Petra is the official mobile app for Petra Christian Centre. It brings sermon archives, prayer requests, events, devotionals, check-ins, campus information, and giving details — all into one place. Designed to keep the church community connected beyond Sunday mornings.
For most churches, communication happens across WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages, website announcements, Sunday bulletins, and word of mouth. Sermons live on YouTube. Event details get lost in group chats. Prayer requests are shared in one place and forgotten in another.
As a church grows across multiple campuses, the gap widens. Members miss important updates. Visitors can't easily find service times or sermon archives. The church staff spends more time coordinating communication than serving their community.
Petra is a single mobile application — available on Android and iOS — that brings together every touchpoint a church member needs. It connects to a backend that syncs sermon uploads from YouTube, stores prayer requests, manages event listings, tracks check-ins, and gives the church admin a central view of their congregation.
Members open Petra to watch the latest sermon, submit a prayer request, RSVP to an event, read today's devotional, check in at service, or find service times for any campus. Everything they'd otherwise search for across multiple platforms is now one tap away.
Petra is a React Native mobile application with a Google Apps Script backend that connects to a Google Sheets data layer. This architecture was chosen deliberately — it gives the church admin familiar tools (a Google Sheet they can edit directly) with a modern mobile experience for their congregation.
Sermon data is refreshed automatically from the church's YouTube channels, so every new upload appears in the app without manual intervention. Admin workflows — approving testimonies, managing prayer requests, updating campus info, publishing devotionals — are handled through in-app admin screens.