Ministry Portal Terms of Service

Version: 2026-05-21 Effective Date: May 21, 2026

Welcome to the Ministry Portal ("the Portal"), an internal tool operated by Shadow Mountain Community Church en Español ("SMCC en Español", "we", "us", "our"), a ministry of Shadow Mountain Community Church located at 2100 Greenfield Dr., El Cajon, CA 92019, United States.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Portal. By logging in, accepting the consent notice, or using any Portal feature, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Portal.

Spanish governs in case of conflict. The Portal serves a primarily Spanish-speaking ministry. This English version is provided for accessibility. If any conflict arises between the English and Spanish versions, the Spanish version prevails.

1. Nature of the Portal

The Portal is an internal ministry management tool designed to support staff, leaders, and active members of SMCC en Español in their service, discipleship formation, pastoral communication, and event administration. It is not a commercial service, it is not sold, and access is granted by invitation from the church. Use of the Portal is completely free for all users and is funded by Shadow Mountain en Español as part of its ministerial service.

The Portal may include, among other features:

Bible formation and discipleship courses (Paideia, Arjé, Doulos, Logos)
Devotional exercises and spiritual formation
Attendance and ministerial participation tracking
Communication among leaders, coordinators, and pastors
Graphics and communication material generation
Administrative requests (memorials, weddings, special events)
Features powered by artificial intelligence (see Section 7)

2. Acceptance and Changes

These Terms form a binding agreement between you and SMCC en Español. We may update them from time to time to reflect changes in law, our practices, or Portal features. When we make material changes:

We will publish the updated version at /terms with a new effective date;
We will ask you to accept the new version the next time you log in; and
You will not be able to continue using features that require consent until you accept the current version.

Your history of accepted versions is preserved in your profile for audit purposes.

3. Eligibility and Accounts

3.1 Legal Age Required

You must be of legal age (18 years or older) to have your own account in the Portal. SMCC en Español does not accept direct registration from minors.

3.2 Minors

Participation of minors under 18 in ministry activities is recorded exclusively under the account of an authorized leader, coordinator, parent, or legal guardian, and only with documented written parental consent.

For children under 13, the additional protections of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA, 15 U.S.C. §6501 et seq.) apply, including reinforced parental verification and prohibition on collecting personal data outside the strictly authorized ministerial context.

3.3 One Account per Person

Each account is individual and non-transferable. You are responsible for:

Maintaining the confidentiality of your password;
All activity performed under your account;
Immediately notifying portal@shadowmountain.org of any unauthorized use.

Do not share your account with spouses, children, or other ministry members. Each member who needs access must request their own account.

3.4 Accurate Information

The information you provide (name, email, ministry, profile photo, gender for ministerial assignments, etc.) must be accurate, current, and complete. You agree to keep it up to date.

4. Permitted Use

You may use the Portal exclusively for the ministerial purposes for which access was granted. This includes:

Fulfilling your responsibilities as leader, coordinator, or team member;
Participating in assigned courses and formation exercises;
Communicating with other team members through enabled channels;
Practicing devotional exercises and spiritual formation;
Generating approved materials for ministry work.

5. Prohibited Use

You agree not to:

Use the Portal for commercial, partisan political, or non-ministerial purposes;
Access, attempt to access, or help others access information, accounts, or areas for which you do not have authorization;
Upload, transmit, or generate content that is illegal, defamatory, obscene, harassing, discriminatory, fraudulent, or that infringes third-party rights (including copyright and intellectual property);
Share passwords, session tokens, screenshots with other members' personal data, or publicly expose pastoral conversations, private prayers, or another member's documented pastoral decisions;
Reverse engineer, decompile, scan for vulnerabilities, overload infrastructure, or attempt to bypass security mechanisms;
Use unauthorized bots, scrapers, or automation;
Impersonate another member, leader, or pastor;
Upload malware or files designed to harm or disrupt the service;
Use AI features to generate false content attributable to pastoral leaders, or for purposes contrary to the Christian values of SMCC.

Violation of these prohibitions may result in immediate suspension of your account and, where appropriate, referral to civil or criminal authorities.

6. Authorship and Ownership of Portal Content

6.1 Two Categories of Content

The Portal hosts two distinct types of content, with different authorship regimes:

(a) SMCC institutional content — belongs to Shadow Mountain en Español, under the institution of Shadow Mountain Community Church. Includes:

Formative materials published by SMCC within the Portal (courses, lessons, devotionals, biblical resources, programs);
Files produced with the Portal's tools as part of coordinated ministerial work (institutional graphics, announcements, slides, templates, communication materials);
Ministerial and administrative information recorded in the performance of ministry roles (attendance records, event planning, official internal communications, operational reports);
Works derived from the above.

(b) User personal content — belongs to you. SMCC en Español does not claim authorship over it. Includes:

Your course responses, reflections, comments, and individual contributions;
Messages you send to other members and conversations in chats (including conversations with AI assistants);
Photographs you upload (profile photo, family photos in forms such as memorials, personal images);
Your personal identity (name, likeness, voice, biography);
Prayers recorded in personal spaces and documented pastoral decisions.

When a single item contains elements of both categories (for example, a graphic announcement in which your photograph and name appear): the composition, design, and layout are institutional content; your likeness, name, and personal data contained in it remain yours.

6.2 Your Personal Content

You are and remain the owner of your Personal Content. By accepting these Terms, you grant Shadow Mountain en Español a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license over your ministerial content, your name, and your contact information.

This license will remain in effect for Shadow Mountain en Español permanently, even after your active relationship with the ministry ends or you request deactivation of your account. By accepting these Terms, to the fullest extent permitted by law, you release and discharge Shadow Mountain en Español, its affiliates, staff, volunteers, and agents from any claim, demand, or legal action that may arise from the authorized exercise of this license.

SMCC en Español will use this information to promote the events and activities of its ministries on public and social media, as well as on any other channel of distribution appropriate to the ministerial mission.

The operational processing of your Personal Content by Portal tools (including infrastructure providers such as Firebase and, when you use AI-marked features, AI providers) is described in detail in the Privacy Policy.

6.3 SMCC Institutional Content

The Institutional Content described in Section 6.1(a) is the property of SMCC en Español or its licensors. As an active ministry participant, SMCC grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access, read, and use this content within the Portal, to the extent necessary for your formation and ministerial service. This license terminates automatically if your active relationship with SMCC en Español ends, or if so determined by a substantiated pastoral or administrative decision.

6.4 Pastoral Confidentiality

Pastoral Decisions recorded in courses and other spaces marked as private are technically protected so that only you, and in specific cases the Senior Pastor, can read them. SMCC en Español commits to respecting this confidentiality and to not using these contents for statistical analysis, AI model training, or display to third parties, except:

Legal obligation (valid court order);
Grave and imminent risk to your life or that of a third party;
Your express written consent.

7. Artificial Intelligence Processing

The Portal uses third-party AI models — currently Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini) — for features such as devotional generation, drafting communications, content translation, course assistance, and image generation for announcements.

When you use AI features:

Your content (questions, answers, messages, descriptions) is sent to these providers for processing;
The providers are contractually committed to SMCC en Español not to use your content to train their general models (see Privacy Policy, Third-Party Processors section);
AI-generated results are suggestions, not binding pastoral instructions. They may contain theological, historical, or factual errors. Always review content before using it in a ministerial context.

If you prefer that your content not be processed by AI, avoid features marked with the AI indicator, or contact portal@shadowmountain.org for a manual alternative when available.

8. SMCC Intellectual Property

All content published by SMCC en Español within the Portal — sermons, devotionals, courses, graphics, templates, source code, brand, visual identity — is the property of SMCC or its licensors, and is protected by United States intellectual property laws and international treaties.

You may use this content only within the Portal and for the assigned ministerial purposes. You may not:

Redistribute, sell, sublicense, or publish this content outside the Portal;
Remove copyright or attribution notices;
Use SMCC's brand or logos in unauthorized projects.

Reproductions of music, books, or third-party videos included in the Portal are governed by licenses acquired by SMCC (CCLI, publisher licenses, etc.) and are subject to the restrictions of those licenses.

9. Copyright Infringement Reports (DMCA)

If you believe in good faith that material hosted on the Portal infringes your copyright, send a notification to portal@shadowmountain.org with the information required by Section 512(c)(3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

Your physical or electronic signature;
Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed;
Identification of the infringing material and its location on the Portal;
Your contact information;
Good-faith statement that the use is not authorized;
Statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the rights holder.

10. Suspension and Termination

10.1 By You

You may request deactivation of your account at any time by writing to portal@shadowmountain.org. Deletion is performed according to the procedure described in our Privacy Policy.

10.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without prior notice, if:

You violate these Terms;
Your use puts the security, privacy, or integrity of other members at risk;
Required by law, court order, or a substantiated pastoral decision;
You no longer have an active ministerial relationship with SMCC en Español (after a reasonable archive period);
The Portal is discontinued.

Account termination does not automatically delete records that SMCC is required to keep for legal, accounting, historical, or pastoral reasons (see Privacy Policy).

11. Limitations of the Portal as Spiritual Guidance

The Portal is a ministerial support tool, not a substitute for:

Professional medical, psychiatric, or psychological advice;
Legal or financial advice;
In-person pastoral counseling when needed;
Emergency services in crisis situations (suicide, domestic violence, abuse, medical emergencies).

If you are in a crisis, call 911 (U.S.) or the 988 crisis line before seeking help inside the Portal.

Devotionals, prayers, AI-generated suggestions, and formative materials available in the Portal are provided "as is" for edifying purposes, without replacing personal discernment, the counsel of qualified pastoral leaders, or professional assistance when appropriate.

12. Warranty Disclaimers

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE PORTAL AND ALL ITS CONTENT, FEATURES, AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, UNINTERRUPTED AVAILABILITY, OR FREEDOM FROM ERRORS.

SMCC en Español does not warrant that the Portal is free of viruses, failures, service interruptions, or data losses arising from infrastructure providers (Firebase, Vercel, etc.). We recommend keeping your own copies of any important content.

13. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SMCC EN ESPAÑOL, ITS STAFF, VOLUNTEERS, BOARD, AND AFFILIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES, OR REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE USE OF THE PORTAL.

THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF SMCC EN ESPAÑOL FOR ANY CLAIM RELATED TO THE PORTAL SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100.00) OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR USE OF THE PORTAL IN THE PREVIOUS TWELVE MONTHS (WHICHEVER IS GREATER). SINCE THE PORTAL IS FREE FOR MEMBERS, THE US$100 CAP APPLIES IN MOST CASES.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitations of liability, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless SMCC en Español, its affiliates, officers, employees, volunteers, and agents from any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:

(a) your breach of these Terms; (b) your User Content; (c) your improper use of the Portal; or (d) your infringement of third-party rights.

15. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States of America, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any controversy arising from these Terms or use of the Portal will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of state and federal courts located in San Diego County, California.

If you reside outside the United States, you expressly accept this choice of law and venue as a condition of using the Portal.

16. Informal Dispute Resolution

Before initiating any legal action, you agree to contact SMCC en Español at portal@shadowmountain.org with a description of the dispute and to participate in a thirty (30) day period of good-faith informal resolution. We recognize the biblical principle of seeking reconciliation before litigation (Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 6:1-7) and commit to doing so in good faith.

17. Severability and Waiver

If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force. Our failure to enforce a right or provision does not constitute a waiver of it.

18. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any specific notice or policy posted within the Portal, constitute the entire agreement between you and SMCC en Español regarding use of the Portal, and supersede any prior verbal or written agreements.

19. Contact

For questions about these Terms or the Portal:

Shadow Mountain Community Church en Español 2100 Greenfield Dr., El Cajon, CA 92019, USA Email: portal@shadowmountain.org Phone: (619) 590-1754

Version 2026-05-21 — Effective: May 21, 2026. For prior versions, write to portal@shadowmountain.org.