Churchome

What Churchome is

Churchome is the mobile front end of one church rather than a library of many. Four content types make up almost all of it: a Daily Guided Prayer of five to seven minutes led by Churchome pastors and communicators around a scripture; a Weekly Service with worship, teaching and reflection in adult, youth and kids versions; ChurchKids Stories, split into The Clubhouse for ages 1-5 and The Home Show for ages 6-11; and a Monthly Experience joined in person or by livestream. A full Bible and a Give tab sit alongside them.

It is not a study tool and not a multi-church catalogue. There is no commentary, reading-plan builder, original-language layer, cross-ministry sermon search or download button. Everything comes from Churchome or its collaborating musicians.

A church that meets once a month, by its own pastor's description

Most church apps are an accessory to a Sunday you already attend. Churchome inverts that, and the inversion is structural. There is no locations page on churchome.org - the path returns a 404 - and no Sunday service time is published anywhere on the site. The contact page lists one address, 'Churchome Kirkland Office' at PO Box 3089. The events page, last modified 21 July 2026, lists exactly one venue: The Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, Wednesdays at 7:30PM PT.

Judah Smith put the number on it. Asked in May 2025 whether Churchome was a cult, he answered - per The Christian Post - 'If we're a cult, we are the worst cult in the history of all cults. We meet once a month, guys.' That is the operational definition of digital church here: the app is not a supplement to membership, it is the membership. If you live nowhere near Beverly Hills, nothing is being withheld from you, which is more than most church apps can say. If you wanted a weekly room of people, this product cannot supply one.

Daily Guided Prayers, the part that works

This is what the app is built around and where claim and delivery are closest. Each prayer runs five to seven minutes, is led by a Churchome pastor or communicator, is modelled after the Lord's Prayer, and carries a scripture reference and a topic. The public record is current: the newest is 'Sharing This Moment' on 1 John 1:3-4, dated 26 July 2026. The site adds that 'You can get even more Daily Guided Prayers on the Churchome app, with new content added every day,' so the app carries a deeper catalogue than the web page.

Two flags. The frequency claim does not agree with itself - the App Store says a new prayer is 'available new every day,' the site's own page metadata says 'Join us each weekday.' Both stand as published. And the pitch leans on an uncited study: 'research has shown that repeating this habit four times a week can cause the reduction of destructive thoughts and negative habits,' with no author, journal or link.

Pastor Chat: six years of a staffed line, then Instagram

Pastor Chat was the answer to the obvious objection to a phone church, and for six years it was a real one. It launched in February 2020 as, in Judah Smith's words to Fox News, a way 'to provide people around the world with 1-on-1 interactions with our team,' and CBN News reported it would be staffed nearly 24 hours a day. The current App Store description still sells it: 'Pastor Chat connects you to talk with a pastor in real-time. The Pastor Chat team is here to pray with you, help you as you progress in your faith, and connect you with Churchome members where you live.'

It is gone. The churchome.org/pastor-chat page, last modified 3 April 2026, now carries only a note headed 'A Note to our Community' announcing the closure and directing anyone with questions or needing prayer to 'connect with us at Churchome on Instagram.' The stale cross-references remain: the giving FAQ still answers 'How do I give assets to Churchome?' with 'You can reach out to us on Pastor Chat.' Anyone installing on the strength of the store listing is installing for a feature that no longer exists, and the published escalation path for someone in distress is now a social-network direct message.

Groups, children, and what the terms admit

The terms, last updated 17 May 2023, describe a feature set the store listing no longer mentions: Churchome-sponsored groups plus user-created 'Community Groups.' The disclosure attached is the sharpest thing Churchome publishes about its own limits - 'CHURCHOME does not screen or evaluate the organizers, leaders, activities, events or offerings of any Community Groups. For example, we do not conduct any criminal background checks, child abuse screening process, or reference checks on the organizers and leaders of Community Groups.' Churchome then disclaims liability for other users' acts and caps its own aggregate liability at $100.00 behind binding arbitration and a class action waiver.

The age rules do not line up either. The terms require users to be at least 13 in the US or 16 in the EU, with a parent setting up any account for someone under 18, while Apple rates the app 4+ and Google Play rates it 'Rated for 12+' with 'Parental Guidance Recommended, Users Interact.' The kids content targets ages 1-11 on the website while the App Store calls the same material 'PreK - 5th grade' plus a youth track for '6th - 12th grade.' The children the content is made for cannot hold accounts, so a parent's login is the delivery mechanism, and nothing published says so plainly.

Pricing

Where Churchome falls behind

A store listing that sells a retired feature. Pastor Chat is described in the present tense in the App Store description shipped on 5 February 2026, in the Google Play description, and in the faith.tools listing that sends readers here. Churchome closed it on 3 April 2026. Nearly four months later the listing has not been amended, no release has shipped, and churchome.org's own giving FAQ and contact page still route people to it. An app whose defining claim was human availability now offers, by its own published instruction, an Instagram account.

No named Bible translation. The product page promises 'The full Bible is available for you to access, directly within the app and includes interactive elements.' No version is identified there, in either store listing, or in the terms. For devotional listening that is a footnote; for anything a reader intends to study or memorise, an unnamed text is not usable, and every serious competitor names its versions.

A privacy policy that contradicts the store and itself. Google Play's Data safety card states 'No data shared with third parties.' The privacy policy reserves the opposite - 'We may also distribute or share your email address and any Personal Information in order to conduct any business as we, in our sole subjective discretion, deem reasonable' - in the same paragraph that opens by promising Personal Information 'will not be distributed or shared with third parties.' The policy carries no date, still contains unfinished boilerplate reading 'Once this Privacy Policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page,' and says cookies help 'process the items in your shopping cart' for a church with no shop. It also states 'We do not allow third party behavioral tracking' while churchome.org loads a Facebook JavaScript SDK, the VWO A/B-testing script, and carries a google-adsense-account meta tag.

A weekly-service claim the public library does not support. The App Store promises 'There are Weekly Services for adults, youth, and kids available each week!' On the public site the adult Service entries run to January 2026 and the kids Home Show entries to 31 May 2026, but the newest Churchome Youth entry is dated 8/31/2025. That is the website library rather than the app, and the app may be current - but nothing published lets a parent of a teenager check before installing.

Churchome vs. Hillsong app vs. Bethel.TV vs. RightNow Media

The axis is single-church app versus multi-church library, and three of these four sit on the same side. Churchome, the Hillsong app and Bethel.Online are each one house streaming its own output: one preaching voice, one worship catalogue, one theological register. RightNow Media is the other model - it calls itself 'the world's largest Christian streaming service,' claims '25,000+ biblical videos' from hundreds of teachers, and sells to churches rather than to you. Its FAQ is blunt: 'RightNow Media is free for individuals when their church, ministry, or organization provides access through a subscription.' No price is published; you request a demo. If you already belong to a congregation, check for a licence before paying anything, because many churchgoers have full access and do not know it.

Among the three single-church apps, Churchome is the only one free end to end and the only one where the app is the church rather than a companion to a campus. Bethel.Online costs about $13 a month for a deep back catalogue - Bill Johnson teaching, BSSM course content, Bethel Music sessions, conference replays - and rates 4.9 from 374 App Store ratings. The Hillsong app is free with an optional channel at roughly $8.99 a month, adds Roku and Apple TV where Churchome has neither, and rates 4.1 from 28 ratings. Churchome's 4.9 from 6,449 is the only aggregate here with real weight, and Google Play tells a cooler story about the same software: 4.4 from about 1,610 reviews across 100,000-plus installs.

Doctrinally the three single-church apps occupy adjacent ground, and buyers should know it rather than be sold past it. Churchome's published beliefs affirm 'water baptism for every believer,' that 'the baptism of the Holy Spirit is available to all believers,' and that the Spirit 'enables us to use spiritual gifts as enumerated in I Corinthians 12-14 and as manifested in the Early Church' - a charismatic, continuationist evangelical position, as is Bethel's and Hillsong's. Readers from cessationist traditions will meet that framing in all three. RightNow Media spans a broader evangelical range because it licenses from many publishers, which is the argument for the library model in a household that disagrees internally.

Alternatives to Churchome

Hillsong app★ 4.1The closest structural comparison: one church, free, a large worship catalogue and a sermon archive, plus Roku and Apple TV support Churchome lacks and an optional channel at about $8.99 a month. Rates 4.1 from only 28 App Store ratings.→Bethel.TV★ 4.9The paid version of the same idea - roughly $13 a month for Bill Johnson teaching, BSSM course content, Bethel Music sessions and conference replays from one church in Redding. Deeper catalogue than Churchome, same single-house limitation, charismatic register throughout.→RightNow Media★ 4.6The library model instead of the single-church model: '25,000+ biblical videos' from many teachers, licensed to churches rather than sold to you, and free to you if your congregation subscribes. No consumer price is published - ask your church first, because access is often already paid for.→Hallow★ 4.9If the Daily Guided Prayers are why you want Churchome, this is the deeper product on that axis - a large catalogue of guided prayer, examen and audio Scripture. It serves the Catholic tradition specifically, which is the thing to weigh before switching.→Abide★ 4.9The non-denominational equivalent: guided biblical meditations, sleep sessions and daily prayer, built for the same short habit Churchome's prayers target, with a paid tier for the full library.→

More Christian Streaming Apps

Answers.tv★ 4.9Answers in Genesis charges $4.99 a month for more than 7,000 videos built on one explicit premise: creation happened in six 24-hour days and the earth is thousands of years old, not billions. Whether that makes this the best-value subscription in Christian streaming or an unusable one turns on a single question - and it is not the price.→Grace Media★ 4.9Grace Community Church gives away its entire video catalogue - documentaries, hymn teaching, a children's series, the Sunday livestream - for nothing, with no ads and no in-app purchases. It is also not the app that holds John MacArthur's sermon archive, and nothing in the store listing tells you that - →Angel Studios★ 4.9A publicly traded studio that lets its paying members vote on what gets greenlit, then sells access through three tiers starting at $12 a month - and the series that built the company now streams somewhere else.→Bethel.tv★ 4.9The streaming home of Bethel Church (Redding) and Bethel Music - sermons, BSSM teaching, conference replays, and a decade-deep worship catalog in one app.→Moody Radio★ 4.9The free streaming app for Moody Bible Institute’s Christian radio network - listen live to local and internet stations, catch favorite teaching and talk programs on demand, and take it all into the car with CarPlay.→CBN Radio★ 4.8Twelve continuous Christian music streams from a 501(c)(3) that took in $299.2 million in donations last year - and the app is still labelled 'Contains ads' on Google Play.→