Pierre Basson
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Less admin, more ministry |
Welcome to Local Church Growth Tools. This week, choose one routine task that keeps pulling your team away from people—and make it easier to complete well. Our focus: a thoughtful visitor follow-up process, better volunteer coordination, and a practical way to test AI without handing it pastoral judgment. |
Quote Of The Day |
The church that learns to speak the language of its moment — without losing the message of the ages — will always find new ears ready to hear. — Marshall McLuhan |
 Applying Ai and Digital Media for Church Growth |
Start with one repeatable task |
A simple visitor follow-up workflow Start with the message your team already sends after a first visit. Write down its purpose: thank the visitor, answer one practical question, and offer a clear next step. 1. Gather approved facts. Use your public service times, directions, children’s check-in information, and contact details. 2. Draft once. Ask AI to turn those facts into a short, warm template. Use placeholders instead of visitor names or personal stories. 3. Review together. Have a ministry leader check the facts, tone, invitation, and links. Keep requests for pastoral care with a person. 4. Assign an owner. Decide who personalizes and sends the message through your existing, permission-based follow-up process. 5. Learn after one week. Count completed follow-ups, note questions people asked, and compare the time required with your previous process. Improve the template before expanding. |
From the reading desk |
Small churches can use AI and automation to reduce repetitive administration without replacing human ministry.
Start with low-risk workflows such as visitor follow-up preparation, volunteer reminders and recurring communications, while keeping people responsible for sensitive decisions and pastoral care. Read More... |
Something significant is shifting inside the modern church — and it has nothing to do with building programs or Sunday schedules.
Artificial intelligence has moved from speculative conversation to operational reality, reshaping how pastors prepare sermons, how congregations connect, and how ministry leaders understand their calling.
The majority of ministry leaders now report using AI tools in some capacity — a figure that has climbed sharply in just two years.
Nearly two-thirds of preaching pastors incorporate AI into sermon development, using it for research, outlining, and idea generation.
Yet most draw a firm line: AI is a preparation partner, not a pulpit voice.
Deeper questions remain unsettled. What happens when data-trained tools quietly underrepresent the poor, the disabled, or the digitally disconnected?
There is also the danger of efficiency becoming its own theology — with recovered time simply filling with new demands rather than deeper meaning.
Where culture rushes to optimize, the church is being called to something slower and harder: wisdom. Read More... |
Worried about AI changing your job? Start by studying one ordinary workday instead of buying another tool.
Choose two or three tasks and write down what a good result looks like, including the checks you make along the way.
Then try AI on a small part of the work, recording what it helped produce, what you rejected, and which decisions remained yours.
A local shop owner might find that customer messages can be drafted faster, while pricing still calls for experience and judgment.
At day’s end, compare your plan with what happened and identify one repeated step worth simplifying.
Keep human approval where accuracy, privacy, money or someone’s well-being is at stake.
Repeat the exercise on another workday before making bigger changes.
The goal is not to outrun every new AI release, but to understand your work well enough to use changing tools wisely. Read More... |
Joke Of The Day |
Our church started using AI to write our weekly bulletin — and it's going great, except the AI keeps listing the sermon length as "varies: 20 minutes to eternity." |
Tools worth exploring |
Planning Center Services |
Services brings service plans, volunteer schedules, team communication, and rehearsal resources together. Teams can use availability settings, scheduling templates, and automatic reminder emails. Try this: pilot it with one team and one upcoming service. Check that volunteers can respond to requests and find the plan before introducing a wider rollout. |
Interesting Facts |
Churches navigating the digital landscape are discovering some genuinely counterintuitive realities about AI tools and online outreach. Here are a few facts worth knowing:
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Google for Nonprofits and Ad Grants |
The church that learns to speak the language of its moment — without losing the message of the ages — will always find new ears ready to hear. — Marshall McLuhan |
Try this before next Sunday |
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A prompt you can reuse “Help our church draft a warm first-visit follow-up email of 120–150 words using only the approved facts below. Thank the visitor, include one useful next step, and offer a way to contact a real person. Use [FIRST NAME] and [CHURCH NAME] placeholders. Do not invent service details, quote Scripture, assume the visitor’s beliefs, or promise a personal outcome. List any missing facts separately. Approved facts: [PASTE PUBLIC INFORMATION].” Review the draft before sending, and add the personal touch yourself. |
Tip of The Day |
Turn Your Sunday Sermon Into a Week's Worth of Content — Without Extra Work
After each service, spend just five minutes jotting down the three strongest sentences your pastor said — the kind that made people nod or write something down. Paste those into a free AI writing tool and ask it to expand each one into a distinct 150-word devotional reflection, a one-sentence social post, and a question for small group discussion. You instantly have content for your church's Facebook page, midweek email, and Thursday small group — all rooted in the same message your congregation already heard.
The key is starting with real words from your pulpit, not a generic prompt. AI polishes and multiplies what's already authentic to your community, so your digital presence feels like a natural extension of Sunday morning rather than a separate marketing effort. Consistency built this way builds trust — and trust is what turns a curious newcomer who found you online into someone who walks through your doors. |
One question for your team If this workflow gives us back an hour, who could receive more attention because of it? Choose that ministry purpose before adding another task. Resources checked October 2, 2026: Planning Center Services, Google for Nonprofits eligibility, and Google Ad Grants FAQ. Tool features and requirements can change; review these official pages when making a decision. |