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Knowledge > Runbooks > Customer Ops > Update Church Info

Update Church Information

Correct or update a church's data in the churches table (name, address, phone, website, service times, etc.).

Prerequisites​

  • Supabase access
  • Explicit request from the church admin, or a verified data correction reason
  • For bulk updates: explicit founder approval

CRITICAL Safety Rules​

  • Never bulk-update the churches table without founder approval. The table has 261K rows and a bad WHERE clause can destroy the directory.
  • Never DELETE a church row. Use directory_visible=false to hide (see remove-church.md).
  • Always use a WHERE clause with the church UUID — never update by name alone (names can have duplicates).
  • This is production data. Test your query with a SELECT first.

Steps​

1. Identify the church UUID​

SELECT id, name, slug, email, city, state
FROM churches
WHERE slug = '[church-slug]'
   OR email ILIKE '%[email-fragment]%'
   OR name ILIKE '%[church-name]%'
LIMIT 5;

Copy the id (UUID). This is what you will use in all update queries.

2. Preview the current data​

SELECT id, name, address, city, state, zip, phone, website,
       service_times, denomination, directory_visible
FROM churches
WHERE id = '[church-uuid]';

Confirm you have the right church before changing anything.

3. Run a SELECT to test your WHERE clause​

Before running any UPDATE:

-- Test: does this WHERE clause return exactly the right church?
SELECT id, name FROM churches WHERE id = '[church-uuid]';

It must return exactly one row.

4. Update the specific fields​

Run the targeted UPDATE:

UPDATE churches
SET
  name = 'Grace Community Church',   -- example
  phone = '555-123-4567',
  website = 'https://gracecommunity.org',
  updated_at = now()
WHERE id = '[church-uuid]';

Only include the fields that are actually changing. Do not set fields you are not updating.

5. Verify the update​

SELECT id, name, phone, website, updated_at
FROM churches
WHERE id = '[church-uuid]';

Confirm the new values appear correctly.

6. Handle ISR cache (PewSearch detail pages)​

PewSearch church detail pages (/churches/[slug]) use Incremental Static Regeneration with a ~1-hour cache. After updating a church, the live page may show the old data for up to an hour. This is expected behavior — no action needed unless the church asks urgently, in which case:

Option 1: Wait for cache to expire naturally (up to 60 minutes).

Option 2: Trigger a manual revalidation if the PewSearch codebase has an on-demand revalidation endpoint:

curl -X POST "https://pewsearch.com/api/revalidate?path=/churches/[slug]&secret=[REVALIDATION_SECRET]"

Common Fields to Update​

FieldNotes
nameChurch display name
addressStreet address
city, state, zipLocation fields
phoneChurch main phone
websiteChurch website URL (include https://)
emailChurch contact email
service_timesService schedule (text or JSON depending on schema)
denominationMust match a value in the denominations table
descriptionShort church description
directory_visibleSet to false to hide (see remove-church.md)

Verification​

After the update, visit the live church listing on PewSearch (after cache expires) to confirm the data appears correctly. If it is a premium church with a Pro Website, also check their hosted page.

See Also​