Privacy policy

Last updated: 15 October 2026.

Who we are. This website and app are run by RCCG New Life International, Statiestraat 149, 2600 Berchem-Antwerpen, Belgium (New Life International Church). We are the data controller for the personal data described here, and we handle it in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Belgian law. Our contact details are at the bottom of this page.

What we collect and why. We only collect what a church needs to welcome you, answer you and keep in touch with its members. Each purpose below names the legal basis we rely on.

Contact form. When you write to us through the website (on the Visit page or a department page) we store the details you type: your name, your email address or phone number, and your message, together with the department you chose. We use them to respond to you. Legal basis: your consent, given by ticking the box under the form. You can withdraw it at any time by asking us to delete your message.

Member account. If you register for the members area we store your name, your email address and a securely hashed password, plus the date you agreed to this policy. We never ask for or store your phone number. You confirm your email address once by clicking a link we send you; apart from that link and any password reset you request yourself, emails from us never contain links. Legal basis: performance of the membership service you asked for (article 6(1)(b) GDPR).

Private messages. Messages between you and the church can be read by church staff and pastors, are never visible to any other member, and delete themselves automatically after 6 days. Deleting your account erases your remaining messages immediately. Legal basis: performance of the membership service.

Prayer requests. If you send a prayer request to Pastor Mike, Pastor Boma or both, only the pastor or pastors you chose can read it and reply. Church staff and administrators cannot see it in the app, and no email copy is sent. Every message in a prayer conversation deletes itself 30 days after it was sent, and all of them go immediately if you delete your account. Because a prayer request may reveal your faith or your health, it is special-category data; we handle it as a religious body looking after its own members (article 9(2)(d) GDPR), only for pastoral care, and never share it.

Joining a department and feedback. If you ask to join a department in the app, we keep your name, email, the department and your message so that Pastor Boma’s team can contact you; staff, pastors and the head of that department can read it, other members cannot. If you send feedback, you choose whether to send it with your name; without it we store no link to you at all, and we cannot reply. Both are kept for 12 months. Legal basis: performance of the membership service.

Department reports. If you are the head of a department, you can send its reports in the app, typed in or as a PDF or Word file. We keep the report, the file and your name with it, so that the pastors and church staff can read it; the heads of that department can read it too, other members cannot. Reports and their files are kept for 2 years, then deleted. If you delete your account, the department’s reports stay, with the name they were sent under. Legal basis: legitimate interest in running the church’s departments.

Birthday. If you choose to, you give your birthday as a day and a month (never the year). We use it only to send you a greeting on the day and to show your name, with other members celebrating that month, on the Love Sunday page in your birthday month. You can change or remove it at any time on your profile page. Legal basis: your consent, given by adding it.

Appointments. If you ask to meet a pastor through the app we store the day and time, your name and the phone number you enter for that request. Only church staff and pastors can see the number; it is never shown to other members or copied to your account, and it is erased automatically once the appointment is over, declined or cancelled, and in any case within 30 days. The appointment record itself is deleted 90 days after the date. Legal basis: performance of the membership service.

Event answers and reactions. If you tap “I’m coming” on an event, church staff can see your name on that event’s list so they can plan; other members never see it, and your answer is deleted 30 days after the event. If you react to a message from the pastors, the pastors and church staff can see who reacted; other members only see how many. Reactions are kept as long as the message itself. Legal basis: performance of the membership service.

Profile picture. You may add a picture to your member account if you wish. We keep a small square copy only (camera and location data are removed). Only church staff and pastors can see it, next to your name when you write to the church; other members never see it. You can replace or remove it at any time from your profile page. Legal basis: your consent, given by uploading it.

Notifications. If you switch on notifications we store a device token so we can reach that device. It identifies the device, not you personally, and it never includes a phone number. Switch notifications off in the app or in your browser settings and the token is removed. Legal basis: your consent, given when you switch them on.

Videos and links from the pastors. A video the pastors send with a message is stored with our hosting provider for 30 days and then deleted; only signed-in members are given its address. When a message contains a link, our server looks up that link once to show its picture and title, and keeps a copy of the picture with the message, so your phone does not contact Facebook, TikTok or YouTube until you tap the link yourself.

Broadcast emails. When the pastors send an urgent broadcast, every approved member receives it by email as well as by notification, so that nobody misses something that matters for the whole church. There is no separate switch for these emails: they are part of being a member. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in reaching the congregation (article 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object at any time by writing to us or by deleting your account.

Visitor statistics. We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views so we can see which pages help people. It is cookieless, it does not store your IP address, and it does not track you across other websites, so there is nothing here for you to consent to or opt out of. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used.

Videos and the map. The Watch page and the Visit page show a YouTube player and a Google map, but neither loads until you tap it. Until then your browser makes no request to Google. When you tap, Google receives your IP address and may set cookies under its own privacy policy. The YouTube player is the privacy-enhanced version (youtube-nocookie.com).

Photos of people. We publish photos from church life in our gallery and on department pages. We only publish wide group photos, and we never publish a photo in which a child can be identified without written consent from a parent or guardian on file. If you appear in a photo and would like it removed, write to us and we will take it down.

Who processes data for us. Like every website, ours runs on services provided by other companies, which act on our instructions as processors: Vercel (hosting, photo storage and visitor statistics, servers in Frankfurt, Germany), Neon (database, Frankfurt, Germany), Resend and Hostinger (sending our emails, in the EU), and Google (YouTube and Google Maps, only when you tap to load them). Some of these companies are headquartered in the United States; where personal data leaves the EU it is protected by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or by the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

What we do not do. We do not sell your data, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not share it outside the church’s ministry teams except with the processors above or where the law requires.

How long we keep it. Private messages: 6 days. Prayer requests and the pastors’ replies: 30 days. Videos sent with a message from the pastors: 30 days. The phone number on an appointment request: until the appointment is over, and at most 30 days. Appointment records: 90 days after the appointment date. “I’m coming” answers: 30 days after the event. Reactions to messages from the pastors: as long as the message. Contact-form messages: 90 days after we have handled them, and at most 12 months. Department join requests and feedback: 12 months. Department reports and their files: 2 years. Accounts that were registered but never confirmed by email: 30 days. Your member account, profile picture and birthday: until you delete the account (or, for the birthday, remove it), which you can do yourself at any time. Deleting your account removes your account, your profile picture, your messages, your appointments, your prayer requests, your department join requests and named feedback, your event answers and reactions, and your notification devices straight away.

Cookies. This website uses one cookie, named payload-token, and only for signed-in members and staff: it keeps you signed in for up to 7 days. It sets no advertising or tracking cookies, so there is no cookie banner.

Your rights. You may ask at any time to see the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to receive a copy of it in a machine-readable file, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to withdraw any consent you gave. Members can download a copy of their data and delete their account themselves from the Settings page in the app. For anything else, write to us using the details below and we will respond within one month. If you believe we have handled your data wrongly, you also have the right to complain to the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit / Autorité de protection des données), Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels, www.gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be.

Changes. If we change how we handle personal data we will update this page and the date at the top.