{"id":14578,"date":"2026-03-02T14:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=14578"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:10:10","slug":"one-third-of-christians-trust-ai-as-much-as-they-trust-their-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/03\/one-third-of-christians-trust-ai-as-much-as-they-trust-their-pastor.html","title":{"rendered":"One Third of Christians Trust AI as Much as They Trust Their Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent Barna \u201cState of the Church<\/a>\u201d survey found that nearly a third of practicing Christians believed spiritual advice they receive from artificial intelligence (AI) is just as good as advice from a pastor. The survey interviewed over 1,514 U.S. adults in November 2025. Thirty percent either \u201csomewhat\u201d or \u201cstrongly\u201d agreed that that spiritual advice from AI \u201cis as trustworthy as advice from a pastor.\u201d Younger generations such as Gen Z and millennials had even higher confidence in the tech with 39% and 40% agreeing respectively.<\/p>\n

Amongst practicing Christians, that number jumped up to 34% of practicing Christians either somewhat or strongly agreeing that AI advice is just as trustworthy as advice from a pastor, while 29% of non-practicing Christians and 27% of non-Christians agreed with this sentiment. Around four in 10 Christians shared that AI had helped them with prayer, Bible study and spiritual growth. Researchers stated such high numbers indicated a need from pastors to address how to use the technology in church, yet only about 12% of pastors are comfortable addressing how to use the technology with their congregations.<\/p>\n

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has released two guidebooks to help congregants navigate faithful AI use: The Work of Our Hands: Christian Ministry in the Age of Artificial Intelligence<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles<\/em><\/a>. \u201cWe saw the need to be able to provide a theologically grounded resource on AI and technology that’s rooted in scripture, and at the same time provide practical scenarios in real-life events that pastors, ministry leaders, and churches are going through,\u201d RaShan Frost, Ph.D, the SBC\u2019s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s (ERLC) director of research told CBN News<\/em><\/a>. He also warned against the growing number of pastors that are using AI to streamline their sermon prep. \u201cOur sermon preparation is a time for us to be in the Word of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to penetrate our hearts to illuminate his Word to us so that we can present God’s Word to God’s people. What are we doing when we insert AI into that? We are circumventing that process,\u201d he said. A December survey revealed that more than 41% of pastors were using AI for Bible study preparation.<\/p>\n

Another issue is how trustworthy the information from AI actually is. In an article for Sojourners<\/em><\/a>, columnist Heather Brady discussed AI\u2019s ever-changing responses to the same query about gender and the Bible. \u201cIt seemed AI Overview was changing its summary based on what it thought I wanted to read,\u201d warned Brady. The article included a quote from The Conversation<\/em>, which discussed the limits of AI-generated searches. \u201cInstead of directing users to one specific webpage, generative AI-powered search looks across webpages and sources to try to synthesise what they say,\u201d the article noted. \u201cIt then tries to summarise the results in a short, conversational and easy-to-understand way. In theory, this can result in richer, more comprehensive, and potentially more unique answers. But AI doesn\u2019t always get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brady summarized the dangers of such user-based summaries. \u201cWhen AI summarizes the theology from across the internet that it thinks you want to read, it creates the kind of echo chamber that inhibits spiritual growth and reinforces only the information and ideas we want to hear, instead of offering knowledge from a sound theological basis,\u201d she warned. \u201cIf what we want is to encourage people to seek answers to their faith questions in such a way that helps them grow and contributes to Christian formation, then Google\u2019s AI Overview feature provides the opposite. It should be handled with great care, intentionality, and a sharp eye on the clear and present danger it presents to the spiritual formation of people of faith today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent Barna \u201cState of the Church\u201d survey found that nearly a third of practicing Christians believed spiritual advice they receive from artificial intelligence (AI) is just as good as advice from a pastor. The survey interviewed over 1,514 U.S. adults in November 2025. Thirty percent either \u201csomewhat\u201d or \u201cstrongly\u201d agreed that that spiritual advice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":14581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOne Third of Christians Trust AI as Much as They Trust Their Pastor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Barna finds many Christians trust AI spiritual advice like a pastor\u2019s, raising concerns about theology, discernment, and AI\u2019s role in faith.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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