Challenge 6: YouTube to Reels

Expression: Product Development

Challenge Statement

Churches and ministries have thousands of powerful sermons online — yet most of them stay hidden on YouTube, never reaching today’s short-form audiences. Manual editing is time-consuming, adding subtitles is tedious, and many church tech teams lack the resources to repurpose long sermons into short, shareable clips. As a result, gospel messages that could impact thousands remain unseen.

Challenge Owner

Abel Thomas
21-year-old design engineer from Pune. Outside of work, he enjoys sports and spending time in nature. He’s passionate about using his skills to serve his community and often contributes through small but meaningful initiatives. Known for his thoughtful approach and clear communication, Abel values creativity, faith, and a heart to serve.

Context

This challenge aims to build an open-source desktop or web app that automatically converts long-form sermons into short, impactful Reels or Shorts, complete with subtitles and simple branding.

By integrating AI models and smart highlight detection, the tool will identify key 30–60 second moments, generate captions, and allow one-click export in vertical format — making the process simple for pastors, volunteers, and media teams.

The project will empower isolated church tech teams to share content faster and reach new audiences on Instagram, and YouTube Shorts bridging the gap between long-form messages and modern attention spans.

Desired Outcomes

A working open-source prototype of an app that can:

• Extract 3–5 short clips per sermon
• Auto-generate and sync subtitles in Hindi and English
• Fit clips to 9:16 vertical format with minimal overlays
• Allow one-click export ready for social media
• Optionally generate quotes, hashtags, and summaries

In the long term, this tool will enable churches and ministries worldwide to repurpose sermons effortlessly, turning archives of long-form messages into engaging gospel content for today’s platforms.