By Deacon Peggy Hahn (she/her), Director of Innovation at LEAD
First, it saves time. Pastors, deacons and leaders juggle sermons, emails, meetings, newsletters, editing, and planning. AI can help draft first versions, summarize notes, or generate ideas, freeing leaders to focus on people, prayer, and presence.
Second, it improves communication. AI can help write clearer emails, create multiple versions of a message for different audiences, and translate content for multilingual communities. This leads to fewer misunderstandings and helps more people feel included.
Third, it supports creativity and innovation. Stuck on a sermon illustration, small group question, or outreach idea? AI can spark fresh approaches while leaders still bring the theology, context, and discernment.
Fourth, it increases access and equity. Smaller congregations without staff specialists can use AI for things like basic design, planning, or data organization. These tools once required money or expertise they didn’t have. Today we all have access to quality leadership resources.
Finally, AI can support better listening. Surveys, feedback, and meeting notes can be summarized to reveal themes and concerns, helping leaders respond more thoughtfully to the congregation’s real needs. It is true that interpretation is still essential as we make meaning contextually, yet we can speed up the work using these resources.
AI isn’t a replacement for faith, wisdom, or relationships. It is not a theological education. It’s a tool. When used ethically and thoughtfully, it can help congregations spend less time on busywork and more time on what matters most: loving God and loving people.
Thanks Peggy! I agree with all of your observations. AI is very much a gift for ministry, and like you said…ethically used. I would like to hear more from the church on the ethical uses and impacts of using AI. It impacts climate change, data centers seem to often be built in poor neighborhoods, demand lots of electricity and water. I do worry we only see the benefit of AI because they make it hard to look behind the computer screen, and the hidden and local impacts are not instantly felt from the chair or coach with your device. It’s like our relationship with and how we have come to talk about trash and waste. We say we “throw away” something…but in reality we are always throwing our trash into someone else’s backyard. I love some of the focused AI learning models that are coming out…smaller and focused…not catch-all and big like chatgpt…but AI models focused on writing sermons and ministry related needs would be a meaningful lower-impact investment of the church for the work of being church. The UN has some thoughtful reflection on all this.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about