Pastor: Before You Set Rules for AI, Ask THESE 13 Questions First
I've met with dozens and dozens of pastors and church leaders this year - and every single one of those pastors is using AI. They're using it to improve their sermons, create sermon slides, build small group curricula, and post to social media.
With pastors, the conversation has moved past "Should we?" and landed squarely on "We are, so... now what?"
AI tools offer real benefits for ministry leaders who are stretched thin and working with limited support. The question isn't whether to use ChatGPT, Claude, or any of the other innumerable church ai tools available.
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Does your use of those tools reflect your church values, protect your congregation, and keep you doing the things only YOU can do?
The questions below are designed to help you find out. The first three are for personal reflection. The second set is built to guide your leadership team’s discussion as you consider a shared policy.
Questions for Personal Reflection
Before broaching the topic with your team, spend a few minutes considering the following questions for your self.
- When you use for AI in your ministry work, how is it improving things?
- Where in your current AI use do you feel a quiet unease? If so, what's that telling you?
- What type of AI use would concern you, should you hear about a team member using it that way?
Leadership Team Discussion
These questions are for pastors and key leaders to work through together when building or reviewing a shared AI policy.
- How are you currently using AI?
- What does our mission and stated values say, implicitly or explicitly, about how we use tools in ministry? Does our current use of AI reflect that?
- Which ministry functions are we committing to keep AI out of entirely, and what's the reasoning behind each one?
- How will we be transparent with our congregation about when and how AI is used in content, communications, or care?
- Who is responsible for reviewing AI-generated content before it goes out, and what are they actually checking for?
- How are we protecting congregant information? What data should never be entered into an AI tool?
- When AI produces something theologically sloppy or flat-out wrong, what's our process for catching it and correcting it?
- Where is AI currently saving us time, and is that time being reinvested into the things only we can do?
- Are there staff members or volunteers using AI in ways leadership isn't aware of? Do we need clearer communication about the boundaries we're setting?
- How will we revisit and update this policy as AI tools change?
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AI Isn’t Going Away.
But the pastors who use it well will be the ones who've thought carefully about what they're handing off to AI, and what they're holding onto. These questions won't write your policy for you, but they'll help make sure the policy you write actually sounds like you.
If you want to keep building this kind of clarity with other leaders who are wrestling through the same things, consider becoming a member of TheLeadPastor community.