Tool directory

Tools organised by the work, not the hype. Every entry follows the same pattern: what it does, who it's for, one concrete ministry example, and what to watch out for. Most tools below are general-purpose and offer a free way to try them — check each tool's own website for current plans and pricing.

Sermons & teaching

ChatGPT and Claude — drafting and study conversation partners

What they do: General AI assistants that can brainstorm sermon angles, suggest outlines, explain a passage in plain language, and find illustration ideas. Who for: preachers and teachers preparing talks and studies.

Ministry example: Paste in your passage and ask for three possible outlines and questions for a small group — then preach your own sermon, in your own voice.

Watch out for: AI invents Bible references and quotes. Verify every citation, quotation, and historical claim in your actual Bible and trusted commentaries before you preach it.

Bible study software (e.g. Logos) — research library

What it does: Searchable commentaries, original-language tools, and cross-references for deeper study. Who for: anyone doing regular teaching preparation.

Ministry example: Compare how several trusted commentaries handle a difficult verse before deciding your application points.

Watch out for: A large library is not the same as discernment. Let your tradition, training, and knowledge of your people have the final word.

Admin & operations

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot — everyday drafting

What they do: Draft and polish emails, newsletters, policies, meeting agendas, and minutes summaries. Who for: church administrators, pastors, and church staff drowning in routine writing.

Ministry example: Turn your rough bullet points into a warm volunteer rota reminder in 30 seconds, then edit the details yourself.

Watch out for: Don't paste personal data — names with health details, giving records, safeguarding concerns — into tools your church hasn't approved for that use.

Automation tools (e.g. Zapier) — connecting the boring bits

What they do: Move information between apps automatically — for example, adding event sign-ups to a spreadsheet and a follow-up list. Who for: teams repeating the same copy-and-paste tasks weekly.

Ministry example: When someone registers for the food-bank volunteer day, they're added to the list and sent the standard welcome email automatically.

Watch out for: Test automations with your own details first, and check them monthly — a silent automation error can lose real people's sign-ups.

Outreach & communications

Canva — design with AI help

What it does: Templates and AI-assisted design tools for social posts, flyers, slides, and simple videos. Who for: anyone producing church communications without a designer.

Ministry example: Turn this Sunday's sermon title and verse into three ready-to-post social graphics in your church's colours.

Watch out for: Check image and font licences for anything you print or sell, and get consent before using photos of real people — especially children.

Translation tools (e.g. DeepL, Google Translate) — reaching further

What they do: Fast first-draft translation of notices, welcome text, and web pages. Who for: multilingual congregations welcoming people across languages.

Ministry example: Translate your welcome leaflet draft, then ask a native speaker in the congregation to review it before printing.

Watch out for: Machine translation mishandles idiom, honour/shame language, and theology. A human reviewer is not optional for anything important.

Giving & stewardship

Claude or ChatGPT — giving letters and congregation updates

What they do: Help structure thank-you letters to givers, generosity campaign messages, and annual giving updates to the congregation from your own notes and numbers. Who for: pastors, church treasurers, and stewardship teams.

Ministry example: Give the assistant your campaign notes and real figures, ask for a one-page update to the congregation thanking them and showing what their giving made possible, then rewrite the stories in your own words.

Watch out for: Never let AI invent giving figures, impact statistics, or stories. Your congregation is trusting you with the truth — every number must come from your records.

AI writing help for thank-yous — caring for givers

What it does: Draft varied, warm thank-you messages based on templates you approve. Who for: small church teams who want every giver thanked promptly and personally.

Ministry example: Prepare five thank-you variants for your harvest thanksgiving offering, then hand-personalise the ones for long-standing givers.

Watch out for: Givers can tell a generic message from a genuine one. Use AI for the first draft, a human for the final send — and never share your church's giving records with unapproved tools.

Pastoral care & community

ChatGPT or Claude — small-group and follow-up preparation

What they do: Help prepare discussion questions, session plans, and drafts of routine follow-up messages. Who for: small-group leaders and pastoral teams.

Ministry example: Generate six discussion questions from this week's passage, adapted for a group that includes brand-new believers.

Watch out for — please read: Pastoral information is among the most sensitive data there is. Do not enter people's names, prayer requests, health, family, or safeguarding details into public AI tools. AI also cannot do pastoral care: it must never be the one “responding” to someone in crisis.

Transcription tools — meeting and interview notes

What they do: Turn recorded meetings or interviews (with everyone's consent) into searchable text and summaries. Who for: elders, church councils, and ministry teams.

Ministry example: Transcribe a recorded church members' meeting so elders can read what people actually said, in their own words.

Watch out for: Always get consent before recording, tell people how the transcript will be used, and store it where only the right people can see it.

Children, youth & worship

ChatGPT or Claude — lesson and session ideas

What they do: Brainstorm lesson structures, games, discussion starters, and age-appropriate explanations of Bible passages. Who for: children's workers, youth leaders, and Sunday school teachers.

Ministry example: Ask for a 45-minute session plan on the Good Samaritan for ages 7–11, with a game, a story retelling, and a prayer activity — then adapt it to your group.

Watch out for: Review everything for theology, safety, and age-appropriateness yourself. Never put children's names, photos, or personal details into AI tools, and follow your safeguarding policy for any images you create.

Canva and presentation tools — slides and service visuals

What they do: Song slides, notice slides, and simple service visuals from templates. Who for: worship teams and service planners.

Ministry example: Build a reusable slide template so whoever is on the rota produces clear, readable slides in minutes.

Watch out for: Check song lyrics against your licensed source (and your licence terms, e.g. CCLI where applicable) — AI and templates both get lyrics wrong.

Accessibility

Captions (e.g. YouTube captions, CapCut) — making video watchable for everyone

What they do: Automatically caption sermons and videos, which you then correct. Who for: anyone publishing video — for Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and everyone watching on mute.

Ministry example: Auto-caption Sunday's sermon video, spend 10 minutes fixing names and Bible references, then publish with captions on.

Watch out for: Auto-captions regularly mangle names, places, and scripture references. Always review before publishing — wrong captions are worse than a short delay.

ChatGPT or Claude — plain-language and large-print versions

What they do: Rewrite notices and readings in simpler language, or summarise a long document into a short, clear version. Who for: churches serving people with varied reading, language, and learning needs.

Ministry example: Turn a dense church annual meeting report into a one-page plain-language version, then format it in large print (18pt+) in your usual document app.

Watch out for: Simplification can quietly drop or change meaning. Have someone who knows the original check the short version, especially for anything legal, financial, or safeguarding-related.

Microsoft Translator / Google Translate — multilingual welcome

What they do: Live and document translation that helps newcomers follow along. Who for: diverse congregations and church welcome teams.

Ministry example: Offer a translated order of service and a plain-language summary of the sermon for guests.

Watch out for: As with all machine translation, ask a fluent speaker to check important text, and be upfront that a translation is machine-assisted.

Before you use any tool with real people's information, read our Responsible AI guide — it takes five minutes and could save a serious mistake.