ai

The Evangelical Press Association just revised its publishing ethics code to account for AI-generated content. Some organizations like The Voice of the Martyrs have stated that they won’t use AI tools in their process whatsoever. Are small churches expected to follow suite? The reality is that AI can save churches huge amounts of time and resources. There are no ethical reasons I can think of not to use it. ChatGPT has made content calendars and meeting summaries a commodity rather than a luxury. Midjourney has made beautiful backgrounds and sermon series graphics readily available. These tools help you tend your brand - use them! Are y’all using AI in your church? Reply and let me know.

Podcast logos are different from regular branding because they don’t have to work in as many contexts, at least not early on. Much of the skill in logo and identity design is making something extremely flexible. With a podcast that exists only online, you don’t need that level of flexibility. All you need is memorability. Unlike an organization or business, you probably won’t be printing, stitching, or putting your logo on top of other graphics and photos very often. This means your podcast can have a full color photo or graphic with plenty of detail. SO… follow these steps if you want a podcast logo that’s eye catching, memorable, and free. Distill the big idea Decide if it needs to match your church brand Identify who it is for and what they like Feed all that information to ChatGPT and ask it to write a Midjourney prompt that will give you a podcast logo Plug the prompt into your AI image tool of choice Refine the language in your prompt if needed Remember, all you need is memorability, so don’t be afraid to go outside the box!

I love magic. I’ve probably watched movies like the Prestige and the Illusionist more times than most people. But I recently learned the origins of a phrase that magicians love to say: “Abracadabra.” It comes from the Ancient Aramaic phrase, “Avra Kedavra,” meaning “I create as I speak.” We worship a God who is creative, the first sentence of the Bible tells us. But how does he create? We find out in the following verses that he does so with his speech. Words are how the God of the universe chose to express his creativity. We get to imitate his creativity using our own words. And it’s easier to do this now than ever. Because of AI, we live in a time where anyone can create anything - pictures, video, and interactive experiences - using just words. It feels like magic. With such a powerful tool at our disposal, should we not meditate on how this can be used to create things that will honor our Creator?

Something I’ve only mentioned briefly in this newsletter thus far has been AI. It seems like that’s all anyone talks about these days, so I’ve tried to steer clear, lest I add to the noise. That said, there are some things that AI is extremely good at, one of those being communication strategy. I’m convinced that if you’re not using them, you’re handicapping yourself and your ministry. AI tools are not going away, in fact they’re getting more powerful and more accessible (aka FREE) all the time. So, let’s put it to the test with an upcoming event in your church. This could be an outreach event, a members-only potluck, or a community worship night - the sky is the limit! Tell ChatGPT something like: “You’re an experienced marketer and event promoter with a specialization in working with churches. When I give you information about my church’s upcoming event, I want you to help me come up with an event name, a tagline or short memorable description, and a promotion strategy that one person could reasonably execute. Start by asking for event details and things specific to my church like brand tone of voice.” I’m continually blow away at how effective ChatGPT is at brainstorming. Whether you’re a church of 100 or 1000, AI is an indispensable tool for planning, naming, and developing messaging around events or campaigns. Try using this prompt for your next event and see what happens!

Rebranding can be a tough conversation for some churches, especially when it comes to financial costs. But if you’re like many pastors, you see the value of starting with a clear, cohesive identity that your congregation can rally around and take pride in. How do you manage budget constraints while still investing in your brand? Well, if I had to design a brand identity from scratch with only $100, here’s what I would do: I would use ChatGPT. Yes - seriously! I created this prompt based on my experiences with ChatGPT and it’s surprisingly good go through the entire rebranding process: Act as a high end creative agency that’s going to help me design a visual identity for my church. I’m going to give you my church name and our distinctives, and you’re going to ask any probing questions you need to start putting together the building blocks of our visual brand. This will be an extensive project, so don’t jump into creating images just yet. Our interaction will be conversational and rely on feedback to refine and guide your creative direction. The project should generally follow this 4 step process: 1. Discover - you’ll get a sense of where my vision for the church and generate a brand vibe report with tone of voice, brand strategy, and target audience avatars. 2. Define - you’ll create separate mood boards that we can use to choose a visual style and general direction for the brand aesthetic. 3. Develop - you’ll get input from me on any symbolism from the church’s history, things our region/city is known for, and iconic parts of our building. Then you’ll present text-based logo ideas based on that input. If any of them resonate with me, I’ll ask you to generate images of logo concepts of that idea. 4. Deploy - you’ll generate a full bespoke suite of mockups of branded social media campaigns, video thumbnails, website homepage, stationary, merch, signage, and banners. These mockups should be done one at a time, and shown to me for feedback before we move on to the next. They should be brand-aligned and use the brand elements we’ve developed so far. Paste that into ChatGPT and follow the process through to the end. Don’t be afraid to give it feedback like you would a designer. Pro tip: Buy a month of Premium for faster image generation and access to versions of ChatGPT with the most in-depth reasoning. If you’re not satisfied with the outcome, that’s okay. You’re only out $20 and you probably have a much better idea of what you don’t want in your branding. This is tremendously valuable information if you do go to hire a pro.