For churches
Getting started
This is the order that works for most churches, from your first sign-in to sharing the gallery. Most churches are set up in an afternoon. Nothing you add is public until you choose to publish it.
The free trial #
- 30 days, with no card needed to start.
- Up to 25 missionaries and 200 AI and voice credits, given once.
- Everything in the Church plan, with Our building limited to 5 spots.
- Your own
.missionarylane.orgaddress.
When the trial ends, an owner chooses a plan in Billing. See Plans, credits and add-ons.
To create your church you type its name and web address, your full name and your role at the church, and tick a box to confirm that you can act for the church and agree, on its behalf, to the Terms of Service and the Data Processing Addendum, having read the Privacy Policy. We record which versions you accepted, with your name, the time, your IP address and browser. You become the church's first owner. See Legal and your data.
Running your own copy instead? Start at Self-hosting; the desktop app does the steps below for you.
The order to do things in #
- Create your account and your church. Go to missionarylane.org/signup and choose Create account. Confirm your email, then set up two-step sign-in with an authenticator app on your phone. Next, name your church and choose its web address, such as
gracechurch.missionarylane.org. You become the church's owner. - Run the setup wizard. It opens by itself after you create the church. See the setup wizard below.
- Add your missionaries. Each missionary or ministry has seven steps; only the name is required to start. New missionaries are saved as Drafts. See Missionaries and letters.
- Upload their latest letter. The AI reads it and fills in a summary, prayer requests and praises. Check them, then save.
- Design each kiosk with AI. It picks colours and writes the spoken narration. If a voice is set up, the narration is recorded in a human voice.
- Make each kiosk Public in step 7, Privacy & publish.
- Invite your helpers in Settings → Members. See Members, roles and sign-in.
- Share the gallery with a link, a QR code or your church website. See Sharing and embedding.
The Getting started card on the Missionaries page ticks off these steps as you go. You can hide it once you no longer need it.
The setup wizard #
The wizard has six screens. Only admins and owners can open it. Each of the first four screens has Skip for now, and the wizard remembers where you stopped on that computer and browser. To open it again later, go to Settings and choose Run setup again.
| Screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Your look | Borrow your website's colours and fonts, or start from one of five looks, then fine-tune. See Your look. |
| Church details | Name, logo, icon, welcome photo and line, links to your website, giving page and “Plan your visit” page, address and phone. |
| AI helper & voice | Use Missionary Lane credits, or paste your own AI and voice keys. See your own keys. |
| First missionary | Add the first family or ministry. |
| Share it | Your gallery link, a QR code and the code to put the gallery on your website. |
| Done | Go to the Missionaries page and keep adding families. |
A sensible first week #
- Ask each missionary for their latest letter, 10 to 30 recent photos and, if they can, one 360° photo of where they serve. Send them the guide for missionaries.
- Ask anyone serving somewhere sensitive what is safe to show before you add them. See restricted missionaries.
- Publish a few kiosks first, walk the gallery yourself on a phone and a computer, then publish the rest.