Churches Turn to AI for Ministry as 15,000 Face Closure and Congregations Shift Digital

How some Indiana churches are using AI

But the practice raises new questions about who, or what, is guiding the flock. State of play: Religious institutions' experimentation with AI comes at a time when the U.S. could see an unprecedented 15,000 churches shut their doors this year as a record number of Americans (29%) now identify as religiously unaffiliated. * Indiana's share of religiously unaffiliated has risen from 16% in 2007 to 31% last year. * Researchers say the trend is driven in large part by Gen Z and younger millennials. The big picture: Many places of worship are using AI in mundane ways -- deploying chatbots to answer frequently asked questions such as service times and event details, or feeding congregation attendance data into AI software to help them tailor outreach and communications. Zoom in: Sermon Shots is a service with Hoosier roots that uses AI to quickly turn sermons into shareable video clips. * Founded by New Palestine resident Corey Alderin in early 2022, Sermon Shots has more than 9,000 clients served by a remote staff of 25 employees. * The service has at least 50 Indiana clients, including Alderin's church, Realife. * He got the idea after speaking with pastors interested in turning to technology to compete with larger churches with the staff and budget to maintain active social media accounts. What he's saying: Alderin told Axios that Sermon Shots does not use AI to write sermons and is not intended to replace ministry. * "I think the church is in this really great, unique opportunity to leverage AI in a good way. Which is, you're already developing this great piece of content every week," he said. "Whether a church calls it that or not, this sermon on Sunday is a well developed, well crafted, well thought out piece of content. Why not leverage that to make all this other content?" Between the lines: Beyond leveraging the tech, local congregations are engaging AI through educational events and community discussions. * Indy's New Circle Church tackled the topic in October during an episode of their Midway Musings Podcast titled "Is AI The Devil?" * e2: effective elders, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that provides coaching for church leaders, held an event last month exploring how church leaders can think theologically and practically about generative AI. * In February, Traders Point Christian Church Northwest will host a faith leaders roundtable organized by Care to Change focused on the impact of AI on spirituality. Yes, but: The AI uses getting the most attention (and scrutiny) are those that create the feeling that users are talking to a divine power or clergy member.

At a Buckhead church, AI helps the ministry connect with a global congregation

Brian Unger is a multi-skilled journalist at CBS News Atlanta, where he reports on a broad range of news, people and events across the Atlanta Metro. If there is one place reserved for authentic human connection in a community, it's the church, but more and more, churches are using artificial intelligence to connect with their congregations. At Buckhead's Church of the Apostles, Dr. Michael Youssef is the man behind the ministry, guiding a congregation of 3,000. Like many contemporary ministries, Youssef streams to tens of thousands more around the world. "We're going to use every form of technology to take the gospel to the ends of the Earth," Youssef said. Helping to fulfill that mission is what's inside one of the rooms in his church, the machine behind the ministry. Inside, computers speak to over 50,000 worshipers using AI through an app called My Faith Assistant. "Because I think God created all of it, it's his creation, and we need to utilize it," he said. Youssef and a team of experts, including Stephen Watson, are utilizing the AI-driven platform for what they call "pastoral care." It's a ministry in real time, like having a personal biblical counselor to deliver scriptural translation and also Youssef's own words. "It is used as a biblical study aid and does not usurp or replace time that should be spent wrestling with the word and in prayer with God," Watson said. While it may seem like a contradiction, more and more churches, dedicated to a spiritual connection to God and the pulpit, are using machine learning and AI to guide their flocks. In one study that tracked over 6,000 church leaders since 2021, there was an 80% increase in the adoption of AI last year. How does it work? CBS News Atlanta asked the app a question: Is the story of Jonah and the whale in the book of Jonah real or a metaphor? "So, now we go into the answer," Watson says, pointing to the screen. "Scripture teaches us that the story of Jonah is a real historical event, and not merely a metaphor." Like the more secular ChatGPT, My Faith Assistant offered a concise explanation, but here's where it is different. It drops the user into a video from the church that deals with the issue that they're asking about. There are concerns over the still-new technology's connection to faith. Dr. Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones, an assistant professor at Emory's Candler School of Theology, worries that other churches could push too far into AI. "Is this helping us? Is this moving us closer to our mission and vision of who we are as people of God?" Adkins-Jones asked. "If the only place we can turn to care is to our computers or to our screens, perhaps that's a stronger reflection of a place where the church hasn't been who the church is called to be." As AI continues to grow in religious spaces, there's still one role, at least for now, that comes with absolute job security. "The call in our life is to say, 'Here's the truth, and here's the falsehood,'" Youssef said. "The choice is yours."