Christian Tech & Pop Weekly: Planning Center Speeds Workflows, Subsplash Talks AI, and KB Returns

Planning Center owned the church-tech week with small but practical admin updates: group leaders can now turn on Church Center chat from the app, Giving has a beta importer for donation history, and People gained new automation actions for workflow cards. On the music side, Elevation Rhythm kept "Washed" at the center of the chart story while July 10 brought a full release slate led by KB and Anne Wilson.

This issue covers dated items from July 6 through July 12, 2026. Items just outside that window were left out unless they were needed as context for a current-week update.

Planning Center’s group-chat update is narrow, but it solves a real coordination snag. Before the July 7 change, chat settings had to be managed from the web; now permitted group leaders can enable chat from the Church Center app, choose whether only leaders or both members and leaders can start conversations, and stay inside the same mobile context where they already manage the group. 1

The Giving update is broader. The new beta import tool lets a church bring donation history over from a previous system by uploading a CSV, mapping columns and values, reviewing rows that need attention, and creating in-progress batches organized by year. Donors can then see a fuller giving record in Church Center, and staff can produce contribution statements for a full year even after a mid-year move to Giving. 2

Planning Center People also added two automation actions for workflows: completing a person’s current workflow step and removing a card from a workflow. The examples are practical rather than flashy: a membership form can move an applicant to the next step, and a volunteer workflow can remove someone whose background check is not clear. 3

The caveat is worth keeping in the same paragraph as the update. Planning Center’s July 9 attachment feature for workflow-email replies was disabled after the team identified a bug. The intended feature would show attachments on the corresponding workflow-card email, with a 10MB limit per attachment. 4 For admins, the read is simple: the automation updates look ready to test; the attachment update should wait until the changelog says it is fixed.

WorshipTools shipped two Presenter beta entries inside the window. Beta 20 on July 7 added bulk media import into a service, EasyWorship imports, French language support, Roman-numeral Scripture search, the ability to create a slide template from an existing slide, and several usability and display improvements. Beta 21 on July 8 fixed a display issue where the selected slide did not update when content line counts differed. 5

That is a worship-team update, not a headline launch. Still, the direction matters. Import reliability, slide-template reuse, Scripture search, and display correctness are exactly the places where presentation software either saves volunteers time or burns their Saturday night.

Subsplash’s July 10 AI policy guide is vendor content, but it names risks churches should treat seriously: staff or volunteers using public AI tools to summarize staff meetings, draft parent newsletters, clean up counseling notes, or process giving data can move private information outside the church’s control. The guide says churches should ban full names, home addresses, private financial contributions, and pastoral counseling logs from unauthorized public tools. 6

The strongest part is the practical frame. Subsplash recommends defining approved use cases for low-risk drafts, setting data-protection boundaries, requiring human review for AI-assisted content, and revisiting the policy on a regular rhythm. It also points churches toward specialized ministry tools, such as sermon-to-discipleship workflows, rather than asking a public chatbot to invent doctrine or handle sensitive member records. 6

For church leaders, this is the week’s clearest AI takeaway: the first policy question is not whether AI can save staff time. It is which data never leaves approved systems.

Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart dated July 11 has "Washed" by Elevation Rhythm at No. 1, with 41 weeks on the chart. The rest of the top five is Forrest Frank’s "Your Way’s Better" at No. 2, Elevation Worship and Chandler Moore’s "God I’m Just Grateful" at No. 3, Josiah Queen’s "Demons" at No. 4, and Forrest Frank’s "OKAY!" at No. 5. 7

The Z, carrying a Merge PR item, framed the same moment as Elevation Rhythm’s first chart-topping success across both Billboard and Mediabase charts. The report says "Washed" reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay, Christian AC Airplay, and Hot Christian Songs charts, remained in the Top 20 on Song Select, and had 14 million YouTube views. 11

The album timing gives the chart run a next step. Elevation Rhythm’s live album WASHED is scheduled for July 17, and the group has already announced a WASHED Tour built around multi-day worship gatherings, run clubs, and Bible studies. 11

KB released his sixth studio album, THIS CANNOT BE SOLD, on July 10 through Provident Entertainment. The JFH report describes the album as a 13-track project about faith, marriage, fatherhood, and identity, with features including Ben Fuller, Ryan Ofei, Caleb Conley, WHATUPRG, nobigdyl., Scootie Wop, Bizzle, Terrian, Aklesso, Dayshawnx, and One Church Music. 8

KB’s quote gives the project its spine: "What can't be commodified is what actually holds you together. My marriage isn't for sale. My family isn't for sale." 8 That is a sharper album premise than a standard release note, especially in a Christian hip-hop week crowded with singles.

Anne Wilson’s Stars (Blue Hour Deluxe) also landed July 10 via Capitol Christian Music Group. The deluxe edition expands Stars to 17 tracks and adds five new pieces, including the new songs "Me & Jesus" and "Maker’s Mark" with Drew Baldridge, plus "Still Do" with Cole Swindell, an acoustic "Carry Me," and a live "God Story." 9

Wilson’s live calendar is part of the release story. The same announcement lists summer fair and festival dates, a U.K. run at Big Church Festival and The Long Road Festival, and a 24-date fall leg of The STARS Tour with Peter Burton and Aodhan King joining on select dates. 9

Koryn Hawthorne signed with Motown Gospel, a division of Capitol Christian Music Group, Capitol Records, and Universal Music Group. The July 9 announcement says her first Motown Gospel project will be a fall EP executive produced by J. White Did It, and it previews an upcoming single called "His Favorite." 10

The signing matters because Hawthorne sits at the gospel, R&B, and contemporary-Christian border. The announcement ties the move to her ESSENCE Festival performance of "Won't He Do It," her RIAA Platinum-certified breakout single, and to a new creative season after her earlier chart success. 10 For listeners, the fall EP will show how far Motown Gospel leans into that crossover lane.

For church teams, test the Planning Center updates in low-risk workflows first: group-chat permissions, donation-history imports, and People automations all touch records that staff and volunteers rely on during the week. Worship leaders using Presenter 2026 should pay attention to the beta cadence, especially if EasyWorship imports or bulk media import would change a service-prep routine. 125

For music fans, July 17 is the next checkpoint: Elevation Rhythm’s WASHED album arrives while "Washed" is already sitting at No. 1, and the next Billboard chart will show whether that lead remains stable after release-week attention shifts toward KB, Anne Wilson, and the rest of the July 10 slate. 711