Today, while scrolling through Instagram, I came across a reel explaining that ChatGPT could help someone create an app.
Seriously?
I knew ChatGPT could help with writing, research, organization, images, coding and many other creative tasks. I have used it extensively in developing books, songs, reflections and children’s stories. But I had not fully considered that it could help an ordinary person like me create an actual working app—with its own name, logo, visual identity and interactive features.
Naturally, my curiosity took over.
I began imagining a Christian spiritual app: a welcoming place where people could explore questions about Scripture, God, faith and spirituality. It might contain traditional and contemporary prayers, spiritually uplifting music, different methods of reading the Bible, guided journaling, inspirational wallpapers and a gentle introductory faith journey for those who were curious about Christianity or returning after time away.
It could even connect people with official Alpha courses in their local area.
At the centre of the idea was a simple principle:
Faith is not a product. This space is freely offered to help people seek, question, pray and discern.
The more we explored the idea, however, the more I learned about what creating an app actually involves.
Yes, ChatGPT Can Help Build an App
ChatGPT can help:
- Develop and refine the original idea
- Plan the app’s structure and navigation
- Design its screens and visual identity
- Create a logo and app icon
- Write the code
- Build interactive features
- Prepare a working phone-friendly version
- Test and revise the experience
- Prepare it for eventual publication
The simplest beginning does not even require an app store. A progressive web app can be opened through a link and added to a phone’s home screen, where it appears and functions much like an ordinary app.
Publishing through the major app stores introduces additional requirements and expenses. Apple currently charges developers an annual membership fee, although eligible nonprofit organizations may apply for a waiver. Google Play charges a one-time registration fee. Hosting, secure storage, licensed content and ongoing maintenance may create other expenses.
An app can therefore be completely free for the person downloading it without being completely free for the person or organization maintaining it.
The Hidden Cost of AI
My original idea included an AI spiritual companion shaped by Ignatian discernment. It would not claim to speak for God, but would ask reflective questions and help someone notice movements of consolation, desolation, freedom and resistance.
Then I realized something obvious that I had never needed to consider as a regular user: every AI conversation uses computing resources and creates a cost for the app operator.
I pay for the AI services I already use, so I rarely think about what is happening behind the conversation. Building AI directly into a free app would mean that someone else would have to pay for every user’s conversations.
There were also questions of privacy, spiritual authority and responsible guidance. An automated companion should never be mistaken for God, a priest, pastor, spiritual director, therapist or trusted human community.
The simplest answer was to remove the AI conversation entirely. People already have access to various AI services if they choose to use them. The app could instead provide private guided journaling through the Examen, Lectio Divina and other Ignatian practices.
That choice would reduce cost, complexity, privacy concerns and unnecessary consumption of computing resources.
Then Came the Most Important Question
After imagining all these possibilities, ChatGPT asked me something unexpectedly practical:
Would you genuinely open this app, or would you still go directly to ChatGPT or Grok?
My honest answer was immediate.
I would go directly to ChatGPT or Grok.
I have tried prayer and devotional apps. Some are beautifully designed and contain valuable material, but eventually I become bored with them. I do not naturally open a spiritual app simply because it offers another daily reading or asks me to maintain a streak.
Even Bible apps are resources I generally open when I need a particular passage. More often, I ask a specific question and request the relevant biblical references.
My spiritual engagement is not primarily driven by content consumption. It is question-led, reflective and conversational.
Once the AI conversation was removed from my proposed app, what remained was largely another collection of Christian resources—the very kind of app I already tend to stop using.
Discernment Is Also Part of Creating
We decided not to build the app.
That conclusion did not make the exploration a failure. In fact, it may have been the most valuable part of the entire exercise.
I learned that ChatGPT really can help create a functioning app. I also learned about app-store fees, hosting, copyright, Bible translation permissions, music licensing, journal privacy, maintenance and the ongoing cost of AI.
More importantly, I discovered what I actually value in a spiritual resource.
Technology makes it increasingly easy to create things. That does not mean everything we can create needs to exist.
Sometimes creativity leads to a finished product. Sometimes it leads to clearer understanding. Sometimes discernment allows an idea to be explored freely, tested honestly and released without regret.
A line from my song The Quiet Providence of Grace came back to me – experience:
“That itself is a form of wealth.”
The app was not built—but the exploration was not wasted.
And perhaps one sign that our technology is becoming more capable is not simply that it can help us make almost anything.
Perhaps it is also capable of helping us recognize when not to.
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