FaithGuideAI
AI Christian Mentor
FaithGuideAI was born on the red clay of Mukothima in Tharaka Nithi and along the bustling roads of Kitale, Kenya, where Kevin served as a missionary, consultant, and teacher in July 2014, June and July 2015, and December 2015 through August 2016. By lantern light he poured over Scripture, teaching eager students under acacia shade and capturing every insight in worn leather notebooks. Those field journals—rooted in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20 and Kevin's life verse, 1 Peter 5:2-3—sparked a longing to share discipleship resources with believers far beyond the mission stations he served.
That same missionary heartbeat now animates this site in 2025. The Bible studies, gospel stories, and pastoral counsel forged in those Kenyan seasons can travel with you wherever the Lord plants you. From evangelism training to family devotions, every response carries the dust of Mukothima and Kitale and the conviction that "the harvest is plentiful" (Luke 10:2).
This is a conversation tool. You type a question about Scripture, theology, or Christian living, and the system responds in the voice of Kevin—a Bible study leader who has spent years teaching in small groups, mission fields, and classrooms. The responses draw on his teaching style: warm, direct, rooted in biblical truth, and shaped by years of walking alongside believers through their questions and struggles.
Maybe you're preparing a Sunday school lesson late at night. Maybe you're wrestling with a passage that doesn't make sense, or you need help thinking through a decision from a biblical perspective. You can ask here, and the tool will respond the way Kevin would if you were sitting across from him with an open Bible between you.
The technology behind it is AI—trained on Kevin's approach to Scripture and discipleship—but the purpose is simple: to make thoughtful, biblically grounded conversation available whenever you need it. It can help you draft devotionals, work through discussion questions, explore historical context, or simply think through what a verse means for your life today.
It's not perfect, and it's not a replacement for your pastor, your community, or your own time in the Word. But it's here when you need a voice that takes Scripture seriously, speaks with care, and remembers that every question about faith is also a question about how we live.
Building FaithGuideAI: Technical Notes
Design decisions behind a conversational Bible study tool
FaithGuideAI was built to solve a specific problem: how do you capture the way a real person teaches Scripture and make it available in conversation? The answer required choosing the right model, designing a prompt architecture that preserved Kevin's voice, and building an interface light enough to stay out of the way.
The system runs on OpenAI's GPT models, chosen for their ability to maintain context over long conversations, handle theological nuance, and respond with clarity rather than generic spirituality. The models were trained on broad knowledge, but FaithGuideAI narrows that lens through a custom system prompt that anchors every response in Kevin's teaching philosophy: Reformed theology, historical-grammatical interpretation, and pastoral warmth.
The chat interface was designed to feel like a text conversation, not a search engine. Messages use a clean iMessage-inspired layout with dark mode styling, syntax highlighting for Scripture references, and markdown rendering for structure. The backend is PHP with RESTful endpoints, storing conversations in JSON for portability and allowing users to export their dialogue history at any time.
Devotional generation was the first major feature beyond basic Q&A. Users can request a complete devotional on any topic or passage, and the system returns structured content: a title, Scripture reading, reflection, application questions, and a closing prayer. These aren't templates filled in with variables—they're dynamically composed responses shaped by the same voice that answers individual questions.
The 21-day devotional series took this further. Each day's content is interconnected, building thematically while standing alone as individual studies. Generating a coherent multi-day series required maintaining narrative threads across API calls, ensuring theological consistency, and structuring each devotional with enough depth for serious study but enough accessibility for new believers.
Voice and tone calibration was iterative. Early versions sounded too formal, too academic, or too generically "Christian." The current system prompt emphasizes conversational directness, avoids clichés, and prioritizes substance over sentiment. It's trained to teach the way Kevin teaches: explaining cultural context, drawing connections across Scripture, and always pointing back to practical discipleship.
The site itself is intentionally minimal: Tailwind CSS for styling, vanilla JavaScript for interactions, no framework bloat. The goal was fast load times, accessibility, and a reading experience that doesn't distract from the content. Every design choice—from typography to spacing to the gradient accents—serves readability and focus.
This isn't a finished product. It's a working prototype of what conversational Bible study can look like when you combine thoughtful prompt engineering, deliberate technical constraints, and a clear sense of purpose. The tech exists to serve the teaching, not the other way around.