Following a successful 90-day Pioneer Program with 64 churches, MP-MCP will be generally available in August, enabling ministry teams to securely ask questions about their MinistryPlatform data using natural language and AI assistants like Claude.
FLORENCE, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#AI--ACST today announced the upcoming general availability of MP-MCP, a secure AI gateway that connects MinistryPlatform data to AI assistants like Claude. Built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), MP-MCP is a connector/gateway (not a chatbot, not a new product churches log into separately) that lets tools like Claude read MinistryPlatform data. An MCP is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to software, backed by Anthropic, OpenAI, and others.
"Churches are eager to embrace AI, but they shouldn't have to compromise security or governance to do it," said Joe Koehling, CEO of ACST. "MP-MCP gives ministry teams a secure, natural-language gateway to their live MinistryPlatform data. It works with the AI assistants they already use while ensuring AI remains a guest in the data—not an administrator."
From Pilot to General Availability
MP-MCP grew out of a Pioneer Program that opened for public signup in May 2026 and expanded from four alpha churches to 64 participating churches in just 90 days. Throughout the program, ACST delivered 19 production releases while participants helped refine capabilities across contacts, groups, attendance, giving, communications, and more.
Churches used MP-MCP to uncover relationships across giving, attendance, group participation, and household engagement that previously required multiple reports. Participants also used AI to improve data quality by identifying outdated addresses, correcting records, and resolving inconsistencies.
"Before MP-MCP, getting anything out of MinistryPlatform meant writing SQL or digging through reports, then translating it for whoever needed it. We wanted data work to move as fast as a conversation. With MP-MCP, cleanup work that used to get skipped because it wasn't worth the hours now just gets done,” said Jason Johnston, Director of Engagement at Bent Tree in Carrollton, TX. “We've corrected more than 1,500 mismatched records, built groups and rosters, migrated household records, and fixed data audits in a fraction of the time. The biggest difference is that I can catch issues and ask follow-up questions mid-analysis instead of after the fact. That means cleaner data, better decisions, and more time focused on ministry instead of manual database work."
Security Built for Sensitive Ministry Data
Because MinistryPlatform contains sensitive information about donors, families, and ministry participants, MP-MCP was designed around a "guest, not admin" security model with built-in protections for Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
MP enforces this through six layers of protection:
- Queries always run using the requesting user's existing MinistryPlatform permissions.
- Administrators can enable or disable individual MCP tools by security role.
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Sensitive tables remain inaccessible by default.
- Personally identifiable information can be masked before it reaches an AI model.
- Write access is disabled by default.
- All activity is logged for auditing.
"Protection is enforced server-side in code, so there is no ‘jailbreak’ prompt that can recover data the server was never willing to send," Joe Koehling said.
Availability
MinistryPlatform customers will be able to connect supported AI assistants—including Claude—to their church management data beginning in early August. Documentation and setup resources are available at ai.ministryplatform.com. For more information, please email media@vanco.com.
About ACST and MinistryPlatform
ACST is a leading provider of church technology solutions serving nearly 50,000 churches, dioceses, schools, and faith-based organizations. Through trusted platforms including Realm and MinistryPlatform, ACST helps ministries strengthen engagement, stewardship, operations, and communication through one connected ecosystem. By combining practical technology with ministry-centered support, ACST helps churches spend less time managing systems and more time focused on people and missions. ACST operates as the faith business of Vanco, a leading provider of payments and software solutions for faith communities, schools, and nonprofits. Learn more at acstechnologies.com.
MinistryPlatform is ACST's enterprise church management platform used to manage contacts, groups, giving, events, and communications. Learn more at ministryplatform.com.
Contacts
Media Contact
Ali Williams
Senior Director of Marketing
Vanco & ACST
media@vanco.com
