Oremos: an installable prayer app (PWA) for a church
Oremos is the prayer app we built for Iglesia Evangélica Nueva Visión, a Spanish-speaking church in Baja California. Members ask for prayer and pray for others, and the prayer team verifies and manages requests from a staff panel. It installs on a phone like an app, with push notifications.
An installable prayer app (PWA) for a church: members ask for prayer and pray for others, and the prayer team manages requests.
What we built
Prayer request form with three privacy choices and consent rules for publishing
Public prayer wall with an 'I prayed' counter, testimonies, announcements and events
Installable PWA with push notifications that never show names or details on the lock screen
Role-based accounts and a staff panel with a verification queue
Next.js
PostgreSQL
Gemini API
Web Push
Coolify
Prayer requests with privacy choices
Each person decides who sees their request before it's sent.
A prayer request form with three choices: the prayer team only, the public wall, or the pastors only
Consent rules before anything is published
A public prayer wall with an 'I prayed' counter
Answered-prayer testimonies
Announcements and events with add-to-calendar
An installable app with careful notifications
Oremos is a progressive web app: a manifest and a service worker let members install it from the browser, with a phone tab bar and no app store. Web Push and an in-app notification bell keep people up to date, and each person controls their own notification settings. Lock-screen texts never show names or request details.
Roles and the staff panel
Different people in the church see different things, and new accounts need approval.
Accounts for members, intercessors, the prayer team, pastors and admins
Sign-up requests approved by an admin
A verification queue with bulk actions and tags
Summary analytics, users and roles
AI photo-to-text intake
Some prayer requests arrive on paper forms. Staff photograph them, Gemini transcribes the text, and the team reviews each one before it's saved. The AI does the typing; people make the decisions.
Embedded in the church website, private by default
Embeddable widgets bring the prayer form, the wall and the calendar into the church's website. The app's pages are set to noindex, and because the wall shows real people's requests, we don't link to it here. Any screenshots we show have names and requests blurred.
Stack and services
Next.js and TypeScript with PostgreSQL, the Gemini API, Web Push (VAPID) and a service worker. It started on Netlify and Neon and now runs on our own server, with nightly off-site backups.
Does a church need an app store app for prayer requests?
No. A PWA installs from the browser on Android and iPhone and can send push notifications, without going through app store review.
How do you protect the privacy of prayer requests?
Each person chooses who sees their request, nothing goes on the public wall without consent, and notifications never show names or details on the lock screen.
Can staff enter paper prayer requests?
Yes. They photograph the paper form, Gemini transcribes it, and the team reviews the text before saving.
Is Oremos available in English?
Oremos is in Spanish because the congregation speaks Spanish. The same kind of app can be built in English or in both languages.
