How Dr. Kenneth Brock Built 700 AI Prompts for Preachers

How Dr. Kenneth Brock Built 700 AI Prompts for Preachers

A pastoral letter from Dr. Kenneth E. Brock

Beloved,

People often ask me how a preacher who has been in the pulpit for more than fifty years ended up writing AI prompts. It's a fair question. To answer it, I have to start at the beginning.

A Charge Given at Fifteen

I was fifteen years old when I answered the call to preach. God placed me under the care of the late Dr. Ananias Davis of Welcome Baptist Church. He was my pastor, but he was much more than that. He was a hands-on mentor who shaped how I read Scripture, how I carried myself, and how I loved people.

He gave me a charge I have carried every day since: "A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify."

As a teenager I traveled across this nation preaching the Gospel. In the years that followed, the Lord allowed me to deepen my study, earning a Doctorate in Theology from Union Baptist Theological Seminary and receiving an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from Urban Bible Institute. Then, after more than five decades of ministry, God brought me full circle. Today I serve as Senior Pastor of New Welcome Missionary Baptist Church, the church family where my journey began, with my beloved wife, First Lady Yvonne Brock, by my side.

I tell you all this so you'll understand that I didn't come to AI as a technologist. I came to it as a pastor.

The Burden I Could Not Ignore

Over fifty years, I have walked alongside a great many pastors. I have watched faithful preachers of the Word work full-time jobs all week and then prepare a sermon, a Bible study, and a eulogy in the same few days. I have watched shepherds pour themselves out for everyone else until there was nothing left for their own souls.

Burnout in ministry is real. Most of the pastors I know aren't short on calling. They're short on time and short on help.

Seeing AI for What It Is

When AI tools began to emerge, I saw two reactions in the church. Some treated AI as the answer to everything, while others treated it as a danger to be avoided.

I saw it differently. I saw a tool, the same kind of tool pastors have always used. We have used concordances, Bible software, and commentary sets, and none of them ever preached a sermon. They helped the preacher study. To my mind, the question was never whether AI belonged in ministry. The question was who would build the right tools for it.

The Discovery: The Problem Was the Question

When I first sat down and tested AI on my own sermon preparation, the results disappointed me. The answers were generic and flat, and some of them were simply wrong.

Then I realized the tool wasn't the real problem. The way I was asking was the problem. When I told AI who to act as, gave it the passage, described the congregation, and explained exactly what I needed, the answers changed completely. They began to sound like they belonged in a real church with real people.

So I went to work. I spent months writing, testing, and refining prompts that did more than use AI. They taught it to speak the language of the church. They cover sermon structure, theological precision, pastoral care, urban ministry, and the everyday challenges of leading a congregation in a digital age.

From Months of Work to 700 Prompts

That work became more than 700 prompts written for preachers. It's part of a larger ministry library that has now grown past a thousand. The preaching prompts follow the full life of a sermon: studying the text, building the outline, finding illustrations, applying the Word, and carrying the message beyond Sunday.

Every prompt was written by a pastor who knows the difference between a generic answer and a theologically grounded one. I organized them into Preacher's Lab™, seven focused tracks, so a preacher can go straight to what they need that week.

What These Prompts Will Never Do

These prompts will never replace the anointing, and they won't give you a word from the Lord. AI can't know your people the way you do. It also makes mistakes, so every result must be tested against Scripture.

What they can do is carry some of the load. I built Global Iconic AI™ in 2024 because I watched pastors burn out doing alone what AI could help them do better. I wanted them to have more time for what only they can do: shepherd, preach, and love people.

The Mission

At New Welcome, our calling is "Loving God and Loving God's People." Global Iconic AI™ is simply that same calling applied to a new moment. The mission is to equip every pastor, regardless of church size or budget, with ministry preparation that was once reserved for the few.

When I think about the future of the church, I think about our children and grandchildren, my "Papa babies," and the church they will inherit. I want that church led by pastors who are rested and well-equipped and who aren't afraid of the tools of their generation.

An Invitation

If you'd like to know more about my journey, you can read my story here. If you've never used AI in your ministry, start with the free prompts I've made available. Try them this week, and if they bless your preparation, Preacher's Lab™ will be there when you're ready.

A charge to keep I have. So do you. Keep preaching the Word.

Your brother in Christ,

Dr. Kenneth E. Brock
Senior Pastor, New Welcome Missionary Baptist Church
Founder, Global Iconic AI™