DISCERN & BUILD
Trinity Church of Portland · September 30, 2026

Discern
& Build

AI for Ministry Leaders

What role should AI have in your ministry — if any? Spend the day answering that question, and go home with one working workflow and a clear next step.

Register
WED, SEP 30
9 AM – 4 PM · doors 8:15
$79
Through Sep 14 · catered lunch included
Invite only · Oct 1–2 The Builders' Retreat: two more days for ministry leaders exploring how AI fits Christian ministry. Request access →
What it is

Learn how AI fits your ministry — then build with it

Every ministry wrestles with the same daily friction — the CRM nobody likes, the volunteer schedule that lives in one person's head, the follow-ups that pile up faster than anyone can send them. Discern & Build starts there: together we name the real problems, and our coach team teaches where AI genuinely fits ministry — and where it doesn't — with live builds you watch happen in front of you.

Then the conference becomes a build lab. In the afternoon's hands-on workshop, every attendee leaves with one working workflow for their ministry — a prompt system, a drafted grant section, an automated follow-up — built with a coach nearby, and a clear next step. You go home with something that works Monday morning and the discernment to keep using AI well.

Registration

One ticket · $79

Every seat gets the full conference, the hands-on build lab, and catered lunch. Registration is $79 through September 14 — $99 after.

Open to all
Wednesday · Sep 30 · 9 AM – 4 PM
Discern & Build: AI for Ministry Leaders
$79

Teaching, live builds, lunch roundtables, and a hands-on build lab in two tracks — new to AI, or already building — where you leave with one working workflow for your ministry and a clear next step. Got an idea for the open-source project we build for Portland's churches? Propose it when you register.

Claim your seat →
Who it's for

Ministry leaders who carry a real problem — and can spare exactly one day.

Ministry leadership teams

Executives and department leads of established ministries working out how AI fits their organization — strategy, policy, and practice.

Churches & church planters

Pastors and staff carrying an operational need worth solving — and ready to learn a better way.

Nonprofits & missions

Christian nonprofits and mission organizations needing leverage without a tech team.

Open to Christian churches, ministries, and faith-based nonprofits — from the Portland area and from out of town. Bring your whole team if you like: every seat is the same price, and everyone builds. No AI or coding experience required.

Schedule at a glance

The day, hour by hour

Doors at 8:15, first session at 9:00, done at 4:00 — with a catered lunch in the middle. Registrants get the detailed run-of-show by email before the event.

See the full hour-by-hour schedule ↓Hide the full schedule ↑
Wednesday, September 30
8:15
Doors open
Coffee, check-in, setup help
9:00
Welcome & prayer
Why this room, why now — the day in one arc · Ahshuwah Hawthorne
9:15
Shared challenges
Naming the challenges every ministry carries — a whole-room working session
9:40
Live build demo
Watch a real ministry problem become a working tool, start to finish · Clayton Henry & Jason Jiang
10:10
The Claude Desktop App
Hands-on tutorial: Chat, Cowork, Code, and Design, and when to use each · John Buckingham
10:40
Automated ministry with GrokBot
The next step after building: agents that carry ministry work while you sleep · Ronald Bynoe
11:00
Break
Ten minutes
11:10
Ligonier Labs
What a large teaching ministry is building with AI — and what it's learning · Ted Hallum & John Cobb
11:30
AI & ministry leadership
Leading your organization when capability outruns discernment · Thomas Terry
11:50
The Christ-Centered AI Framework
The discernment grid you'll use all day — and long after · Ahshuwah Hawthorne
12:15
Lunch roundtables
Catered on site; tables grouped by shared problem — donor & member data, comms, scheduling, reporting
1:00
Build lab: two tracks
New to AI: your first working workflow, guided step by step · John Buckingham. Already building: from a prompt to a system · Clayton Henry & Jason Jiang. Every coach at the tables.
1:50
The gift to Portland: choose what we build
The room picks the one shared problem our coach team will solve for Portland's churches. We scope it together and start the agents Wednesday; the coaches build Thursday and Friday; we give it away in October · Clayton Henry & Jason Jiang
2:30
Open feedback marketplace
Show your prototype; the whole room weighs in · hosted by John Buckingham
2:55
Prayer & lament
Bringing the needs behind our projects before God · Thomas Terry
3:15
Your next step
Every attendee names the one workflow they'll run next week; coaches help scope it so it actually happens · Ahshuwah Hawthorne
3:30
Coach Q&A
Every coach, open floor: your questions, your next steps
3:45
Commissioning
Sending prayer — you leave with something working
4:00
Done
Out the door on time

Times are anchors, not cages. Registrants get the detailed run-of-show by email before the event.

The model

Discernment meets a build lab

We use a Christ-centered model for using AI — and this event is for the AI-excited and the AI-skeptical alike. Through teaching sessions, we help everyone think through what place AI should have in their ministry: where it fits, and where it doesn't. You'll practice that discernment as you build, walking each phase with your coach.

01 · DISCOVER
Four-Question Filter

Name the real problem and weigh whether it's worth solving — for God's glory, your calling, and your neighbor's good.

02 · DISCERN
AI-Fit + Four Anchors

Decide where AI genuinely fits — and where the work should stay human and prayerful.

03 · DEVELOP
Coached build

Build it with your coach — see it modeled, build alongside them, then take the lead yourself.

04 · DEMONSTRATE
Six Review Criteria

Ship the working tool and weigh the fruit — does it ring true, serve your neighbor, and point somewhere good?

4D Redemptive Design Cycle: FaithTech.

What we teach

Tools you keep after you leave

The discernment grid
Christ-Centered Framework for Using AI

Our core teaching resource — the grid participants learn for deciding where AI fits in their ministry, and where it doesn't. You'll use it live across all four phases of the build.

Read the framework →
The build stack
Agentic tools, hands-on

You direct the AI; it does the building. We teach the working approach we use every day — and we'll send the exact tools and setup instructions to install ahead of time.

→Agentic AI coding — you lead, the AI builds, end to end
→Directing multiple agents at once — for those further along
→Prompting, review & testing — staying in charge of the output
A gift to the city

Every Build Lab leaves a gift behind — this one's for Portland

At the conference we choose one Portland-focused project together and start the work in the room. Our coach team then builds it out over the Builders' Retreat on Thursday and Friday and the weeks that follow. Nothing ships on Wednesday; the choosing is Wednesday's job.

That project will be released as a free, open-source tool — gifted to serve the wider body of Christ across Portland, so any church or ministry can pick it up and use it. Have an idea for it? There's a place to propose one when you register.

The coaches

Meet your coder-coaches

Practitioners who build for a living and voices who'll frame the bigger picture — sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with you the whole way. They also lead the opening sessions on understanding AI and practicing discernment about its use. You direct; they coach.

Clayton Henry
Clayton Henry
Co-founder, viaforge.ai · Software engineer · U.S. Army veteran

Clayton Henry is a Harvard-educated U.S. Army veteran and software engineer focused on designing and operating complex, high-stakes systems. His work centers on production-grade AI, architectural clarity, and durable system design, and includes published research and patented approaches in applied AI and secure networking. As co-founder of viaforge.ai, he partners with organizations navigating consequential decisions around AI adoption and governance. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his son Cash, and enjoys music, writing and other long-term creative projects.

View LinkedIn →
Ronald Bynoe
Ronald Bynoe
Independent Bitcoin & AI Consultant · Former Intel Engineer

Ronald is a technologist who has been playing with machine learning since 2016. With over a decade of experience of engineering at Intel and now operating as an independent Bitcoin and AI Consultant, he loves building novel solutions and learning the new tools that this AI Renaissance brings to offer — including the latest frontier models and the leading edge of self-hosted AI tools.

View LinkedIn →
Thomas Terry
Thomas Terry
Speaker & coach · Lead pastor, Trinity Church of Portland

Thomas is the lead pastor of Trinity Church of Portland — the church hosting Discern & Build — and the founder of Humble Beast, a record label and ministry. A spoken-word artist and member of Beautiful Eulogy, he writes and speaks on creativity, discipleship, and the Christian life, bringing creativity and theology together to glorify the God who made both. He also does AI integration consulting for several major Christian organizations, and at the conference he frames a Christ-centered vision for using technology and creativity well.

View profile →
John Buckingham
John Buckingham
Senior Product Manager, Buzz Health · Product + AI

John Buckingham is a product leader and builder based in Vancouver, WA, working at the intersection of product strategy and applied AI as Senior Product Manager at Buzz Health. He designs and operates multi-agent AI systems — building custom MCP servers and wiring tools together to deliver real-world outcomes — including a fleet of specialized agents and browser automation. His current project, Magellan, is a knowledge-graph pipeline for agentic deep research. Earlier he founded the Portland agency Pancake Creative and led product at Visiting Media.

Jason Jiang
Jason Jiang
Co-founder, viaforge.ai · Former Accenture leader

Jason is a University of Florida graduate and former Accenture leader with over a decade architecting and delivering enterprise-scale digital systems — translating complex business needs into durable solutions that run reliably at scale. As co-founder of viaforge.ai, he brings that same enterprise-grade rigor to AI, helping organizations move past the hype to build systems that deliver sustained impact. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife and two young boys.

View LinkedIn →
Ahshuwah Hawthorne
Ahshuwah Hawthorne
Founder & Executive Director · Brilliance Labs · Ignite AI Consulting

Ahshuwah is the founder and executive director of Brilliance Labs, a Portland innovation lab putting bright ideas to work across the full spectrum of God's mission. Through its Ignite AI Consulting arm he helps churches, ministries, and nonprofits adopt AI with discernment — keeping prayer, people, and faithful stewardship at the center. A systems thinker and builder, he led the AI optimization of Brilliance Labs itself, integrating Claude across the organization's operations — the budgeting process, bookkeeping, donor management, event coordination, and a full website rebuild. At the conference he'll do two things: teach the Christ-Centered AI Framework, and share a case study on implementing AI in a small-nonprofit context.

View LinkedIn →
Ted Hallum
Ted Hallum
Director of Analytics & Information Management · Ligonier Ministries

Ted leads data engineering, analytics, and data science at Ligonier Ministries, one of the most trusted teaching ministries in the world — and he's at the front edge of Ligonier's hands-on exploration of AI, prototyping tools that serve the ministry's mission. He's seen firsthand how one relevant problem plus one guided build experience gets a ministry leader off to the races, and that conviction is exactly what he brings to the room.

John Cobb
John Cobb
Director of Innovation · Ligonier Ministries

John is Director of Innovation at Ligonier Ministries, where a serious commitment to leading well with AI is already taking shape. He's charting what AI-equipped ministry looks like for a large, established teaching ministry, and with Ted Hallum he'll share what Ligonier Labs is building — then be in the room, learning and building alongside everyone else.

More coder-coaches coming soon

We're lining up the rest of the team. Check back as we announce them.

Location

Trinity Church of Portland

909 NE 30th Ave

Portland, OR 97232

Our home for the day — easy to reach in Northeast Portland, about 15 minutes from PDX airport. Coming from out of town? Email hello@brilliancelabs.org and we'll help you sort travel and lodging.

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📍
Trinity Church of Portland
909 NE 30th Ave · Portland, OR 97232
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FAQ

Questions, answered

One ticket: $79 — the conference sessions, the hands-on build lab, and catered lunch. Registration is $79 through September 14 — $99 after. Bringing teammates? Every seat is the same price; each person registers individually, and teams that build together go home with more.

Christian churches, ministries, and nonprofits — from the Portland/Vancouver metro and from out of town. Leaders are flying in for this, and we're glad to help you plan the trip. This is for nonprofit ministries — not for-profit organizations. The one requirement: bring a real problem you own.

No — there's no application or approval step. Registering (and paying) secures your seat. Just bring a laptop and a real challenge you'd love to make progress on.

Perfect — come anyway. The morning is designed for exactly that: the shared-challenges session and teaching will surface more buildable problems than you expect, and in the afternoon workshop a coach helps you pick the right first build. Nothing needs to be decided before you arrive.

No. We start at the beginning: what agentic AI actually is, where it fits ministry, and how to direct it well. If you're already using AI, you'll simply go deeper in the workshop — coaches meet you at your level.

Bring a laptop (Mac or Windows) and come with an active Claude subscription — it’s what you’ll build on in the workshop, and what you’ll keep building on at home. A personal Claude Pro or Max plan works great, or your organization can set up a Claude Team account (nonprofits get up to 75% off — apply for the Claude for Nonprofits discount). We’ll email setup instructions before the event so you arrive ready.

The build runs on the Claude desktop app — you’ll use Chat, Cowork, and Claude Code, along with Claude Design for prototyping. We may introduce other tools case by case if they fit a specific project, but that’s the exception. Everyone should arrive with the Claude app installed and signed in to an account — we’ll email setup instructions ahead of time so you’re ready to build from the first session.

Refundable up to 30 days before the event (pending final confirmation). Reach out if your plans change and we’ll work with you.

Register

Claim your seat

Wednesday · Sep 30
$79
Discern & Build
Catered lunch included · Through Sep 14

Bringing teammates? Every seat is the same price — each person registers below.

Register

Tell us about you and your ministry. Pitching a project is optional — it's how our coach team picks builds to take on for ministries after the conference.

You're registering for: Discern & Build — $79
Choose your cohort *

Both cohorts get the full three-day program — this just tells us who’s newer and who’s experienced so we can group build-day sessions by pace. Everyone builds with multiple AI agents.

Your three project ideas *

Bring three project ideas. You'll build one of them during the event, so come with real problems your ministry actually has. This isn't an application — you're registered as soon as you pay. Before the event we review every project and send feedback: if an idea is out of scope for the time we have, we'll tell you, and we'll point you to which of your three ideas (or which size of your one project) fits best — then match you with the right coach and cohort.

See examples & sizing guidance

Only have one project you're excited about? Pitch it at three sizes instead — Small, Medium, Large — where each larger version does more. Toggle the mode below.

Think bigger than you'd expect. With AI doing the heavy lifting — and coaches running multi-agent workflows and overnight builds right alongside you — teams accomplish in a few focused days what used to take months. Bring a real, meaty problem your ministry actually has.

A few things well within reach:

  • A full rebuild or redesign of your ministry website
  • Your own in-house version of a tool you’d normally pay a monthly subscription for — a CRM, scheduling app, project tracker, or intake platform — built around exactly how you work, and owned by you
  • A member or donor database with the dashboards and reports you wish you had
  • An intake or application system that sorts, prioritizes, and routes requests automatically
  • A content engine that drafts your bulletins, newsletters, social posts, and sermon-series resources

One guideline: bring something concrete with a clear finish line, not an open-ended “platform.” If your idea touches highly sensitive data or has to plug deep into locked-down systems, we’ll help you scope a first version that proves it out. Not sure if it fits? Pitch it anyway — right-sizing it with you is exactly what we do.

Submission type *
Which idea do you most want to build? *

Bring your team — the first seat is full price, every teammate after that is 50% off. Names are optional now; you can add them later.

Secure checkout via ZapRite — pay by card or Bitcoin / Lightning.

Invite only · October 1–2
The Builders' Retreat

After the conference, a small invite-only gathering continues Thursday and Friday: ministry leaders exploring how AI fits into Christian ministry, building side by side with our coach team — the gift to Portland chosen on Wednesday, and each other's real projects. Seats are limited and every request is reviewed personally. This is a request, not a ticket; there is nothing to pay today.