The integration of artificial intelligence into ministry work is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s a present-day reality.
According to the “2025 State of AI in the Church Survey Report” by Exponential AI NEXT and Church Tech Today, a significant majority of church leaders are embracing this new technology.
The report found that a remarkable 91% of respondents are “for” the use of AI in ministry to some degree. Furthermore, 61% of those surveyed are using AI tools on a weekly or daily basis. These statistics show a growing interest and adoption of AI, not as a replacement for the human touch in ministry, but as a powerful tool to enhance effectiveness and streamline administrative tasks.
12 most-used AI tools by pastors and church leaders in 2025
- ChatGPT
- As the most widely used generative AI tool among church leaders, ChatGPT is your go-to for sparking ideas and getting things done fast. It’s a conversational AI that can help you with a huge range of tasks, from drafting sermon outlines and doing research to writing church announcements. Its versatility and how easy it is to use make it a real game-changer for ministry work. Every church leader should get training on ChatGPT first.
- https://chat.openai.com/
- Grammarly
- Think of Grammarly as your personal writing coach. It’s an AI assistant that helps you make your writing clearer, more concise, and free of errors. It’s perfect for sprucing up emails, newsletters, blog posts, and other church communications, helping your team produce high-quality written materials without the hassle.
- https://www.grammarly.com/
- Microsoft Co-Pilot
- Microsoft Co-Pilot is a smart search engine that uses the same AI tech as ChatGPT. It’s great for quick research, finding helpful resources, and getting fast answers to your questions. You can even use it to create images.
- https://copilot.microsoft.com/
- Google Gemini
- Google Gemini is an AI chatbot and language model, a lot like ChatGPT. It’s a powerful assistant for research, generating content, and answering questions. You can also integrate it with Google Drive to summarize documents, get quick facts about a project, and have conversations about a specific folder. It can even help you create and move files and folders with simple commands.
- https://gemini.google.com/
- Canva Magic Studio
- This is an AI-powered toolkit built right into the Canva design platform that enables users to create amazing-looking graphics and visuals super fast. Whether you need to design social media posts, event flyers, or presentation slides, this tool makes visual design a breeze.
- https://www.canva.com/magic/
- Claude.ai
- Claude.ai is a conversational AI from Anthropic that’s really good at handling long documents and is often praised for its creative writing style. It can give you detailed summaries and insights, making it a valuable tool for research and administrative tasks.
- https://claude.ai/
- Perplexity
- Perplexity is an AI search engine that gets straight to the point, giving you direct answers with sources cited. This is a great tool for research and double-checking that your information is accurate.
- https://www.perplexity.ai/
- Dall-E
- Dall-E is an AI tool that creates images from text descriptions. It’s perfect for generating unique visuals for your sermons, presentations, or social media posts.
- https://openai.com/dall-e-2
- Google NotebookLM
- Google NotebookLM is an AI-powered notebook that helps you organize and analyze information from all your sources in one place. It’s an excellent tool for pastors who want to keep their sermon research and notes perfectly organized. It can also generate FAQs, glossaries, and podcast-style audio overviews from your uploaded documents.
- https://notebooklm.google/
- Bing Copilot
- Part of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Bing Copilot offers a conversational AI for search and content creation. It’s perfect for quick research and communication tasks.
- https://www.bing.com/chat
- Grok
- Grok is an AI chatbot that answers questions with a bit of personality. Developed by xAI, it’s known for its witty and sometimes sarcastic tone.
- https://grok.x.ai/
- MidJourney
- MidJourney is a generative AI program that creates stunning images from simple text descriptions. It’s famous for producing high-quality, artistic visuals.
- https://www.midjourney.com/
Final Thoughts
The journey into AI-enabled ministry is just beginning. As AI continues to evolve, the path forward will require continuous learning, experimentation, ethical discussions, and discernment. To help pastors and church staff adopt AI more effectively, a posture of continuous learning is vital. Here are some ways to stay engaged and informed:
- Attend the Exponential National Conferences. You can learn in-person via pre-conference workshops and teaching sessions. Learn more at https://exponential.org/exponential-events/.
- Take the premier course for church leaders. The #1 course on the basics of AI and how to use ChatGPT for ministry work is at ChatGPTforChurches.com.
- Engage with AI NEXT resources. You can learn more about how to integrate AI into your ministry through AI NEXT articles and a video training series at exponential.org/ai-next. You can also listen to the special AI NEXT series on the Exponential Podcast.
- Join a community of peers. The “AI For Church Leaders Facebook Group” is a community of over 7,000 members for peer learning and discussions. You can join the conversation at AIforChurchLeaders.com/group.
