Use ChatGPT for Event Planning
Organising parish events like camps, retreats, and fundraisers can be a joyful but overwhelming task. With ChatGPT, your parish team can simplify planning, reduce stress, and free up time for what matters most: building community.
In this edition, we’ll show you how parish leaders are using ChatGPT as a quiet but powerful co-pilot for event planning.
Let’s walk through the process.
How to Use ChatGPT for Event Planning
Think of ChatGPT as your always-available assistant. You can ask it to:
Build checklists
Create timelines
Draft communication emails
Suggest themes, activities, menus, or schedules
Help with health and safety planning
Brainstorm solutions when plans change
You don't need technical skills — just clear instructions.
Use Case #1: Planning a Parish Camp
Imagine your parish is organising an all-ages church camp. Here’s how ChatGPT helped a ministry leader:
Created a full event timeline from 6 months out
Designed team roles and responsibilities
Built checklists for promotion, registration, logistics, and health and safety
Wrote final communications to attendees
Result:
The camp team felt more confident and organised without hiring external event planners.
Advanced Prompt Example for Parish Camp
"You are an experienced Anglican ministry event planner based in New Zealand. Create a full operational plan for a three-day family church camp scheduled six months from now. Include a detailed month-by-month planning timeline, team roles and responsibilities, promotional strategy for a mid-sized parish (around 150 attendees), registration systems, programme schedules (including worship and children's activities), health and safety protocols, wet weather contingencies, and post-event evaluation steps. Format the output clearly into sections with bullet-pointed checklists."
✍️ Tip: Use role-playing ("You are an experienced [X]") to shape ChatGPT's style, and always specify formatting needs (e.g., bullet points, tables, sections) to get clean, usable outputs.
Use Case #2: Organising a Parish Missions Meal Fundraiser
Many parishes run fundraising events to support mission work. Here's how ChatGPT made organising a missions meal easier:
Suggested event names, themes, and menu ideas
Created a checklist for planning, promotion, and volunteer coordination
Helped draft ticketing and donation forms
Suggested a sample run sheet for the evening (welcome, prayer, meal, presentation)
Result: The organising team saved hours of preparation time and delivered a well-attended, inspiring event.
Advanced Prompt Example for Missions Meal Fundraiser
"Act as a professional fundraising and event organiser for a mid-sized Anglican parish in New Zealand. Develop a full project plan for a missions fundraiser dinner aiming to host 80–100 attendees. Include event branding ideas, menu suggestions appropriate for a church context, promotional plan (both print and social media), volunteer role descriptions, budgeting estimates, ticketing system setup, a sample event schedule including speeches and worship elements, and contingency plans for unexpected low ticket sales or bad weather. Present the output using bullet points and tables where helpful."
✍️ Tip: Give ChatGPT your audience size, goal (fundraising target or attendance), and event style (formal, casual, family-friendly) to sharpen its recommendations.
Tips, Tools, and Recommendations
Use specific, role-based prompts. Tell ChatGPT who to “act as” and what your setting is (e.g., Anglican parish, New Zealand, mission-focused event).
Save your best outputs. Build a growing bank of ChatGPT templates for future events.
Tools that help:
Google Docs or Sheets for planning and collaboration
Canva for beautiful promo posters
Trello or Asana for task tracking
Always review critically. Even the best AI output still benefits from human wisdom and local context checking.
Final encouragement: You don't need to be an AI expert to make ChatGPT a powerful part of your ministry toolkit. Start small — you'll be amazed how much time and energy it can save your parish team!
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🚀 5 Golden Rules for Better Prompting (for Parish Leaders Starting with AI)
