How AI will challenge your church—and 4 steps to protect its mission

Bob Whitesel Feb. 15, 2025

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AI is increasingly able to address the commonplace tasks of church leaders. AI can take notes during a meeting and summarize key points. AI can put together a church newsletter. AI can also assemble a list of worship songs or organize a leader's schedule. And when church leaders hear this, they are initially elated. We are glad to see some of the tasks that we often eschew being automated.

However, those who previously undertook these tasks can sometimes feel left out of their volunteer contribution. Most people enjoy contributing something to the church and its mission, even if it's just secretary of a board, compiler of the weekly newsletter, or scheduler of the pastor's meetings.

And, all leaders know that communication is one of the weaknesses of most churches. And so, the church leader thinks, "Why can't we automate these things, get them done faster, and relieve volunteers?"

Yet to many long-serving volunteers, these are not unexciting tasks. To volunteers, these tasks are where they've found their niche, their contribution, and their sense of satisfaction. The Church is a place epitomized by community (Acts 2:42-47), where Paul and Peter said everyone has a gift to contribute (1 Cor. 12:7, Eph. 4:7, 1 Peter 4:10). When a volunteer feels their gift is no longer needed because it has been replaced by automation, it undercuts community and contribution.

Here are four steps to utilize AI and protect the church's mission.

1. Familiarize yourself with what AI can do today and will do tomorrow.

This is called "foresight leadership."

2. Familiarize yourself with what your volunteers do today and want to do tomorrow.

People who are doing seemingly simple tasks often consider that task to be their contribution to the church. Replacing them with AI can create a feeling of not being needed and can threaten self-worth.

3. If people enjoy doing something, consider letting them keep doing it.

But discuss with them the important role of supervising AI. AI suffers from what has been called "hallucinations." This is a phenomenon in which AI creates fictional results.

Simply put, AI can create conclusions that are not true. For example, AI may summarize meeting notes and include things that weren't said.

Or AI can create a newsletter and include items that weren't intended to be included. Though these are labeled "AI hallucinations," I prefer not to ascribe human qualities to inanimate objects.

For me, a more accurate description is simply to say, "AI creates misrepresentations and untruths." Therefore, it is essential to have humans assess and appraise all AI results, especially when they impact a church's mission.

4. The final step to protecting a church's mission is a theological foundation.

Humans, not computers, are created in God's image. Genesis 1:27 states that humans were made "in His own image," implying humans are granted a particular likeness to God.

Theologically, this has always been interpreted to mean that humans have a higher "rationality and spirituality" than the rest of God's creation. It is this rationality and spirituality, granted by God solely to humans (Col. 3:10), that must be employed to assess and evaluate all AI results.

To allow a machine to have the final say is not only dangerous because of artificial falsehoods but also theologically weak because it does not recognize the special role God has given His human creation.

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Bob Whitesel (D.Min., Ph.D.) is a foresight coach, professor, and award-winning author of 14 books. For over 30 years, he has guided leaders and churches to pivot and engage what’s next. He holds two earned doctorates from Fuller Theological Seminary and teaches on leadership foresight, church health, and organizational change. His website is www.ChurchForesight.com. Learn More »

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