church techFrom the builder

FlockConnect Is Not for Sale: A Founder's Pledge

By Michael Tribett · July 15, 2026 · 10 min read

FlockConnect is not for sale.

Not now, not quietly, not later when the right offer shows up. I want that sentence in public with a date under it, so churches can hold me to it. I will come back and re-sign this page every year.

If your church is weighing software right now, you have probably learned to ask a question that has nothing to do with features: who will own this tool in three years? The church software world has earned that question. Tools get bought. Roadmaps change and prices climb. And the churches that poured years of ministry records into those tools carry the cost of every change in ownership.

So here is my answer, in writing.

The pledge

FlockConnect is not for sale. I did not build it to sell it. Pretty much every approach I have is based in really strong convictions: how the marketing should be approached, how the product should be built, even how AI should be used in the building. A sale would hand those convictions to whoever writes the check. I am not doing that.

There are no outside investors, and I am not seeking any. No fund owns a piece of FlockConnect, and nobody with a return to chase sits between me and the churches using it. I am self-funding the build, which in practice means my wife is funding it: she works in tech, we live off her income, and I joke that she is FlockConnect's CFO.

Prices stay as low as I can keep them. My pricing policy has been the same from the start: keep prices as low as possible while the product stays sustainable. Still profitable, not astronomically profitable. There is a big misconception that smaller churches do not need tools like this. When I actually talk with pastors of smaller churches, they are begging for tools like this, and finances should not be the reason they go without. FlockConnect is priced by church size, with a free trial.

Your church's data is yours to take with you. A pledge about ownership only means something if leaving stays genuinely possible. Account owners can export their church's data from FlockConnect today. If FlockConnect ever stops being the right tool for your ministry, your records go with you.

What acquisitions do to church software

The last decade of church software is, in part, a story of ownership changes. We keep the factual account of that market in our ultimate church management software comparison, so I will not re-tell the history here.

What I want to name is the pattern underneath it, because it repeats across the whole industry. When a church software company sells, or takes venture money, the customer changes. Churches keep paying the bills, but the company now answers to someone else: a fund that needs a return, an acquirer with a portfolio to consolidate. The mission does not have to die loudly. It shifts. Pricing gets optimized. Features churches loved get sunset because they do not scale. Support gets thinner. None of that requires bad people. It only requires that the people the company answers to are no longer churches.

I want to be fair about the other half, too. Independence is not impossible in this category. Planning Center's founders published a letter in 2024 saying Planning Center is not for sale and never will be, and they have stood by it since. I am glad they did. Churches deserve a category where that sentence is normal.

This page is FlockConnect's version of that sentence.

Why I can make this promise

A pledge is only as strong as the structure behind it, so here is mine. There is no board to overrule me. There is no investor waiting on an exit. There is one builder, and the only people I answer to are the churches using the product.

That structure is not an accident. The same convictions run through everything here: the AI line I will not cross, the feature I have refused to build, and the relational gap FlockConnect exists to fill. The stubbornness that turns down a feature that demos well is the same stubbornness that will turn down an acquisition offer.

What this pledge does not mean

It does not mean FlockConnect never changes. Features will ship, plans will evolve, and the product a year from now should be better than the product today. The pledge is about who it changes for.

It does not mean FlockConnect can never fail. Any small company can. That is exactly why "your data is yours to take with you" is part of the pledge instead of fine print.

And it does not mean hostility toward the tools your church already runs. FlockConnect is not built to replace your church management system; it comes alongside the one you already have. Planning Center is our one native, two-way integration, and every other system connects by CSV import. Being independent does not mean standing apart from the ecosystem churches actually live in.

Hold me to it

A pledge you read once is a paragraph. A pledge that gets re-signed in public every year is a policy. I will restate this page annually with a fresh date. If a year ever passes without a new signature, email me and ask why: michael@flockconnect.com. And if you ever think FlockConnect is drifting from any line above, I want to hear that even more.

Signed,

Michael Tribett, Founder of FlockConnect

July 15, 2026

First signed July 15, 2026. Next restatement due by July 2027.

About the author

I am Michael Tribett, the founder of FlockConnect. Before building it, I spent three years inside a major ChMS company and learned church management systems like the back of my hand. I hold a Master of Divinity in Christian Ministry from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and serve as a small-group leader at Exchange Church in Rolesville, North Carolina. I live just north of Raleigh with my wife and our two daughters. FlockConnect is an official Planning Center integration partner.

Frequently asked questions

Is FlockConnect for sale or backed by outside investors?

No. FlockConnect is independently owned by its founder. There are no outside investors, no venture funding, and none is being sought. This pledge is restated publicly every year.

What happens to my church's data if we leave FlockConnect?

It leaves with you. Account owners can export their church's data from FlockConnect. A real exit path is part of vendor trust, not a courtesy.

How is FlockConnect priced?

By church size, with a free trial. The standing policy is to keep prices as low as possible while the product stays sustainable: profitable, not astronomically profitable. Details are on the pricing page.

What happens if FlockConnect ever shuts down?

This pledge does not claim a small company cannot fail. What it claims is an exit path: account owners can export their church's data, so your ministry records are never hostage to FlockConnect's future.