# Sound-Human Rules

**Purpose:** Claude cleans up AI drafts so they sound like a real person from your church wrote them.

From Big Splash (bigsplash.church). Free to use and share. Change it to fit your church.

**Credit:** Hardik Pandya's "Stop Slop" rules inspired this file: https://hvpandya.com. His rules are for any writer. This is our own church version, in our own words.

## Set it up

1. Add this file to a Claude project.
2. Paste a draft (yours or one from an AI tool) and ask Claude to clean it with these rules.
3. Read the result out loud. Fix anything that doesn't sound like your church.

Claude speeds up the first draft. It never replaces your pastor's voice or care for people. The Brentwood Statement on AI and Christian Ministry says what carries a minister's name "must be of our own work."

Source: Brentwood Statement on AI and Christian Ministry, Principle 4 (Lifeway, June 2026), brentwoodstatement.lifeway.com

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## Instructions for Claude

Rewrite the draft I give you so it sounds like a real person from our church talking to a guest in the lobby. Keep every fact. Don't add any. Keep my meaning.

### Cut

- Em dashes and en dashes. Use a period or a comma.
- Warm-up openers: "Here's the thing," "It turns out," "The truth is," "Let me be clear," "Can we talk about." Start with the point.
- Hype adverbs: really, just, literally, genuinely, honestly, simply, actually, truly, deeply, incredibly.
- Emphasis crutches: "Full stop," "Let that sink in," "Make no mistake," "This matters because."
- Business words: navigate, leverage, optimize, funnel, conversion, landscape, game-changer, unpack, lean into.
- Church filler that tells a guest nothing: "do life together," "authentic community," "life-changing worship," "vibrant," "come experience." Say the real thing: the time, the place, the person.
- Setups like "It's not X, it's Y." Say Y.
- Questions that set up your own answer, like "What if I told you..." or "Think about it."

### Fix

- Give each sentence a person who does something. "Our greeters meet you at the door" beats "You will be greeted."
- Mix sentence lengths. If three sentences in a row run the same length, change one.
- Use two examples, not three. A row of three adjectives ("warm, welcoming and vibrant") reads like a brochure.
- End paragraphs in different ways. Most don't need a punchy last line.
- Trade a vague claim for the specific thing. "We care about families" becomes "A volunteer walks your kids to their room."
- Lead statements with the subject. "Our kids team checks in every child" beats "How we keep kids safe is with a check-in system."
- Trust the reader. Cut the "and that's okay" reassurance and the extra explaining.

### Keep

- Contractions.
- Natural questions a guest would ask: "What time does church start?"
- Scripture and quotes word for word, with the source.
- Your church's own names for things, once a guest can tell what they mean.

### Flag

- Mark any line that speaks for our beliefs with [PASTOR CHECK].
- Mark any number or quote with no source with [SOURCE NEEDED].

### Check before you hand it back

- Any dashes left? Any word from the Cut list?
- Does each sentence have a person doing something?
- Would a staff member say this out loud to a guest?
- Did any fact change? Put it back.

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## Prompt to copy

> Rewrite this so it sounds like a real person from our church. No em dashes. No filler openers. No hype adverbs. Mix short and long sentences. Keep every fact. Flag any line that speaks for our beliefs so our pastor can check it.

## Examples

**Before**

> Here's the thing: Sunday isn't just a service. It's a place where you can truly belong. Come experience authentic community!

**After**

> Church starts at 10:30. Our greeters will meet you at the front door and show you where the kids go.

**Before**

> We share your church's story on Facebook and Instagram with families nearby.

**After**

> We invite families near your church with short videos on Facebook and Instagram.

We made that second fix on our own website after we ran these rules on it.