Every student moves from Seed to Deeply Rooted as you invest. You can finally see who's drifting.
Conversations, check-ins, and milestones grow each student's Connection score. It never shrinks, and a separate warmth signal nudges you when a student has gone quiet.
See how The Garden works
“I met the Lord at a CIY Conference in 2022, and from then on ministry became the only option that made sense.”
Meet the teamHoodies, caps and more with the MR roots mark. Made to order and shipped to you.
Questions about Roots, partnership opportunities, or just want to talk youth ministry? We'd love to hear from you.
You’ll hear back from us directly, usually within a day.
Messages reach the Ministry Roots team directly — you're never writing to a ticket queue.
A quick look at the app your team will actually use.
Most ministry software is built for buildings, budgets, and attendance rolls. Roots is built for the part that actually changes lives — the leader who remembers what a student said last week, and follows up. It does three things exceptionally well instead of forty things poorly.
Real words from the people using Roots with their students.
Every plan includes unlimited conversations, reminders, and the Garden.
Yes. Student information is only visible to the leaders in your workspace, and conversation notes belong to the leader who wrote them. See our Privacy Policy.
Yes — each leader signs in individually, so you always know who logged what and can remove access when someone steps away.
iPhone, Android, and any web browser — your team can use whatever they already carry, and everything stays in sync.
Start free on Seed for as long as you want. And if budget is the only thing standing in the way, reach out — we'll work something out.
Ministry Roots ("Ministry Roots," "Roots," "we," "us," or "our") is a sole proprietorship operated by Dylan Hovanec that operates the Roots application available at ministryroots.com. We are committed to protecting the privacy of youth ministry leaders, volunteers, and the students whose information is managed through our platform. By using Roots, you agree to the practices described in this policy.
Roots is a youth ministry relationship-tracking platform designed exclusively for youth ministry leaders, pastors, volunteers, and church organizations. Roots is operated by Ministry Roots, a sole proprietorship owned and operated by Dylan Hovanec.
Roots is designed for youth ministry professionals to manage information about the students they serve. This may include information about minors under 18. Information stored about students may include:
Important: Student information is entered exclusively by authorized ministry leaders, and is entered and owned by the ministry team rather than by the student. Roots does not collect this information directly from minors.
We do not use student or volunteer information for advertising or marketing, and we do not sell it to third parties.
If you believe a child's information has been entered without appropriate authorization, contact us and we will promptly remove it.
Roots is built with React and Google Firebase and deployed on Vercel. Firebase provides industry-standard security including data encrypted in transit (TLS/SSL) and at rest. Access is restricted by workspace-level permissions, so student data stays inside the workspace it was entered in and is not visible to other organizations using Roots. We limit internal access to what is needed to operate and support the product.
The App also enforces:
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share it only with the service providers that help us run Roots, under obligations to protect it:
We may disclose information if required by law or to protect the safety of individuals.
Roots offers leaders an optional text-message service for workspace announcements — messages posted by leaders in the ministry workspaces you belong to. It is off unless you turn it on. We do not send marketing or promotional text messages.
Your number is used only to send the messages you agreed to receive, and is shared only with Twilio, which delivers them on our behalf. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.
Roots never sends text messages to students. Phone numbers a ministry team records about a student are never used to send messages of any kind.
Reply STOP to any message to opt out, or turn the switch off in Settings. Full details are in our SMS Terms & Opt-In.
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. You may request deletion at any time by contacting us. When a Workspace is deleted, all associated data is permanently removed.
You can also update or delete information inside your workspace at any time, and delete your account and its data yourself from the Account Deletion page.
To exercise any of these rights, email support@ministryroots.com. We will respond within 30 days.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify users of material changes via email or in-app notice, and will update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of Roots after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Ministry Roots ("Roots," "we," "us," or "our"), including our website and app. By creating an account or using Roots, you agree to these Terms.
Roots is intended for adult ministry leaders, staff, and volunteers who use it to organize and care for the students in their ministry. You must be at least 18 years old to create a Roots account.
You're responsible for the accuracy of the information you enter and for keeping your login credentials secure. You're responsible for activity that happens under your account.
Roots is a tool for tracking relationships with students, many of whom are minors. You agree to use Roots consistent with your church or organization's own policies for handling information about minors, and applicable law. Don't enter information you don't have appropriate authority or consent to record.
Roots offers a free tier and paid plans (Grove and Forest) billed monthly or annually through Stripe. Paid plans renew automatically until canceled. You can cancel at any time; access continues through the end of the paid period. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law.
You agree not to misuse Roots — including attempting to access other organizations' data, reverse-engineering the platform, or using it for anything unlawful or harmful.
You may stop using Roots and delete your account at any time (see Account Deletion). We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.
Roots is provided "as is." We work hard to keep it reliable and secure, but we don't guarantee it will be error-free or uninterrupted. To the extent permitted by law, Ministry Roots is not liable for indirect or consequential damages arising from your use of the platform.
We may update these Terms as Roots evolves. Continued use after changes means you accept the updated Terms.
Questions about these Terms? Reach out at support@ministryroots.com or 330-333-0349.
Ministry Roots offers an optional text-message service to the adult leaders and volunteers who use our apps — currently Roots, and any Ministry Roots app released later. This page describes what we send, how you consent to receive it, and how to stop. It is written to be read alongside our Privacy Policy.
Texts go to ministry leaders only. Ministry Roots never sends text messages to students. Students do not hold accounts in our apps, cannot opt in, and phone numbers recorded about a student by a ministry team are never used to send messages of any kind.
Messages are sent from (866) 476-6874. That number sends only the messages described here; it is not a support line, and calls to it are not answered — to reach us, use the contact details in section 9.
The Ministry Roots messaging program sends one kind of message, and only to leaders who have opted in: workspace announcements. An announcement is a message a leader or owner posts to a ministry workspace you belong to in Roots — for example, a schedule change for an upcoming event or a reminder that forms are due.
We do not send marketing or promotional text messages. Product news and updates from Ministry Roots are sent by email only. Texts are separate from the emails our apps send, which are controlled by their own settings.
Examples of the messages, exactly as they are sent:
Ministry Roots (Grace Student Ministry): Dylan - Wednesday night is moved to 6:30 at the church. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.
Ministry Roots (Grace Student Ministry): Kate - Retreat forms are due Friday. Bring them to youth group or drop them at the church office. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.
Texting is optional and is never a condition of using our apps. You can create an account and use every feature without ever giving us a phone number. Declining, or opting out later, restricts nothing and changes nothing about your account.
Consent is given inside the app by the account holder. There is no other way to be added to the program — we do not accept numbers from third parties, purchased lists, or sign-ups made on someone else's behalf. The steps are:
The wording you agree to, exactly as it appears on that screen, is:
“I agree to receive text messages from Ministry Roots at the number above with announcements posted by leaders in the ministry workspaces I belong to. Consent is not required to use Roots or any of its features. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.”
This is that screen, exactly as it appears in Roots:
We record your consent against the specific phone number you agreed with, together with the date and time and the exact wording above. Consent does not transfer: if you later change the number on your profile, the previous permission is discarded and you are asked to agree again for the new number.
Message frequency varies and depends on how active your workspace is. Most leaders receive a few messages per month.
Ministry Roots does not charge you for these messages. Message and data rates may apply under your own plan with your mobile carrier.
Reply STOP to any message from (866) 476-6874 to end all further messages. You will receive one confirmation that you have been unsubscribed, and nothing after that. You can also turn the switch off in Settings at any time, which has the same effect.
Opting out of texts does not affect your account, and it does not stop the equivalent emails — those are controlled separately in Settings.
Reply HELP to any message from (866) 476-6874, or contact support@ministryroots.com or 330-333-0349.
Mobile carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Delivery is not guaranteed, and messages may not be supported by every carrier or handset.
Phone numbers collected for this program are used only to send the messages described above. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Information is shared only with the messaging provider that delivers the texts on our behalf, and only for that purpose. All other handling of your data is covered by our Privacy Policy.
Ministry Roots — support@ministryroots.com — 330-333-0349 — ministryroots.com
You can permanently delete your Roots account and all associated data at any time, directly from the app.
Deleting your account permanently removes your login credentials and profile. If you're the sole admin of a workspace, your workspace and the student and team data within it — conversation logs, events, check-ins — are deleted as well. If you're a member of a shared workspace, your personal access is removed; workspace data owned by the organization remains with the remaining admins.
If you can't access the app or would rather have us process the deletion directly, email support@ministryroots.com from the email address on your account, or call 330-333-0349. We'll confirm your identity and complete the deletion within 30 days.
For more on how we handle data, see our Privacy Policy.
