How FlockConnect Uses AI

Last updated: October 1, 2026

FlockConnect builds software for churches, and it uses AI in two places: inside the product, and in some of what it writes. This page covers the writing. A pastor reading anything FlockConnect publishes should be able to tell who wrote it and how it was made.

The short version

• Every post on the FlockConnect blog says how it was made, once under the title and again at the end.
• AI may help draft reference writing: tool comparisons, how-to guides, and factual explainers. A person directs it, checks it, and edits it before it is published.
• Pastoral, theological, and opinion writing stays human. Michael Tribett, FlockConnect's founder, writes it himself, or it is built only from his own recorded and written words and edited by him until it is his.
• AI is never named as an author, and no one's name sits on writing they did not do.

The three labels

Each post carries one of three labels. The label decides the byline, the note at the end of the post, and the authorship information that search engines read.

Written by Michael Tribett

He wrote it. AI was used only to check spelling and grammar. The byline reads "By Michael Tribett."

His own words, arranged with AI

The post was built only from Michael's own words: talks, interviews, voice notes, and things he wrote. AI selected, ordered, and tightened that material. No story was invented, and each post's source notes record where its lines come from. He then edited the draft until it read as his and approved it. The byline reads "By Michael Tribett · His own words, arranged with AI," and posts in the Builder Notes series also carry a "From the builder" mark.

Drafted with AI, directed and edited by Michael Tribett

The ideas come from Michael: his seminary research and writing, and hundreds of hours of recorded conversations. AI put them into words from his direction and outline. He shaped the draft through rounds of revision, fact-checked it against his training in Christian ministry (he holds a Master of Divinity), and approved it. Because the words are not his alone, the byline reads "By FlockConnect · Directed and edited by Michael Tribett," and the structured data names FlockConnect as the author and Michael as the editor.

Where the line falls

Reference writing is about accuracy. Comparing two church tools, explaining a feature, or laying out the steps of a process are jobs where the hard part is checking that every fact is right, and checking is work a person does before anything is published.

Pastoral and theological writing is different. It speaks to how a church cares for its people, and that kind of writing should come from someone who carries it. A model can imitate the sound of conviction without holding any. So from October 2, 2026, any new post that is pastoral, theological, or opinion is either written by Michael or built only from his own words. FlockConnect's build checks enforce this: a new post must say whether it is reference or conviction, and a conviction post cannot be published as an AI draft.

Michael has described his own rule for AI this way: "I'll use it to help edit... put my original ideas together in a cohesive manner... I just don't want generative AI to think for me or create for me." This policy applies that rule to the blog.

What changed on October 1, 2026

Before this date, most posts on the FlockConnect blog were drafted with AI and carried the byline "By Michael Tribett." That byline did not say how the posts were made, and it has been corrected. Those posts now read "By FlockConnect · Directed and edited by Michael Tribett," and each one ends with a note saying how it was written.

Three essays about AI had been drafted in Michael's first-person voice. They were rewritten in the third person, under the same corrected byline. Their addresses and their questions did not change; headings that spoke in his voice were reworded. On every AI-drafted post, the closing biography is now headed "About the editor."

Posts published before October 2, 2026 include pastoral writing that was drafted with AI under the earlier practice. They remain on the blog, labeled for what they are.

Michael explains why he made this change, in his own words, in AI Helps Produce. It Does Not Create.

Spanish translations

The Spanish versions of FlockConnect's blog posts are translated from English with AI. Each Spanish post says so in its closing note.

AI inside FlockConnect

Collie, the assistant inside FlockConnect, works under its own limits: it notices and suggests, and people decide. Those limits, including what Collie is given and what it never does, are described on the Collie ethics page.

Questions or corrections

If something FlockConnect published looks mislabeled, write to support@flockconnect.com. A mislabeled post is a correction, and it will be fixed.