A Peek Behind the Curtain - Church Loom

Welcome to a series called A Peek Behind the Curtain, where faith.tools partners with app builders of your favorite apps to give you a look behind the scenes. You may know the app, but you might not know the stories behind the app.

Today we're digging deeper into Church Loom, an AI web tool created by Kevin B. that gets your existing sermon content and repurposes it into other types of content, like daily devotionals, blog posts, tweets, and more. He created the app without any software experience, using just AI to code it.

Here's our convo with Kevin B.

The Interview

What is the story of Church Loom? How did it come to be?

The story behind Church Loom is that I was already using AI to teach myself to code and was looking for AI projects to start. I had started in the podcast/voice summary space, and then I realized that I could use this technology to impact the church and do good for the church. So I pivoted and thought, "Okay, I already know a little bit about podcasting and AI. How can I help the church in that way?" That's how I came up with the idea for Church Loom.

— Kevin B.

It's encouraging to see ways where people are fascinated with technology and consider, "how can I help the church in this way?" That's where some amazing ideas are created. For example, the YouVersion Bible app idea was first created in the Chicago O'Hare airport as Bobby Grunewald considered bringing the Bible to a phone so people can always have the Word of God on them.

And, just as YouVersion faced challenges when the initial website didn't do well, many other great ideas run into troubles, even Church Loom.

What's one challenge that you overcame when working on Church Loom? Or, when it felt like quitting, what helped you stay the course?

One challenge I faced was that I had spent a lot of time working in isolation, developing the project on my own. It took me around two months to reach the minimum viable product (MVP) stage, but I wasn't sure if I should keep going or if I was even working on the right idea.

What helped me stay the course was talking with my own sister, who works for our church. This was a great way to be reminded that I was on the right path and should keep working. She enjoyed the work and felt there was a need for it, which encouraged me to persist.

— Kevin B.

Sometimes when building a product, all you need is someone to see the value in what you're creating and speak a word of encouragement over you. "Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up." Proverbs 12:25 NLT.

And, while Church Loom was initially created in isolation, God brought others in faith and tech to Kevin.

Anywhere you recognize God's hand throughout the journey of creating Church Loom?

I think God's hand has been at play in the different people I've been meeting, including Cam from faith.tools and others in the Facebook groups I've joined. I feel I've been steered and nudged in the right direction, which has been a real blessing. This has helped not only with the creation of this tool or app, but also with connecting and meeting other individuals working on similar projects in this space.

— Kevin B.

We were created for community, and it's so kind to see how God brought Kevin into like-minded community in faith and tech. "How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!" Psalms 133:1 NLT.

For anyone who's building something for the Lord but in isolation or in silos, Kevin has some advice.

If you could give advice to someone who's wanting to build an app or tool for Christians, what advice would you give?

My advice, which is similar to building any sort of project, is to release and get feedback early and often. A mistake I made was working in a silo and not getting feedback from others. Connecting with others in the Twitter community or joining different Facebook groups is a great way to involve different people along the way to ensure that what you're building is the right thing to be building.

— Kevin B.

If you're looking for community like Kevin was, we've created a list of online faith and tech communities.

Learn about the technical specs of how Church Loom was created.

Pause and Reflect

Choose a question to reflect on:

• Q: What stood out to me in this interview and why?

• Q: In what ways can I partner with Godly community to create something better together?

• Q: How can I encourage someone today?

Get Church Loom today 🖥️

We'd like to thank Kevin for taking time to give you a Peek Behind the Curtain. I hope this encourages Christians who develop, design, and build apps to lean on the Lord's guidance when building and to get advice from wise Christ-centered mentors who can speak truth and direction in the process.