language preference.
• Approximate location derived from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS location through the Platform.
• Cookies and similar technologies as described in our Cookie Policy.

2.3 Information From Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third parties in limited circumstances, including:

• Payment processors confirm the success or failure of a donation or purchase and provide masked transaction details.
• Social platforms. If you choose to connect your account using a social sign-in or if you interact with us through a social platform (for example, sharing a testimony submitted through Facebook), we may receive basic profile information consistent with the permissions you have granted that platform.
• Other members. Where a household member, ministry leader, or pastoral team member submits information on your behalf (for example, adding family members to a household profile), we receive that information from them.

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To provide pastoral care and ministry. Praying for and responding to prayer requests; following up on testimonies; providing one-on-one or family pastoral care; connecting new members to a ministry team.
• To operate the Platform. Creating and managing accounts; authenticating sign-in; remembering preferences; processing donations and shop purchases; sending event confirmations and reminders.
• To communicate with you. Sending sermon notifications, event updates, prayer responses, giving receipts, and other communications related to your involvement with the Church. You may opt out of non-essential communications at any time (see Section 5).
• To improve the Platform. Understanding how members use the Platform so that we can fix problems, refine features, and build content that better serves the congregation.
• To comply with law. Maintaining giving records for tax-receipt purposes; responding to lawful requests from government authorities; and exercising and defending legal claims.
• To protect the Church and the community. Preventing fraud, abuse, and security incidents; protecting the safety of staff, volunteers, members, and visitors.

3.1 Legal Bases (where applicable)

Where applicable law (such as the laws of certain U.S. states or other jurisdictions) requires us to identify a legal basis for processing, we generally rely on one or more of the following: (a) your consent, which you may withdraw at any time; (b) the performance of a contract with you, such as completing a purchase or registering you for an event; (c) compliance with a legal obligation, such as tax-receipt recordkeeping; and (d) our legitimate interests in operating the Church and Platform safely and effectively, balanced against your rights and reasonable expectations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not rent, trade, or otherwise commercialize the information of our members or visitors. We share information only in the limited circumstances described below.

4.1 With Service Providers

We share information with vendors that perform services on our behalf and that have agreed in writing to handle information consistent with this Privacy Policy. These include providers of:

• Cloud hosting and infrastructure;
• Payment processing (donations and shop purchases);
• Email and messaging delivery (newsletters, transactional notifications);
• Analytics and product-quality monitoring;
• Customer-support tooling;
• Background-screening for volunteer roles involving minors or finances.

These providers are permitted to use information only to perform the services we have requested, and are required to safeguard it.

4.2 Within the Ministry

Information you submit for pastoral purposes (for example, a prayer request, testimony, or care request) may be shared internally with the pastoral team, prayer ministry leaders, or relevant ministry leaders responsible for caring for you. We train our pastoral staff and volunteers to treat such information with discretion. Where you mark a prayer request as confidential, we limit its circulation to the pastoral team only.

4.3 Within the Member Directory

If you opt in to the member directory, the contact information you have chosen to make visible may be viewed by other authenticated members. You control which fields are shared and may opt out of the directory at any time from your account settings.

4.4 For Legal and Safety Reasons

We may disclose information when we have a good-faith belief that disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with a subpoena, court order, or other legal process; (b) protect the rights, property, or safety of the Church, our members, or others; (c) investigate or prevent fraud, abuse, or unlawful activity; or (d) enforce our terms and policies.

4.5 In Connection With Ministry Transitions

In the unlikely event that our ministry is reorganized, merged with another church, or transferred in part to another religious organization, member information may be transferred as part of that transition, subject to the same protections set out in this Policy.

You have meaningful control over the information we hold about you. The specific rights available to you depend on where you live, but we extend the following choices to all members regardless of jurisdiction:

• Access. You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction. You may update most account information directly from your profile settings, or ask us to correct other information we hold.
• Deletion. You may ask us to delete your account and the personal information associated with it. Note that certain records (such as donation receipts required for tax reporting and information subject to legal-hold obligations) may need to be retained for the time period required by law.
• Marketing preferences. You may unsubscribe from email newsletters at any time using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every newsletter or by adjusting your communication preferences. Transactional and pastoral communications may continue while your account is active.
• Directory visibility. You may opt out of the member directory or limit the fields visible to other members at any time.
• Withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent to process information, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of any processing performed before the withdrawal.
• Lodge a complaint. If you believe we have mishandled your information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the data-protection regulator in your jurisdiction. We ask that you first contact us so that we can address your concern directly.

5.1 Submitting a Rights Request

To exercise any of these rights, please email privacy@dunamischapel.com with the words “Privacy Request” in the subject line. We will respond within forty-five (45) days, or sooner where required by law. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request; this helps ensure that no one else can access your account on your behalf.

5.2 Regional Rights

If you are a resident of California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, or another U.S. state with a comprehensive consumer-privacy statute, you may have additional rights under that state’s law, including the right to know what categories of personal information we have collected and disclosed, the right to opt out of certain processing, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell personal information and do not engage in profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

The Platform uses cookies, pixels, local storage, and similar technologies to make sign-in possible, remember your preferences, keep your shopping cart populated, and understand how the Platform is being used. Some are essential to the operation of the Platform and cannot be disabled without breaking core features. Others are optional and can be controlled through your browser settings or through the cookie preference center accessible from the footer of every page.

For a full description of the categories of cookies we use, the third parties involved, and the choices available to you, please see our Cookie Policy.

We use industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, and destruction. These safeguards include encryption of data in transit, restricted access for personnel based on the principle of least privilege, vulnerability scanning, and regular review of vendor security practices.

No system, however, can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We ask that you help us protect your account by choosing a strong and unique password, by not sharing your sign-in credentials, and by notifying us immediately at privacy@dunamischapel.com if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

In the unlikely event of a security incident that affects your personal information, we will notify you and any applicable authorities as required by law.

The Platform is not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen without the verifiable consent of a parent or legal guardian. For our Children’s Ministry and Youth Ministry programs, registration is completed by a parent or guardian, who provides any information needed to enroll their child and may withdraw consent at any time by contacting privacy@dunamischapel.com.

If you believe a child under thirteen has provided personal information to us without parental consent, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to delete the information.

The Platform is hosted in the United States. If you access the Platform from a country outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, processed, and stored in the United States, which may have data-protection laws that differ from those of your country. By using the Platform, you understand that your information may be transferred to the United States subject to this Privacy Policy.

Where required by applicable law, we will take steps to ensure that such transfers are subject to appropriate safeguards, such as contractual commitments from our service providers.

The Platform may contain links to, or embed content from, third-party websites and services such as livestream providers, sermon-audio hosts, calendar services, or social media platforms. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party service before providing information to it.

We retain personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. Specific retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason it was collected. The table below summarizes our general practice.

Where deletion is not practicable (for example, where data has been backed up to long-term storage), we will isolate the data from active use and delete it on the next routine cycle.

We do not use automated decision-making, including profiling, that produces legal effects concerning you or that similarly significantly affects you. Where the Platform uses simple personalization — for example, suggesting the sermon series most relevant to ministries you have joined — that personalization is based on information you have provided and is not the kind of profiling regulated by privacy law.

We do not engage in advertising-based behavioral profiling, do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and do not participate in advertising networks that engage in such practices.

If we become aware of a security incident affecting personal information, we will respond promptly and in accordance with applicable law. Our response includes:

• Containing the incident and preventing further unauthorized access;
• Investigating the cause and scope of the incident;
• Notifying affected individuals where required, with a description of what happened, what information was affected, and what steps we are taking;
• Notifying applicable regulators and law-enforcement where required;
• Reviewing controls and updating safeguards to reduce the likelihood of a similar incident.

You may report a suspected security incident at any time to security@dunamischapel.com.

We choose vendors and service providers with care, and we hold them to written contractual requirements that protect your information. Before engaging a vendor that will process personal information on our behalf, we assess the vendor’s security and privacy practices, its compliance posture, and its track record. We require vendors to:

• Use personal information only for the purposes we have requested;
• Maintain appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards;
• Promptly notify us of any security incident affecting our data;
• Return or delete personal information when the engagement ends;
• Cooperate with us in responding to data-subject requests.

We periodically review key vendors against these commitments and update our vendor list as our service mix evolves.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make a material change, we will notify members through the Platform and, where appropriate, by email. The “Last updated” date at the top of this Policy indicates when it was most recently revised. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your information, please contact us:

Dunamis Worship Center International
Attn: Privacy & Data Protection
Beltsville, Maryland, United States
Email: privacy@dunamischapel.com
Phone: +1 (240) 486-2938

You may also reach our pastoral team through our Contact Us page for general inquiries.