My journey with AI (artificial intelligence) in Children’s Ministry has been gradual and consistent—but it’s made a real difference! I thought I’d share a few ways I’ve been using it lately in case it inspires you to give it a whirl, save some time, or just play around with some fresh ideas.

Fun Website Staff Bios: We fed ChatGPT a list of Q&As from our staff bios and asked it to turn them into something fun, warm, and engaging. Boom! Instant personality upgrade. You can see the results here.

Summer Theme Song: We used the Suno AI music app to create our very own driveway-party-meets-Jesus jam! Think: dance-pop, praise-filled, joy-packed, under 2.3 minutes, with both male and female vocals. It’s perfect for singing and dancing at our summer Driveway Parties!

Children’s Moment Prompts: Sometimes the sermon leans abstract—and our littles? Definitely concrete thinkers. Google’s AI tool helps jumpstart ideas when I search something like “children’s sermon + the scripture.” It’s a great way to spark creativity fast.

Themed Events for Adults: For a men’s dinner, we asked ChatGPT to blend Braves baseball, Jesus, and BBQ into a fun event title—and it delivered! For a women’s luncheon, we gave it our speaker’s blog titles, and it whipped up suggestions for activities, décor, menus, and more. Each team now has a springboard to build from.

Other Ways We’ve Used ChatGPT:

  • Created a 10-question spiritual growth survey for youth—super helpful for a new staff member to learn her audience by tracking the answers in a Google Sheet.
  • Crafted youth intern interview questions in language that actually sounds like, well, teens.
  • Wrote a cute rhyme for an end-of-year gift to thank our amazing Wednesday night leaders—based on our Bible study theme for the school year!
  • Staff reviews and evaluations were even uploaded to share this evaluation season.

Several ministry social media content creators I follow have started using AI to generate hilarious, heartwarming, and helpful images and posts for those of us in the family ministry trenches. Some are laugh-out-loud funny; others are spot-on reminders of what we’ve always known.

So, how are you starting to use AI in your ministry? Or maybe this is your nudge to give it a try. You don’t have to dive in all at once—just start where you are and see what it can do. Come on in—the water’s fine!

“The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” Proverbs 18:15