HOME OF LIFE MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH
4650 West Madison St., Chicago, IL 60644 | 
773-626-8654 | homeoflife.net
PRIVACY NOTICE
| |
How We Care for Your Personal Information
Effective Date: August 17, 2026 | Last Updated: August 17, 2026
Approved by the Official Board of Home of Life Missionary Baptist Church
A promise, in plain words. When you share something with us — your name, your email, a prayer, or a gift — you are trusting us. This notice explains, in simple language, what information we collect, why we collect it, who can see it, and how you can ask us questions or ask us to delete it. We wrote it so that everyone in our church family, from our youngest readers to our oldest members, can understand it.
We are Home of Life Missionary Baptist Church, an Illinois not-for-profit religious corporation located at 4650 West Madison St., Chicago, IL 60644. This notice covers our church, our website (homeoflife.net), and our church programs and ministries.
A note about HLCDC: the Home of Life Community Development Corporation (HLCDC) is a related but separate organization. When you give information directly to HLCDC or its programs, that information is handled under HLCDC's own practices.
We only collect what we need to serve you. Here is what that looks like:
| When you... | We may collect... | Why we need it |
| Send a prayer request (online form or paper note) | Your name, email address, and your prayer or message | So our pastor and prayer team can pray for you and, if you ask, respond to you |
| Contact us (form, phone, email) | Your name, contact details, and your question | So we can answer you |
| Give a donation, tithe, or offering | Your name, contact details, gift amount, and giving records. Card and bank details go directly to the payment service — we never see or store your full card number | To receive your gift, keep the financial records the law requires, and send you a giving statement for taxes |
| Become a member or join a ministry | Your name, address, phone, email, family information, and ministry involvement | To keep our membership rolls, stay in touch, and organize church life |
| Enroll a child or teen in a youth program | The child's name and age, parent / guardian contact details, and any health or emergency information you choose to share | To run the program safely and reach you in an emergency |
| Attend services or events | Photos or video where you may appear; livestreams of worship services | To share our worship and church life with our community |
| Visit our website | Basic technical information collected by our website provider (like browser type). Our site also embeds services such as Google Maps and links to Facebook and YouTube, which follow their own privacy policies | To keep the website working |
What we do NOT do: We do not sell your personal information to anyone — ever. We do not collect fingerprints, face scans, or any other biometric information. We do not use your information for advertising.
Prayers written on paper notes are read by the Pastor, prayed over, and then destroyed. They are not filed, copied, or kept. Prayer requests sent through our website are treated the same way: once they have been prayed over and any reply sent, they are deleted. Prayer requests are shared only with the Pastor and, when needed, our trusted prayer team — never published, never posted, never discussed outside that circle without your permission. Our full Prayer Note Confidentiality Policy is available from the church office.
We care deeply about protecting children. Our website is not designed to collect information from children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect it online without a parent or guardian's consent, consistent with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Youth program information is collected from parents and guardians directly, kept only by the youth leaders who need it, and protected with extra care. Photos of children are published only with a parent or guardian's written permission.
We share personal information only in these limited situations:
- Service providers we trust. Companies that help us operate — our website host, and payment services like PushPay, Zelle, Cash App, and Givelify for donations. They may only use your information to provide their service.
- Inside the church. Church leaders, staff, and volunteers see only the information they need for their role — for example, the Treasurer and Finance Director see giving records; youth leaders see youth program forms.
- When the law requires it. If a court order or law requires us to share information, or to protect someone's safety.
We never sell, rent, or trade your personal information.
Illinois law (the Personal Information Protection Act) requires organizations like ours to use reasonable security measures — and we do. Paper records are kept in locked storage at the church office. Electronic records are kept in password-protected accounts, with access limited to the people who need them. When we no longer need information, we shred paper records and permanently delete electronic ones. If a data breach ever affects your personal information, we will notify you promptly, as Illinois law requires.
Only as long as we need it. In short:
- Prayer notes: destroyed after they are prayed over — not retained.
- Contact and inquiry messages: deleted within about one year after your question is resolved.
- Donation and financial records: kept seven years, as tax rules require.
- Membership records: kept while you are a member; historical rolls (like baptisms) are part of our permanent church history.
- Youth program forms: kept for the program year plus a short period, then destroyed.
Our full retention schedule is in the church's Privacy Program, available from the church office.
You can always ask us to:
- See the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct information that is wrong or out of date.
- Delete your information, where we are not legally required to keep it (for example, we must keep donation records for tax purposes).
- Remove a photo of you or your child from our website or publications.
- Stop receiving church emails or newsletters.
Just ask — in person, by phone, by mail, or by email. We will respond within 30 days. There is never a charge, and we will never treat you differently for asking.
Privacy contact: Compliance Officer, Home of Life Missionary Baptist Church, 4650 West Madison St., Chicago, IL 60644.
Phone: 773-626-8654. You may also speak with any church officer, who will pass your question to the right person.
If our practices change, we will update this notice, change the “Last Updated” date at the top, and announce significant changes to the congregation. This notice is governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Illinois. This notice reflects our commitment to treating every person's information with the same care, dignity, and respect that our faith calls us to show one another.