The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
What Every Pastor Needs to Know About AI in Ministry
Artificial intelligence has arrived as a transformative tool for church ministry, with companies now creating AI platforms specifically designed for churches and nonprofits. This technology promises to free ministry leaders from administrative burdens while helping them communicate more effectively with their congregations.
• New AI platforms for churches can handle tasks from donor messaging to content creation
• These tools learn from your church's data to create personalized, on-brand communications
• AI can help with repetitive tasks like email campaigns, texting, and outreach strategies
• Some platforms claim to boost giving through personalized, data-driven appeals
• AI is simply a tool—like sound systems or livestreaming—that can either serve or distract from mission
• Start small: try using AI for email newsletters or summarizing sermon notes
• AI won't replace pastors but may help them reach more people with less burnout
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okay, we're going to talk about ai again today, a topic that we tend to talk about a lot here on the podcast. Hopefully you're not getting tired of it, because ai is brand new and it's here and it's getting better every day and it's something that we can't just not look at anymore at the church. So it's not science fiction, it's actually happening right now. So stick with me, because if you're a church leader, this could change how you do ministry from this day forward. We're going to look at four different things about AI and, as I said, we've covered this topic, but we're going to cover a little bit different today. A lot of this content comes from a Fortune article that I read recently, and it's talking specifically about a company that's coming out with a new AI tool that is supposed to help churches. This one is by Ministry Brands, but Ministry Brand there are a lot. I was just at a major conference church conference a couple of weeks ago, and it seems that there were a good number of vendors there that were introducing, or had just introduced, a brand new AI tool for the church. Okay, so there's a lot of competition kind of brewing up. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. I could tell you my opinion, but I won't. But we're going to talk a little bit about AI and about some of the things you should consider as a church leader.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the first thing I want to mention is just that this new era for church tech has arrived and, as I mentioned, there's one company that just announced a new generative AI platform designed specifically for churches and nonprofits. You knew this was going to happen, and it's here. It's not just another tool, it's an entire AI ecosystem meant to handle everything church-related, everything from donor messaging to content creation. Here's the gist of this. Okay, you need a last minute giving campaign? It can write it for you. You want to reach younger families? It can craft the exact message that resonates. You need help with social media posts or event descriptions? It's done in seconds. But here's the kicker it learns from your church's data and past engagements. It really is taking something. Once you can tap into who your church is, what your church does, what your church believes, once you can put all of that information into a kind of a readable form for an AI to do, it can bring ideas and different things to you in a very quick manner, and that's what companies like this one company, ministry, brands is starting to do.
Speaker 1:Okay, why does this actually matter? For the church, right? Why do we even need to be talking about this? Here's one reason. Okay, most of us, if we're honest, we're drowning in administrative work, and that's one of the promises that this platform, or other AI in general.
Speaker 1:One of the premises is that it's going to free you up from some of those repetitive tasks so that you can focus on people and not paperwork. That's a great premise If we can actually do that and use some of these new tools, just like we've used old tools for centuries, like typewriters for crying out loud and printing printers and church bulletins. Those were all tools, right, and they all needed. They were all repetitive tasks and all things that took us away from being with people. They were all paperwork and administrative stuff. Ai can be a new tool to do that. Right, but you do need to take it. Make sure you don't replace the repetitive tests with more repetitive tasks, okay.
Speaker 1:So where can AI help? Ai can help with email. It can help with texting campaigns. It can help with donor strategies. It can help with outreach strategies to help you reach specific demographics or target people that you want to look at. And here's where it gets, maybe a little spicy. Ai at least this platform that they're putting out claims to boost giving by using data to personalize appeals and timing.
Speaker 1:Okay, that to me sounds a little bit creepy because I don't know exactly what it means. Okay, I'm being honest with you, but bottom line more effective communication will lead to more engaged givers. Is that a bad thing? No, that's a good thing, and if you have a tool that allows you to do things like that, if you use it wisely, that could be a good thing. But wait, is this even biblical? Or is it just hype? All right, there's always the tension. There's always tension with technology. There's always tension when tech meets the sacred.
Speaker 1:Some of you are thinking does AI really belong in the church? And I think that's a fair question. But here's my take on this. Okay, ai is a tool just like a sound system or a live stream camera, just an online giving platform, just like the organ or flannel graph that hurt. It can either serve the mission of the church or it can distract from it, and what matters is how we choose to use it. So, if it helps you disciple people better, if it helps free up your time, if it helps you reach more hearts with the gospel, then maybe it's not something to fear but something that we need to figure out and figure out how to steward. And then, finally, I want to talk today and again we've talked about AI before, but this is maybe just more of a general primer for those that are just dipping your toe in the water here a little bit.
Speaker 1:How do you start using AI without feeling like you're losing your soul or taking away somebody's job or cheating? Okay, how do you dip your toe in the water without being overwhelmed? Okay, here are some ways that you can start All right. Or without being overwhelmed okay, here are some ways that you can start all right. Use some AI tools, like maybe ChatGPT Gemini is another one to write maybe your weekly email newsletter. And if you're not doing an email newsletter, if you're not doing something like that, maybe use an AI tool to help you start one. Okay, that would be a good use of the technology.
Speaker 1:Maybe you let AI summarize your sermon prep notes into bullet points. This I found this to be extremely valuable, not in sermons, because I don't preach, but summarizing notes and pulling out the best parts of your notes is a really good way to use AI and just to dip your toe in the water. And maybe you want to explore a paid tool like this new AI assistant or some of the others that are coming on the market for some donor communication. I probably wouldn't start there, but as you get familiar with AI and feel more comfortable with it, there may be a play there for you and your church. But here's my pro tip, here's my bottom line.
Speaker 1:Here's what I want to leave you with today. Start small, try it once, see what happens, get away from this. Maybe you think I don't want to replace the Holy Spirit. You're not replacing the Holy Spirit. Okay, you're just trying out some tools. You're just trying to use the best tools available to multiply our efforts. So here's my final thought for today AI won't replace pastors. Don't worry about that. Your job is not in jeopardy here. Nothing to fear about AI taking your job as a pastor. You're always going to need that relational component of pastoring and that discipleship and care that AI and a computer and a machine can never do. But pastors who use AI may just reach more people with less burnout. So don't fear it. Learn it, use it wisely.
Speaker 1:Okay, have any questions about AI? This is one of kind of my pet projects that I find really fascinating and I find that I have to keep up on it all the time because it changes. Just in the past couple of weeks, there have been so many different releases of things that you can do as a pastor using AI in your church today that you couldn't do last week. It's uncanny, it's incredible. If you have any questions about AI, this is one of the things I keep up on because I find it fascinating. I've always found technology and ministry and how they intersect and connect fascinating. So any questions about that. Let me know.
Speaker 1:If there's maybe a topic on AI, a specific thing that you'd like me to make a video on or do a podcast on. Reach out, let me know that as well. You can reach out to me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, if there's any way that I can serve you or your church, we are all here to help you. All of my team here at Chemistry Staffing here to help you have a healthy staff, have a healthy environment, have a healthy church. So we would love to be able to assist you. However, we can Reach out podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Thanks so much for listening and watching. See you soon.
