The AI for Churches Podcast
The AI for Churches Podcast
Ep. 29 | Real-World Church AI | Petra Reinhardt
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Episode summary

David Thorne interviews Petra, AI and Digital Products Leader at Crossroads Community Church (Cincinnati), on how a large, multi-site church is adopting AI wisely and at scale. Petra shares their first steps (policy, privacy, and training), practical use cases (sermon ideation, production planning, personas), and a rollout strategy that starts in marketing/data and moves department by department. She closes with spiritual guardrails for Christians using AI and actionable advice for churches of any size to start small and avoid tool sprawl.

Guest

  • Petra — AI and Digital Products Leader, Crossroads Community Church (Cincinnati). Former roles: Online Production Manager, Social Media Director, Experience Producer.

About the church

  • Crossroads Community Church (Cincinnati), 20+ years, ~10 locations across OH/KY/IN and online, ~60,000 involved.
  • Mission: A seeker-focused church—“a church for people who gave up on the church, not on God.”

Key topics discussed

  • The adoption journey: From “AI is evil” to practical, patient education and fear-calming conversations.
  • First moves: Publish an AI acceptable-use policy, prioritize privacy/security, host all-staff talks.
  • Rollout strategy: Deploy from the Marketing Studio/Data & Insights hub, then go department by department.
  • Scaling and tooling:
    • ChatGPT Enterprise (privacy, shared or department licenses)
    • Verb (enterprise video AI with hands-on support)
    • Avoiding tool sprawl and runaway subscription costs
  • Practical use cases:
    • Sermon ideation and the “blank page” problem: outline generation, idea workshops, structure/length control.
    • Turning long-form sermons into assets: extracting talking points for screens and production.
    • Production planning: trends, audience pain points, locations, gear—months of planning reduced to days.
    • Personas: Using research to personify “Heather” and “Michael” (core seekers) and test messaging.
  • Prompting and training:
    • Rep-supported training, prompt sheets for pastors, and empowering staff to iterate.
    • For small teams: use tools like Perplexity for research and ChatGPT to build persona simulations.
  • Spiritual formation and AI:
    • Healthy rhythms: Sabbath from AI, scripture before prompts, relationships over automation.
    • AI can’t replace God-given creativity; use it to offload tedious tasks, not spiritual discernment.

Timestamps

  • 00:00 Welcome + podcast mission
  • 00:27 Meet David and Petra
  • 02:00 Crossroads overview (size, reach, mission)
  • 03:03 Petra’s role and “everything is our job”
  • 05:40 How their AI journey began
  • 07:52 Addressing fear, ethics, and job concerns
  • 09:31 First steps: policy, privacy, staff talks
  • 11:15 Rollout via Marketing Studio/Data & Insights
  • 12:14 Scaling tools and subscriptions (ChatGPT Enterprise, Verb)
  • 15:21 Right-sizing by church size/budget
  • 15:52 Production planning with AI
  • 18:34 Solving the blank page for pastors
  • 20:54 Packaging sermons for screens/teams
  • 21:33 Prompt training and support
  • 24:54 Personas (Heather/Michael), research, and privacy
  • 33:51 Advice for leaders getting started
  • 35:33 Spiritual guardrails: AI and formation
  • 37:48 Wrap-up + CTA

Actionable takeaways

  • Publish an AI acceptable-use policy before broad adoption.
  • Choose one enterprise chat tool to avoid tool sprawl; set department access and budgets.
  • Start where the bottleneck is biggest; roll out department by department.
  • Stand up a simple “prompt starter kit” for pastors and staff.
  • Build 1–2 core personas from real research; use AI to test messaging as those personas—within a private environment.
  • Train prompting basics and name internal champions to coach teams.
  • Keep spiritual guardrails: Sabbath, scripture first, human connection over convenience.

Notable quotes

  • “You have to soothe people’s fears before you can do any work.”
  • “AI isn’t creative—you are. Use it to cut the tedious, not the human.”
  • “Start small so you don’t get overwhelmed into doing nothing.”

Tools and resources mentioned

  • ChatGPT Enterprise
  • Verb (video AI platform)
  • Perplexity (research)
  • Canva (creative tools with AI features)
  • Church IT Network, Life.Church (peer learning)

T’Mil Curtis
• The Ministry GPS

Dr. David Thorne

AI For Churches

For More Help and Support
If you’re looking for more AI help and support, make sure to join our Facebook Group, AI for Churches (https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiforchurches).

Your church can also go through our AI LaunchPoint consultation process. In this process, we’ll help you assess where your church currently is with AI, help train your staff, do an AI audit, and help your church establish an AI policy.

Book a discovery call to learn more. https://ai-for-churches.com/consultation/