AI in the Church Office: 5 Everyday Tasks You Can Automate Today

“I got into ministry for the people, not to sit behind a computer all day.”

Sound familiar? If you’re like most church staff members, you probably feel pulled in a hundred different directions. Between emails, meetings, event planning, and your actual ministry responsibilities, administrative tasks can quickly consume your day.

But what if technology could help you spend less time on paperwork and more time with people?

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have rapidly evolved from science fiction to practical solutions that can transform your church office workflows. And no, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to get started.

Why Churches Should Embrace AI (Not Fear It)

At Brentwood Baptist Church, we’ve discovered that AI doesn’t replace ministry—it enhances it.

What AI is going to do is strip away everything that’s non-human about our work… Guess what you get to do? The real part of ministry, which is the flesh and blood. It’s meeting with people, breaking bread with people.

The beauty of AI for the church is that it handles the administrative tasks so you can focus on what matters most: discipleship and relationships.

Ready to dip your toes in the AI waters? Here are five everyday tasks you can start automating today:

1. Calendar Management and Scheduling

The Problem: Calendar chaos. Double-booked meetings. Forgotten appointments. Hours spent coordinating schedules.

The AI Solution: Calendar management tools that sync your team’s availability and automate scheduling.

How to Start:

• Use a tool like Motion to prioritize your tasks when you’re overwhelmed
• Let AI suggest optimal meeting times based on everyone’s availability
• Automate follow-up reminders for appointments and deadlines
• Have your AI assistant send meeting invites on your behalf

One of our administrators saved nearly 4 hours weekly by implementing AI calendar management—that’s 200+ hours per year she can redirect to more meaningful ministry work!

2. Meeting Notes and Action Items

The Problem: Distracted note-taking during meetings. Missing key action items. Forgetting who committed to what.

The AI Solution: Automated transcription and summary tools that capture everything while you stay present.

How to Start:

• Record meetings using Otter.ai or your phone’s voice memo app
• Ask ChatGPT to summarize the transcript and extract action items
• Have the AI create follow-up emails with deadlines and responsibilities
• Create an archive of searchable meeting content

I’m going to let this have all my notes, all my questions, all my follow-up, and I can just be present, I can look you in the eye. If I need to pray for you after a meeting, I can.

3. Email Management and Drafting

The Problem: Endless hours crafting emails. Inconsistent messaging. Inbox overload.

The AI Solution: AI assistants that draft, organize, and prioritize your communications.

How to Start:

• Use voice memos to verbally “brain dump” your thoughts
• Feed the transcript to ChatGPT or Claude AI to organize your ideas
• Ask the AI to draft emails in your voice and style
• Create templates for recurring communications (welcome emails, follow-ups, announcements)

Pro tip: Provide a sample of your writing to help the AI match your tone and style. Claude has been the most humanistic voice we found… I can give it a transcript of a sermon from a pastor and be like, ‘I need them to write a three-email campaign on why you should go to a gospel conversation training,’ and it nails it.

4. Content Creation for Communications

The Problem: Constantly creating social posts, bulletin announcements, newsletters, and website updates.

The AI Solution: AI tools that help generate and repurpose content across platforms.

How to Start:

• Use Cast Magic to automatically generate sermon descriptions, titles, and social media content
• Try Opus Pro to identify and clip the most engaging moments from sermons
• Ask AI to repurpose your weekly announcements into social media posts
• Generate discussion questions from sermon content for small groups

We use Cast Magic for sermon content. We drop our sermon in there, and we basically can set up our own preset responses of what we need. If I need a title, a description, action steps… instead of starting at zero, we start at a six. The work to get from a six to a ten is way faster.

5. Research and Information Gathering

The Problem: Hours spent researching topics, gathering statistics, or creating resource lists.

The AI Solution: AI research assistants that can compile information quickly and accurately.

How to Start:

• Use Google Gemini’s deep research mode for comprehensive topic exploration
• Have ChatGPT organize research into presentation-ready formats
• Create FAQ documents for common questions your ministry receives
• Generate reading lists or resources on specific topics

Gemini is the best at deep learning. It allows you to click deep research mode, and it gives you the map for what it’s going to do… it hits up 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 websites and builds a report for you.

Getting Started: Your First Steps

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all these options, start small:

1. Make AI a daily habit – Set ChatGPT as your browser homepage
2. Start with one task – Pick the most time-consuming administrative task from your week
3. Learn by doing – You’ll fail the first time, and that’s okay!
4. Ask for help – Most AI tools will guide you if you simply type: “This is my first time using you. How should I use you to do X?”

Remember, the goal isn’t to replace human ministry but to enhance it. We’re in the business of discipleship… Discipleship happens best in the context of relationships gathered around a table. That’s what the church does best. AI is never going to replace that.

Setting Healthy Boundaries

While embracing these tools, it’s important to establish some guardrails:

• For information, not decisions – Let AI inform your ideas, not make decisions for you
• Human review is essential – Always review AI-generated content before publishing
• No-fly zones – Keep preaching and pastoral care primarily human-led
• Maintain transparency – Be clear when content is AI-generated, especially for visual content

The Bottom Line

The question isn’t whether AI will impact ministry—it already has. The real question is whether your church will intentionally harness these tools to free up more time for what matters most: people.

If you’re a pastor in the United States, AI is accepted and adapted into all workflows. It is something you need to adapt to because this is the world and the place and the time you live.

You don’t have to be a tech expert to benefit from these tools. You just need to be “fluent enough to live in this world.”

Ready to take the first step? Choose one task from this list and try automating it this week. Your ministry—and the people you serve—will thank you.

🎧 New on the Elevate Podcast: Darrel Girardier and Madi Wuebben unpack how AI is changing church work—for better or worse—and what every pastor should know. Learn where to start, what to avoid, and how to use AI without losing your ministry’s human touch.

Listen to the full episode, AI Tools for Ministry: What to Use, What to Avoid, and What’s Next now.