Guides · Churches
AI for Churches: Let AI Draft the Week So Your Staff Has Time for People
By Josh Croom · October 27, 2026 · 10 min read
AI for churches works best on the office work that fills the week: the bulletin, the weekly email, serving reminders and small group questions. Preaching, prayer and care stay with people, and the hours AI gives back go to hospital visits, phone calls and coffee with new families.
Monday in the church office
Monday, 8:15 AM. The bulletin is due Wednesday, the weekly email goes out Thursday and the serving schedule still has three holes. There are four voicemails, and three of them ask the same things: what time the second service starts, where to park and how kids' check-in works.
Somebody also needs to call the family who visited for the first time on Sunday and go see a member in the hospital. Those two jobs matter most, and they're usually the ones that slide to Friday. If AI drafts the bulletin before lunch, the person who knows that member has time to go to the hospital.
Where churches are with AI
Barna surveyed 442 U.S. Protestant pastors in December 2025. Pastors who use AI mostly use it for work behind the scenes like research and email.
- 13%of pastors don't use AI at allthe rest use it for something
- 34%use it for small group questions or office worklike scheduling, emails and documents
- 79%say their church has no AI policy or guidanceonly 4% have a formal policy
Where AI fits in a church
Daniel Copeland, Barna's vice president of research, says pastors use AI “to prepare for ministry, not to replace what happens when they're actually with people.” That rule works for a church office, too.
AI is good at first drafts of routine words, such as announcements, reminders, event descriptions and the answer to a question the office hears ten times a week. It doesn't know your church or your people unless you tell it. So every draft starts with your facts, and a person who knows the congregation reads it before it goes out.
How pastors feel about each use of AI
What AI drafts, and what stays with people
Draw this line once, out loud, with your staff, because it answers most of the questions people will ask later about what's okay.
Keep these with people
- Preaching, prayer and pastoral care.
- Prayer requests, hard news and anything told to a pastor in private.
- Counseling, and any talk about someone's faith.
- The final read on anything that teaches.
Let AI start these
- The bulletin, the weekly email and a short text.
- Serving reminders, with first names only.
- Small group questions, read by the pastor first.
- Short answers to the questions the office hears every week.
Seven steps to start, in order
Each step takes one sitting, and the first one matters most because every other step draws on it.
Step 1
Write a fact sheet once
Put your service times, address, parking, kids' check-in steps and who to call for what on one page. Paste it in at the start of every AI chat, so each draft starts from your own times and places instead of a guess.
Step 2
Build the week from one list
On Monday, jot down everything coming up in plain notes. AI turns that one list into the bulletin, the weekly email and a short text, so you write the facts once instead of three times.
Step 3
Turn Sunday into small group questions
Paste the sermon outline and ask for five questions, from easy to deep. The pastor reads them before they go out, because the questions teach as much as the sermon does.
Step 4
Send the serving reminders
Paste the serving schedule with first names only, and ask for a short, friendly text for each team that says when to arrive and where to go.
Step 5
Answer the common questions once
Have AI write short, warm answers to the questions the office hears every week. Keep a printed copy by the phone, and put the same answers on your website so fewer people need to call.
Step 6
Keep care with people
Prayer requests, hard news and anything someone told a pastor in private never go into an AI tool. Write that rule down, and tell every staff member and volunteer who uses one.
Step 7
Put the saved hours on the calendar
Block the time you get back for visits, calls and coffee with new families nearby. If the hours aren't on the calendar, the next pile of office work will take them.
A serving reminder, drafted from the schedule
Step 4 turns one line of the serving schedule into a text like this, and it asks for a reply only when someone can't make it.
Hi Sam! You're on the welcome team this Sunday. Please be at the front doors by 10:00 for a quick huddle. Reply here if you can't make it, and we'll find a swap.
I'll be there. Thanks for the reminder!
Thank you, Sam. See you Sunday.
Three prompts to copy
Paste your fact sheet first, then use one of these, and fill in the parts in parentheses with your own notes. Save them where the whole office can find them. If your AI tool lets you save standing instructions, put the fact sheet there, so you won't have to paste it every time. Our guide to custom instructions examples shows how to write that note.
- The week's notes: Here's our fact sheet: (paste). Here's what's coming up this week: (notes). Write three things: a bulletin page, a short email and a text of three lines or less. Use only our facts, and mark anything you're not sure of.
- Small group questions: Here's Sunday's sermon outline: (paste). Write five questions for a small group, from easy to deep. Use only the Bible passages in the outline, and don't add new teaching.
- Serving reminders: Here's Sunday's serving schedule, first names only: (paste). Write a short, friendly reminder text for each team with the time to arrive and where to go.
Write a one-page AI policy
Nearly every pastor in Barna's survey, 94%, said a church should have AI guidelines of some kind. Only 4% said their church has a formal policy, and 17% said it has informal guidance. The other 79% have neither, which leaves staff and volunteers to guess what's okay.
Your leadership team can write a one-page policy in an afternoon, and it can cover these six points.
- What you use AI for: drafts of announcements, emails, reminders, event pages and study questions.
- What never goes in: prayer requests, names with health details, giving records, counseling notes and anything told in private.
- Who reads every draft before it goes out, and who has the final say on anything that teaches.
- Where you don't use AI at all, such as prayer and pastoral care, and what your pastors decided about sermons.
- How staff should answer a member who asks whether the church uses AI.
- When the leadership team reviews the policy, which should be at least once a year.
What about sermons?
Churches answer this one differently, and your pastors and elders should make the call. In Barna's survey, 24% of pastors said they use AI to write or edit sermons, while only 27% felt positive about AI writing one. More of them, 36%, use AI for research on biblical or theological topics.
Whatever your church decides, write it into the policy, so every staff member gives the same answer when a member asks.
Why the newest helpers gain the most
Researchers at Stanford and MIT followed 5,179 customer support agents as their company rolled out an AI helper. On average, the agents with the helper solved 14% more problems an hour. The newest and least practiced agents solved 34% more.
A church office often runs on part-time staff and volunteers who change from season to season. A good fact sheet and a few saved prompts let a volunteer in her first week answer questions with the same facts and tone your longtime staff use.
Where new people come from
When someone in your town searches for a church, the Google Ad Grant can put yours in the results. Google pays for those search ads, and a church that qualifies can get up to $10,000 a month. Our Google Ad Grants guide explains how the Grant works and what Google expects in return.
When a guest does reach out, reply the same day with the answers you wrote in step 5. A first-time guest who gets a warm, clear answer about parking and kids' check-in knows what Sunday will look like before she walks in.
Is your church office ready for AI?
Answer five quick questions. Your answers stay on your device.
Do you have a one-page fact sheet with service times, parking and kids' check-in?
Does a person read every AI draft before it goes out?
Does every staff member know what never goes into an AI tool?
Do you have a written AI policy, even a short one?
Do you know where the saved hours will go?
You're set up well. Review the policy once a year, and keep adding to the fact sheet as your church changes.
You're close. Fix the first question you answered No this week, and start with the fact sheet if that's the one, because every draft depends on it.
Start with the fact sheet and the never-goes-in rule, which together take about an afternoon and make every other step safe to try.
This week's start list
Tick each one off as you go. Your ticks stay on this device.
0 of 7 done
Talk it through with Miguel
We run Google Ad Grants for churches, and we start with local searches from people nearby who are looking for a church. If you'd like to talk about how new people find you today and what happens when they reach out, book a call with Miguel.
Questions people ask
How can churches use AI?
Churches use AI most safely for office work: drafting the bulletin, the weekly email, serving reminders, event descriptions and small group questions. A person reads every draft, and prayer, preaching and pastoral care stay with people.
Is it okay for a pastor to use AI to write a sermon?
Churches answer that differently, so it's a decision for your pastors and elders. In a December 2025 Barna survey, 24% of pastors said they use AI to write or edit sermons, and 27% felt positive about AI writing one, while 36% use it to research biblical or theological topics. Whatever you decide, put it in your policy.
Should a church have an AI policy?
Yes, and most pastors agree: in Barna's survey, 94% of pastors said churches should have AI guidelines, yet 79% said their own church has none. One page that covers what AI is for, what never goes in and who reads each draft is enough to start.
What should a church never put into an AI tool?
Keep out prayer requests, names with health details, giving records, counseling notes and anything someone told a pastor in private. Use first names only for schedules, and leave everything personal out.
Which AI tool should a church use?
Any of the major AI chat tools can draft a bulletin or a reminder. Pick one that the whole staff uses, so the fact sheet, the saved prompts and the policy all live in one place.
See how we run Google Ad Grants for churches
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