Create your account and church: your first two minutes

What does signing up ask for?

Signup uses one form for your name, your church's name and time zone, and your email. FlockConnect suggests your church's time zone from your device; change it if your church keeps a different clock. Reminders and service attendance follow it, and the account owner can change it later in Settings. Password signup also asks you to create a password. When Google sign-in is available, the form also lets you use your Google account. No card is collected at signup, and account holders need to be 18 or older.

If you choose a password, use a passphrase of at least 12 characters. There are no special-character rules to satisfy, so a long phrase you can remember beats a short cryptic one. Password signup includes a short bot check, and submission waits until it passes.

• Signup asks for your name, your church's name and time zone, and your email. No card is collected at signup.
• Password is always available for signup (12 characters or more, passphrases welcome); when Google sign-in is offered, you can use it instead. A short bot check guards password signup.
• For password signup, open the confirmation email on the same device; the link finishes sign-in in that browser.
• Selecting “Forgot password?” sends a secure, single-use reset link that works on any device. Saving the new password signs out other devices.
• One step creates your account, your church with its own web address, your person record, and your account-owner role. One signup creates one church.
• The context step is optional and fully skippable: denomination, theological alignment, pastoral language (English or Español (México)), and an off-by-default scripture toggle for Collie, which stays advisory either way.
• Five setup paths: Planning Center, CSV upload, manual setup, a demo church, or decide later. All five are owner-only.
• FlockConnect asks for a second step only before sensitive actions like inviting a teammate or exporting data, and one check lasts 24 hours. Staff join by email invitation; invitees without an account use invite mode. Members never need accounts.

Why open the signup confirmation email on the same device?

Password signup ends with a confirmation email. Open it on the device where you signed up; clicking the link finishes the secure sign-in in that browser and creates your church in one motion.

When Google sign-in is available and you choose it, signup skips the confirmation-email step. The form notes that FlockConnect uses your Google email to sign you in and that your church name is saved temporarily on your device until Google sends you back to finish.

If you later forget your password, choose Forgot password? on the sign-in page. FlockConnect emails a secure, single-use reset link that works on any device. Confirm the account email and choose a new password; saving it signs out the account's other devices.

What does FlockConnect create for my church?

One step sets up everything: your user account, your church with its own unique web address, a person record for you in your new people list, and your role as account owner. Your church is also seeded with the default Connection Health rules, so the connection rings have sensible starting points from day one.

One signup creates one church. If you are already signed in, the signup page sends you into your app rather than starting another church. And if sign-in succeeds but church creation does not finish, a welcome screen offers to finish setting up your church or to start over, and points you to support@flockconnect.com if neither works.

What is the optional context step?

On a plan that includes Collie, a short context step follows the plan step. All four fields are optional and the whole step can be skipped. FlockConnect uses the answers to tailor Collie's tone and set your church's default language. Only the account owner sees this step.

The fields: a denomination picker with twelve named traditions plus Other and Prefer not to say, a free-text line about your theological alignment, a preferred pastoral language (English or Español (México)) used by default for Collie outputs and member-facing notifications, and a checkbox that allows Collie to reference scripture. That checkbox starts unchecked, so Collie quotes scripture only if you opt in. Either way Collie stays advisory: it drafts, and nothing it drafts reaches a member until a person approves it. None of these answers are locked in: the account owner can change any of them later, including the scripture choice, in Settings under Church profile.

What are the setup paths?

After the plan step comes a setup-path screen with five choices: connect Planning Center, upload a CSV, set up manually, explore a demo church, or decide later. Decide later is a real choice on the list, and the Planning Center sync and CSV import guides cover the first two paths in detail.

The setup paths are for the account owner. Church leaders and care partners who join later by invitation go straight to the app instead, because each path is an owner-level action.

When does FlockConnect ask for a second step, and who else signs up?

Signing up and creating your church never ask for a second step, and neither does everyday work in the app afterward. FlockConnect asks for one only before a sensitive step, like inviting a teammate, exporting data, changing billing, or connecting Planning Center, including when you pick it as your setup path, and one check then covers you for 24 hours. If you haven't set up a way to get your codes yet, FlockConnect walks you through it right then: an authenticator app, a text message (US mobile numbers only), or an email. Email is the simplest, but it is also the least safe. The rule is the same for every role.

Your staff join only through an email invitation. Invitees with an account sign in using the address that received the invite; invitees without an account choose Create account, which opens signup in invite mode and creates their user account without creating another church. Members never create accounts at all; anything they need to respond to, like an assessment, reaches them as a secure link, with no password to manage.