Churches Embrace Technology, But Move Cautiously Amid AI Concerns

AI in churches: 25% of US congregations test chatbots but limit sermon writing

Sarah Mills | GlobalBeat

Pastors in the United States used artificial intelligence tools during 2023 services in 1 out of 4 Protestant churches, LifeWay Research reported.

The survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors found 85% restricted AI to administrative tasks such as newsletters and social media posts.

Congregations fear errors in theology and loss of human empathy if algorithms craft prayers or homilies, researchers told reporters. Pastors said they wanted guidelines before deeper adoption.

Pastors first contacted Nashville-based LifeWay in early 2023 after ChatGPT publicity surged, Scott McConnell, executive director of the evangelical research firm, said. The company added questions on generative AI to its twice-yearly poll completed in September.

Churches that experimented limited scope. Eight percent used chatbots to draft promotional material, while 5% produced Bible study questions and 2% wrote entire sermons, the poll showed.

“No pastor wants to stand up on Sunday and read something a machine wrote about the resurrection,” McConnell said.

Southern Baptist Convention leaders warned members in March against letting software replace “the hard work of exposition,” the denomination’s publishing office announced. The doctrinal statement urged pastors to treat AI as a research assistant, not author.

United Methodist communicator Ryan Dunn posted TikTok videos demonstrating how he queries ChatGPT for sermon illustrations. He told viewers he always edits output and never quotes it verbatim. The clips drew more than 150,000 views and mixed reactions.

Catholic bishops have not issued nationwide guidance, but individual dioceses moved first. The Archdiocese of Detroit told parish employees in May to disclose any AI-generated content distributed to the faithful, spokeswoman Holly Fournier said.

Church tech suppliers already embed machine learning. PlanningCenter, used by 60,000 churches for membership records, added suggested small-group pairings based on attendance patterns, product manager Matt Hames said. The feature is optional and can be disabled.

Pushback surfaced quickly. An Illinois Lutheran pastor posted an AI-written sermon online in June to prove “words without a soul feel cold,” the post stated. Commenters called the homily “creepy” and “theologically thin.”

Researchers at Catholic University of America surveyed 2,500 parishioners in October and found 54% opposed machine-written prayers. Respondents cited authenticity and clerical vocation as top concerns, study director Paul Scherbel said.

Financial impact remains small. Congregations spent an estimated $48 million on AI-linked software in 2023, technology market firm Ministry Brands calculated. That figure equals 1% of total religious institution IT spending in the United States.

Data privacy presents another worry. Florida-based software firm FaithDirect told clients in August it would not feed donor records into external algorithms after priests questioned confidentiality, chief operating officer John Hart said.

Background

Churches have slowly adopted digital tools since the 1990s, when projection screens replaced hymnals in evangelical megachurches. Livestreaming expanded during the 2000s, and the COVID-19 pandemic forced almost every congregation online by 2020.

Catholic and mainline Protestant publishers already used basic spell-check style software to flag potential heretical phrasing in catechetical texts, industry veteran Mary Katharine Deeley said. Generative AI differs because it composes original paragraphs, raising authorship questions canon law had not anticipated.

What’s Next

The National Association of Evangelicals will host a closed-door forum in February where 50 senior pastors and tech ethicists plan to draft model policies on AI usage, association spokesman Walter Kim confirmed. Organizers intend to publish recommendations before Easter.