Privacy Policy
1. Who We Are
Well-Ordered Church is a sole proprietorship of Byron Adams, doing business as (d/b/a) Well-Ordered Church, in Washington State, USA ("Well-Ordered Church," "we," "us"). We provide draft governance and financial-oversight documents and educational resources for small churches.
Contact: [email protected] · Mail: P.O. Box 444, Elbe, WA 98330
2. What This Policy Covers
This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have when you:
- visit our website, wellorderedchurch.com;
- download our free Small Church Financial Health Checklist;
- subscribe to our newsletter;
- send us a request through our Request a Policy form;
- buy a template or Policy Pack, or sponsor a Policy Pack for another church; or
- answer our policy questionnaire so we can fill in your church's documents.
3. Information We Collect
| Activity | What we collect | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Visiting the website | Pages viewed, referring site (including AI chat or search referrals), approximate location from IP address, device and browser type | To understand which pages help people and to keep the site working |
| Downloading the checklist | Name, email address, church name, and optionally your role and church size | To send the checklist and, if you agree, the newsletter |
| Newsletter | Email address, name, and whether you open emails or click links | To send the newsletter and improve it |
| Purchases | Name, email, church name, billing address, and order details. Card details are handled by our payment processor; we never see or store your full card number. | To complete your order, send receipts, and handle refunds |
| Request a Policy form | Your name, email address, church name, and country, and optionally your region, attendance, tradition, governance, the policies you want, whether you'd like reduced or free access, your notes, and how you heard about us | To reply to your request by email. The form opens your own email app with your request filled in, so it reaches us as an ordinary email to [email protected]. |
| Policy questionnaire | Your answers about your church (for example, church name, location, governance, officer titles, signers, and spending limits), and the contact details of the person who answers | Only to fill in your church's documents (see Section 5) |
| Contacting us | Your message and contact details | To answer you |
We do not knowingly collect sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, or consumer health data. Please do not include them in questionnaire answers, form requests, or emails. If your answers include personal information (for example, names of officers), we treat it as confidential under Section 5. The person who answers for a church is responsible for having the church's permission to share that information with us, and we handle it only on the church's behalf.
4. How We Use Information
- To provide the checklist, newsletter, products, and services you request
- To fill in, deliver, and correct your church's documents
- To reply to requests sent through the Request a Policy form
- To send receipts, order updates, and replies to your questions
- To send the newsletter only if you subscribed; every issue has an unsubscribe link
- To understand how the site is used and improve it
- To protect against fraud and misuse, and to meet legal and tax obligations
We do not use your information for targeted advertising, we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not sell or rent it. We do not place advertising pixels or trackers from ad networks on our site.
5. Questionnaire Answers and Your Church's Documents
Your church's information is confidential. We never ask you to upload a constitution, bylaws, or other church documents. These rules apply to your questionnaire answers and the finished documents made from them:
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| Use | Questionnaire answers are used only to fill in your church's own documents. They are never used for examples, templates, case studies, or marketing without your church's written permission. |
| No AI training | No AI, hosting, or other service provider may use your questionnaire answers, documents, or customer data to train models. We use only providers whose terms or settings guarantee this, and we check those terms before adding a provider. |
| How documents are made | Your answers are placed automatically into template wording we reviewed in advance. No AI writes or rewrites your church's documents when you order, and no person reads each order before delivery. |
| Storage | Each church's answers and documents are stored privately, never shared publicly. |
| Access | Limited to Byron Adams and the tools and people needed to complete your order. |
| Delivery | Finished documents are delivered right after payment, only to the person who placed the order, or to someone that person names in writing. |
| Retention | Answers and finished documents are kept for 12 months after delivery, so you can download them again or report a correction, then deleted. |
| Deletion on request | Ask at any time at [email protected]. We delete your church's documents and confirm in writing within 30 days of the request. |
| Incidents | If we learn your church's documents may have been exposed, we will tell you promptly, and within any time limit the law requires (some state laws, including Washington's, require notice to affected residents within 30 days for certain personal information). |
6. Who We Share Information With
We share information only with service providers that help us run the business, and only as needed:
| Provider type | Purpose | Provider |
|---|---|---|
| Website hosting | Running the website | Cloudflare (Cloudflare Pages) |
| Receiving Request a Policy form submissions and messages sent to [email protected] | Named on request | |
| Newsletter platform | Sending the newsletter and checklist emails | beehiiv |
| Payment processor | Processing payments | Stripe (once payments open) |
| Document storage | Storing questionnaire answers and finished documents | Named on request |
| Analytics | Understanding site traffic | Named on request |
We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or as part of a transfer of the business (in which case this policy, or one at least as protective, will continue to apply). We never sell your information or share it for others' marketing.
7. Cookies and Analytics
Our website uses cookies or similar technology to keep the site working and to measure traffic. You can block or delete cookies in your browser; some site features may not work without them.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. Because we do not track visitors across other websites or sell or share personal information for advertising, our practices are the same whether or not your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal.
8. Email and the Newsletter
- You receive the newsletter only if you sign up or check a box to opt in when you download the checklist. The newsletter is sent through beehiiv, and every email has an unsubscribe link.
- Every marketing email includes a clear unsubscribe link that works for at least 30 days after sending, and our valid physical postal address (a street address, a post office box registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a registered private mailbox).
- We honor unsubscribe requests within 10 business days, without charging a fee or asking for more than your email address, and we never sell or transfer the email addresses of people who unsubscribe.
- Our subject lines and "From" information are accurate, and sponsored content is clearly labeled.
- We may still send emails about an order you placed (receipts, delivery, corrections).
9. How Long We Keep Information
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Questionnaire answers and finished documents | 12 months after delivery, then deleted |
| Request a Policy form submissions | 24 months |
| Newsletter subscriber data | Until you unsubscribe, plus a short period to honor the unsubscribe |
| Checklist download contacts | 24 months after the last interaction |
| Purchase and tax records | As long as tax law requires (generally 7 years) |
| Emails and support messages | 24 months |
| Website analytics | Up to 25 months |
10. Your Choices and Requests
Wherever you live, you may ask us to:
- see the personal information we hold about you;
- correct it;
- delete it (including your church's questionnaire answers and documents); or
- stop sending you the newsletter.
Email [email protected]. We may need to confirm your identity, or your authority to act for your church, before acting. We respond within 30 days. Some laws give residents of certain states additional rights; we will honor them where they apply. Comprehensive state privacy laws generally apply only to businesses above size thresholds (for example, California's applies to businesses with over $26,625,000 in annual revenue, or that buy, sell, or share the information of 100,000 or more consumers), but we offer the choices above to everyone.
10a. International Users (GDPR and UK GDPR)
We serve churches anywhere in the world. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the GDPR or UK GDPR gives you the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, and to object to how we use it. You may also ask us to limit how we use it or to give you a copy in a portable format, and you may complain to your local data protection authority. We rely on your consent (for the newsletter), on what is needed to provide services you request (for orders, the questionnaire, and requests), and on our legitimate interest in running and protecting the business. Church membership information can reveal religious belief, which these laws treat as a special category of data. We handle all church information, including questionnaire answers and request forms, as sensitive: we collect the minimum, limit who can see it, and delete it on request. To make a request, email [email protected].
10b. Where Information Is Processed
Well-Ordered Church is based in the United States, and our service providers may store and process information in the United States or other countries. If you are outside the US, your information may be transferred to and processed in the US, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live. We use providers that offer appropriate safeguards for these transfers.
10c. Sponsored Packs
When one church or person sponsors a Policy Pack for another church, both sides stay anonymous by default. We never share a receiving church's name, people's names, city, finances, or document contents with a sponsor. A sponsor receives only a short, anonymized note (for example, a region and church size), and only with the receiving church's permission. An introduction happens only if both sides agree in writing.
10d. Sanctions Screening
US sanctions laws apply to our services, including free and sponsored packs. Before delivering a pack outside the US, we may check basic information about the church and its contact person (such as names and country) against the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions lists. We keep a brief record of each check (date, names checked, and result) and use it only for this purpose.
11. Security
We use reasonable safeguards, including private storage, limited access, and secure payment processing. No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
12. Children
Our services are for church leaders and are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If we learn that we collected personal information from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will delete it. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us.
13. Links to Other Sites
Our content links to other websites, including esv.org for Scripture references and sources we cite. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.
14. Changes to This Policy
We will post any changes here with a new effective date. If we make a material change, we will notify affected customers by email before it takes effect. We will not use information we already hold in a materially different way (for example, to train AI models or share it with new third parties) without your affirmative consent. We will not make such changes quietly or retroactively.
15. Contact
Well-Ordered Church (Byron Adams, sole proprietor) · [email protected] · P.O. Box 444, Elbe, WA 98330