AI Resilience Report forDirectors, Religious Activities and Education

Right now, AI in religious leadership is mostly being used to augment — not replace — directors of religious activities and education. According to new Barna research produced with Pushpay ^[1], a majority of church leaders say they use AI at least once a month, though just a third (33%) say that their church is currently using AI in any part of its ministry or operations. On the individual level, adoption is jumping quickly: The Christian Post reports ^[2] that "Nearly two-thirds of church leaders surveyed who prepare sermons say they use AI tools in their sermon writing process," with 61% using AI weekly or daily, up from 43% in 2024.

Popular tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Canva Magic Studio are being used for sermon research, newsletters, event flyers, and social media posts ^[2] — which lines up with the higher-automation tasks in this job (publicity, scheduling, budgeting).

Institutions are also augmenting logistics. A U.S. Navy program called CHAPS Direct ^[3] shows that an automated counseling intake and booking system uses Microsoft Forms for confidential intake, Microsoft Bookings for scheduling, Microsoft Lists for case tracking, and Power BI for analytics, freeing chaplains from calendar work so they can spend more time with people. A 2026 scoping review in the journal Religions ^[4] similarly finds AI showing up in Christian religious education around personalization and lesson design, though the field is still "not yet well consolidated." Meanwhile, the deeply human tasks — counseling, home visits, interfaith work — are barely being touched, echoing the low automation scores O*NET assigns them.

Adoption is happening fast for back-office work but slowly for spiritual care, and both trends are likely to continue. On the fast side, tools are cheap and already available: Barna notes ^[5] that curiosity is growing as churches test AI for "administrative tasks, content creation or communication support." Small congregations often run on tight budgets, so free or low-cost generative AI offers big economic benefits for newsletters, bulletins, and scheduling — the exact tasks O*NET flagged as 48–62% automatable.

On the slow side, trust and ethics create real brakes. Eighty-three percent of church leaders say they are concerned about data privacy, 51 percent worry about plagiarism or maintaining integrity in message preparation, and nearly half (49%) are concerned about the potential loss of authenticity in preaching or teaching, and only 5 percent of churches currently have AI guidelines. A June 2026 Chaplaincy Innovation Lab discussion ^[6] featuring MIT's Nicholas Collura specifically explores the ethical implications of AI in spiritual care.

A peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling ^[7] argues that AI in pastoral care must emphasize "the importance of ethical implementation that respects human interactions," including privacy and empathy.

The takeaway for young people considering this career: the paperwork side of the job is being reshaped by AI, but the heart of it — providing "confidential counseling, encouragement, and presence" — is exactly what machines can't do. Skills like empathy, listening, moral judgment, and community-building are becoming more valuable, not less.