Why I Started Congregation Hub (And Why I'm Finally Finishing It)

Three years ago, I had a vision for Congregation Hub. My church family needed a better place to post announcements and prayer requests—somewhere these important messages wouldn't get lost in an endless social media feed, where pastors could ensure appropriate discussions, and where everyone in the group would actually see what mattered most.

That vision expanded when an older pastor friend brought me a problem. His church had been using the same Windows application to track attendance and giving for over 15 years. No updates. No support. Just one aging computer holding years of church data hostage. He asked what he should do.

Looking at the church management software landscape, I couldn't recommend anything that wasn't either outrageously expensive or unnecessarily complicated. Worse, I watched as private equity firms acquired nearly every major church software company, prioritizing profit over serving congregations.

This pushed me to envision Congregation Hub as something bigger—a comprehensive solution that churches could actually afford and understand.

Life Gets in the Way

But then life happened. My son's health declined. Our church faced difficult challenges. I took on other projects to pay the bills. Congregation Hub stalled, and I felt like I was letting everyone down.

The AI Renaissance

That changed three weeks ago. I've accomplished more work on Congregation Hub in the last three weeks than in the previous three years combined. AI hasn't just made me more productive—it's removed the friction that used to paralyze progress. Features that once consumed weeks of mental energy now come together in hours.

Here's what's new:

Complete visual redesign
Enhanced email notifications
New post types for better organization
Magic link authentication (no more forgotten passwords)
Prayer sheet previews
Improved filtering and search
Functional archive system
And much more

What's Coming Next

Behind the scenes, I've added comprehensive unit tests and cleaned up the architecture. This foundation enables the ambitious features I'm planning:

Core Features (Free for 95% of churches):

Prayer request tracking
Email announcements
Member management
Attendance tracking
Giving records
Sermon upload and organization

Premium Features ($45/month):

SMS messaging
Custom church website

Mobile and Beyond:

iOS and Android apps
Service planning tools
Sermon management system
Website builder
Bulletin generator

Current users will always pay what they're paying now—your early support means everything to me.

The Roadmap

June 29 - July 5: Service planning features
July 6 - 12: Streamline church registration and onboarding
July 13 - 19: Improve individual user experience
July 20 - 27: New billing system
July 28 - August 2: iOS app development
August 3 - 9: Android app development
August 12: Official relaunch (my birthday gift to the church community)

For Current Users

You're grandfathered in. You'll access all these new features without paying more than you currently do. Thank you for believing in this vision when it was just an idea.

Registration is temporarily closed while I complete these updates, but you can continue using Congregation Hub as normal. Your feedback has been invaluable—please keep it coming.

Registration reopens in mid-August. If you know a church that could benefit from Congregation Hub, ask them to check back then.