Frequently asked questions

A private, web-based toolbox for the everyday work of a pastor. It has three tools: Pastoral Care Management (your people, calls, visits, counseling sessions, prayer requests, and follow-ups), Sermon Management (a yearly sermon planner with color-coded series and a sermon archive), and the Scriptorium (letters and certificates on your own letterhead). Reports pull it together for your church board.

Pastors and ministry leaders. Each pastor has their own account, and everything in it is private to that pastor.

It is free right now. If paid plans come later, you will be told well ahead of time. Your records always stay yours: if an account is ever paused, nothing is deleted, and you can still sign in to download everything.

Create an account with your name, church, email, and a password. We email you a link to confirm your address. Once you confirm it, your account is reviewed, and we email you as soon as it is approved.

Yes. Export a CSV file from ChurchTrac, Planning Center, Breeze, Realm, or any spreadsheet, then use Pastoral Care, Import people. The importer reads files with or without a heading row, guesses what each column holds (names, phones, addresses, birthdays), and lets you check before anything is saved. People already in your list can be skipped.

Yes. It works in the web browser on any phone, tablet, or computer, so there is nothing to install. You can also install it like an app: on an iPhone, open it in Safari and choose Share, then Add to Home Screen; on Android, choose Install the app on your Account page. Then turn on notifications on the Account page to get follow-up reminders on your phone (never with names or notes). Log a hospital visit from the parking lot, then review your week from the study.

Yes. It was built from the start to work with screen readers and keyboards: clear headings and labels, buttons instead of icon-only links, error messages that are announced, and documents you can download as plain text.

Not yet. Each account is separate and private. Shared access for church staff is on the list for the future.

Only you. Everything you enter is tied to your account and shown only when you are signed in. Other pastors cannot see it. The site administrator can see your name, church, email, and how many records you have (for example, "40 people"), but the site has no tool for reading anyone's records.

Yes. Names, contact details, notes, locations, prayer requests, sermons, letters, certificates, and uploaded documents are encrypted with a key unique to your account before they are saved. The connection to the site is also encrypted (HTTPS). A stolen copy of the database or a backup reveals nothing readable.

It depends on which protection you choose:

• Standard protection (the default): your account's key is locked with a key kept on our server, separate from the database. This is what lets you reset a forgotten password without losing anything. It also means someone with full control of the server could, in principle, unlock your records. We never do, and the site has no tool for it.
• Private vault (optional): your key is locked with your own password instead, and the server keeps nothing that can unlock it. Nobody, including the people who run this site and our hosting company, can read your records without you.

The private vault locks your records with your own password. Turn it on from Account, Manage sign-in security. You are given a recovery key (32 letters and numbers) to save in a password manager or print.

The trade-off: if you forget your password and lose your recovery key, your records cannot be recovered by anyone. If your notes are especially sensitive, such as frequent counseling, the vault is worth it. Otherwise, standard protection is a good choice.

Your records are encrypted with one key that never changes. The vault keeps two separately locked copies of that key: one locked with your password and one locked with your recovery key. Changing or resetting your password only replaces the password copy, so the recovery copy keeps working. That also means your recovery key is as powerful as your password. Keep it safe, and if you think someone has seen it, choose Make a new recovery key, and the old one stops working.

Choose Forgot your password? and we email you a reset link. With standard protection, that is all you need. With the private vault, the reset page also asks for your recovery key so your records can be unlocked. Without it, you can still get back into your account, but the old records would have to be erased.

No. Follow-up reminder emails contain only a date and a link back to the site. Calendar events show "Follow-up with [name]" and a link. Notes never leave the site, and you sign in to see them.

No. Reports only count counseling sessions. On screen, counseling notes stay collapsed until you choose to show them. The only place full counseling notes appear is in a backup or care record that you download yourself.

No. When you log a visit, you may press "Use my current location." Your device asks permission first, and the location is saved only with that visit. Nothing is tracked in the background.

No. There are no ads, no tracking scripts, and no outside analytics. Your records are not sold or shared. Read the full privacy page.

The toolbox is a record-keeping tool. Please follow your denomination's and your state's guidance on pastoral confidentiality and mandatory reporting.

An optional second check after your password, so a stolen password is not enough to get in. Choose either or both from Account, Manage sign-in security:

• Passkey (recommended): sign in with Touch ID, Face ID, Windows Hello, or your device PIN. Passkeys sync through iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager.
• Email code: a six-digit code is emailed to you, good for 10 minutes.

You can check "Remember this device for 30 days" so a trusted computer is not asked every time.

Yes. Choose Sign in with a passkey on the sign-in page. A passkey already counts as two factors: your device plus your fingerprint, face, or PIN. If you use the private vault, your passkey can unlock it too: on Sign-in security, choose Let this passkey unlock my vault. This works with passkeys saved in iCloud Keychain (iPhone, iPad, and Mac with current software), Google Password Manager, and most security keys. On devices that cannot do it, you are asked for your password once after signing in.

Sign in with your password. An email code is always offered as a backup when you have a passkey. Then remove the lost passkey from Sign-in security. If your passkeys sync through iCloud or Google, your new phone will have them anyway.

You are signed out after 60 minutes of inactivity. Repeated wrong passwords temporarily lock the account. Every form is protected against forged requests, and passwords are stored only as a one-way hash that cannot be turned back into your password.

Yes. The server is backed up every night. Those backups hold the same encrypted data as the database, so they reveal nothing readable on their own.

Email kris@nerdypastor.com. We take every report seriously.

Yes, any time:

• Full backup: Account, Download full backup (ZIP). One ZIP file with your people, the complete care log with all notes, prayer requests, a readable care record for each person, every sermon with its uploaded documents, letter templates, certificate records, and your letterhead.
• Sermons only: a ZIP with every sermon and its documents, from the Account page or the sermon planner.
• One person: on a person's page, choose Care record (PDF) to print on your letterhead, or Care record (text) for a plain file that is easy to read with a screen reader.
• Spreadsheets: people, the care log, and a year's sermon plan as CSV files for Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.

No. Downloaded files are ordinary files so they can be opened anywhere, and they include confidential notes. Keep them somewhere safe, such as an encrypted drive or your password-protected computer, and delete copies you no longer need. The private vault protects your records on our server, not files you download.

Everything is permanently deleted: your people, care log, prayer requests, sermons, uploaded documents, letters, and certificates. This cannot be undone, so download a full backup first if you want to keep anything.

Nothing is deleted. You can still sign in to download your records or delete your account, and everything is waiting for you when access is restored.

Yes. When you log a call, visit, or counseling session, you can set a follow-up date. We email you a short reminder ("You have a Pastoral Care follow-up due…" with a link) on the morning it is due, or the morning before. Choose the timing or turn reminders off on your Account page. Your Dashboard also lists everything due or overdue.

Yes, two ways:

• One at a time: choose Add to calendar next to any open follow-up, then Google Calendar, Outlook.com, Microsoft 365, or Apple Calendar.
• Subscribe once: Account, Create my calendar link. Add that private link to your calendar, and every open follow-up appears as "Follow-up with [name]" with a link back to the notes. New ones appear, moved dates update, and finished ones disappear on their own.

Yes. On a computer, open calendar.google.com, choose the plus sign next to "Other calendars," then "From URL," and paste your link. It then shows on your phone too. Google checks subscribed calendars on its own schedule, sometimes only every several hours, so for something urgent use the one-at-a-time Add to calendar button.

Treat it like a password: anyone who has it can see your follow-up dates and names. Notes are never included. If it is shared by mistake, choose Make a new link and the old one stops working. With the private vault on, subscribed events say only "Pastoral care follow-up," because the site cannot read names without you.

A directory of the people in your care (households, addresses, phones, birthdays, and anniversaries, with tap-to-call, text, and directions), plus a care log of texts, emails, phone calls, letters, in-person conversations, home and hospital visits, and counseling sessions. Every entry can have notes, prayer requests, and a follow-up date. The care dashboard shows who you have not reached in 60 days and upcoming birthdays.

Add prayer requests directly, or type them in the "Prayer requests" box when you log a visit or call and they are added for you. Mark a request answered with a note about how God answered, and print the list, with or without names, for a prayer chain.

It shows every Sunday of the year on one page, with the title, series, Scripture, description, special service, notes, and video link. Easter, Advent, Pentecost, Mother's Day, and other church calendar days are marked for you. Give each series a color, assign it to a range of Sundays in one step, and upload your manuscript or slides to keep an archive.

In a medieval monastery, the scriptorium was where monks wrote letters and copied Scripture by hand. Ours is a little faster. Design your letterhead, write letter templates with shortcodes like {first_name} and {address_block}, and print a letter for one person or the whole church. It also makes print-ready certificates for baptism, membership, dedication, holy matrimony, class completion, and appreciation.

No. It is a keepsake for the couple. The legal marriage license comes from your county or state.

A monthly pastoral report for your board (calls, visits, and counseling sessions compared with last month and the year so far, the sermons you preached, and your comments, with names left off unless you include them), a follow-up checklist for the month, and your prayer list. All print on your letterhead.

Email kris@nerdypastor.com. The toolbox is built by a pastor, for pastors, and suggestions shape what comes next.