By Brent Lacy
Your board needs to talk about AI. Not because it is a trend worth chasing, but because AI is already in your church whether you have discussed it or not. Your staff is using it. Your volunteers are using it. Your members are using it. And your board has probably not had a single structured conversation about any of it.
This is a complete one-hour workshop you can run at your next board or elder meeting. No technology background required. No outside facilitator needed. Just a pastor who has read this guide and is willing to lead the conversation.
The goal is not to make your board into AI experts. The goal is to get your leadership team aligned on what AI is, how your church will approach it, and what decisions need to be made.
What You Need to Run This Workshop
- One hour on your board meeting agenda
- A device with internet access (phone or laptop) for the demonstration
- Printed copies of the discussion questions (optional but helpful)
- A willingness to let the conversation go where it needs to go
That is it. No slides, no projector, no outside speaker required.
Before the Meeting: Facilitator Preparation (15 Minutes)
Read this entire guide before the meeting. You do not need to memorize it. You need to be familiar enough with the content that you can support the conversation without reading from the page.
Open ChatGPT (chat.openai.com) or Claude (claude.ai) on your device and make sure you can access it. You will use it for a live demonstration during the workshop. Free accounts work fine.
Prepare one example of how AI is already being used in your church. This could be something you have done yourself, something a staff member or volunteer has mentioned, or something you have observed. Having a concrete, local example makes the conversation real rather than abstract.
Facilitator Note on Tone
Some board members will be enthusiastic about AI. Some will be skeptical or even fearful. Both responses are legitimate. Your job is not to sell AI or to warn against it. Your job is to help your board think clearly about it. Hold the space for honest conversation. Do not rush to conclusions.
The Workshop: Minute-by-Minute Guide
Minutes 0-5: Opening and Framing
Open with a brief prayer. Then frame the conversation with something like this:
“We are going to spend the next hour talking about artificial intelligence. Not because it is a trend we need to chase, but because it is already in our church. Our staff is using it. Our volunteers are using it. Our members are using it. And as a leadership team, we have not yet decided together how we want to approach it. That is what we are going to do today.”
Then share your local example. Keep it brief, one or two minutes. The point is to make the conversation concrete from the start.
Minutes 5-15: What AI Is (Plain Language)
Give a brief, plain-language explanation of what AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude actually are. You do not need to be technical. Here is a script you can adapt:
“These tools work by processing enormous amounts of text and learning patterns in how language is used. When you ask a question, they generate a response that fits those patterns. They are very good at drafting, summarizing, explaining, and brainstorming. They are not good at knowing what is true, knowing your specific context, or replacing human judgment. They do not pray. They do not know your congregation. They are a tool, like a very sophisticated research assistant.”
Then do the live demonstration. Open ChatGPT or Claude and ask it something relevant to your church, something like: “Give me five ideas for a small rural church to reach its community with limited budget.” Show the board the response. Let them react. This usually generates immediate, genuine conversation.
Demonstration Tips
Pick a prompt that is relevant to your actual ministry context. The more specific and local the prompt, the more useful the demonstration. If the AI gives a generic response, that is actually a useful teaching moment about its limitations. If it gives a surprisingly good response, that is a useful teaching moment about its potential.
Minutes 15-30: Discussion Round 1 – Where We Are Now
Open the floor with these questions. You do not need to get through all of them. Let the conversation go where it needs to go.
Discussion Questions: Where We Are Now
- Has anyone on this board used an AI tool in the past month? What for?
- Are you aware of any staff or volunteers using AI tools in their ministry roles? What have you observed?
- What questions or concerns do you have about AI in our church context?
- What potential benefits do you see for our specific ministry situation?
Listen more than you talk during this segment. Your board members will surface the real concerns and the real opportunities. Your job is to make sure everyone has a chance to speak and that the conversation stays grounded and honest.
Minutes 30-45: Discussion Round 2 – What We Believe
This segment moves from observation to values. What does your church believe about technology, human dignity, and integrity? These beliefs should shape your AI policy.
Discussion Questions: What We Believe
- What makes human beings different from machines? How does that shape how we think about AI?
- What kinds of ministry work should never involve AI? Why?
- If a staff member uses AI to help draft a sermon or newsletter, what disclosure, if any, do we expect?
- What information about our members should never be entered into an AI tool?
These questions often surface genuine disagreement. That is fine. The goal of this segment is not consensus. It is clarity about where your board members actually stand. You cannot write a good policy without knowing where your people are.
Minutes 45-55: Decisions and Next Steps
Move from discussion to decisions. Your board does not need to adopt a full AI policy today. But they should leave with clear next steps.
Decision 1: Do we need a policy?
The answer is almost certainly yes. The question is how comprehensive it needs to be and how quickly you need it. For most small churches, a one-page policy that covers staff use, data privacy, and disclosure standards is sufficient. It does not need to be long. It needs to be clear.
Decision 2: Who is responsible for drafting it?
Assign one person, usually the pastor or an elder with relevant background, to draft a policy for board review. Give them a deadline. Without a deadline, it will not happen.
Decision 3: What are the immediate guardrails?
While the policy is being drafted, what do you want staff and volunteers to know right now? At minimum: no member personal information in AI tools, all AI-generated content reviewed by a human before use, and any significant AI use disclosed to the pastor. These three guardrails handle the most urgent risks while the full policy is developed.
Decision 4: When do we revisit this?
AI is changing fast. Put a date on the calendar, six months from now, to review your policy and update it based on what you have learned. Build the review into your governance calendar now, before you forget.
Minutes 55-60: Closing
Summarize what was decided. Confirm who is responsible for the policy draft and when it will come back to the board. Close with prayer, specifically for wisdom in using technology to serve your congregation and community well.
After the Meeting: Following Through
The workshop is only useful if it leads to action. Here is what needs to happen in the two weeks after the meeting.
Communicate the Interim Guardrails
Send a brief email to all staff and key volunteers within a week of the meeting. Keep it short. Something like: “Our board discussed AI tools at our last meeting. While we develop a formal policy, here are three things we are asking everyone to keep in mind: [list the three guardrails]. More to come soon.”
Draft the Policy
The person assigned to draft the policy should start with the free template from MinistryPlace. It is written for small churches, covers the essential categories, and can be adapted in an afternoon. Do not start from scratch.
Free Church AI Policy Template
A ready-to-adapt policy template your board can adopt in one meeting. Covers staff use, data privacy, and disclosure standards. Written for small churches, not corporations.
Schedule the Policy Review
Put the policy review on the next board meeting agenda. Give board members the draft at least a week before the meeting so they can read it. Plan for 20-30 minutes of discussion. Most small church AI policies can be adopted in a single meeting if the board has already had the foundational conversation this workshop provides.
Common Questions Boards Ask
“What if we just decide not to use AI at all?”
That is a legitimate choice for your staff. It is not a choice you can make for your congregation. Your members will use AI regardless of what your church policy says. The question is whether they have pastoral guidance for how to use it wisely. A policy that says “we don’t use AI” still needs to address what you will say when a member asks about it.
“How do we know if AI output is accurate?”
You verify it the same way you verify anything: check it against sources you trust. AI tools can be wrong, and they can be confidently wrong. The rule is simple: never publish or preach AI output without a human reviewing it against reliable sources. This is not a new standard. It is the same standard you apply to anything you put in front of your congregation.
“What about AI and sermon preparation?”
This is the question most pastors are actually asking. The short answer: using AI as a research tool is fine. Using AI to write your sermon and preaching it as your own work is an integrity problem. The line is not about whether AI was involved. It is about whether your engagement with the text, your prayer, and your pastoral knowledge of your congregation are genuinely present in what you preach.
The One-Page Summary for Your Board
After the workshop, consider sending your board a one-page summary of what was discussed and decided. It does not need to be formal. A brief email with three bullet points, what we discussed, what we decided, and what comes next, is enough to keep everyone aligned and accountable.
Complete AI Ethics Toolkit for Churches
Nine practical PDFs covering AI policy, data privacy, sermon prep guidelines, congregation disclosure, and more. Everything your leadership team needs to engage AI responsibly. $24 for the complete set.
Related: The Church AI Toolkit for Small Churches | A Theology of AI for Small Church Pastors | Free Church AI Policy Template
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the AI workshop for church leaders take?
The complete workshop takes one hour and can be run at a regular board or elder meeting. No outside speaker or technology background is required. The guide includes a minute-by-minute facilitator outline, discussion questions, and a decisions framework.
What decisions should a church board make about AI?
A church board should make four decisions about AI: (1) whether the church needs a written AI policy, (2) who is responsible for drafting it, (3) what the immediate guardrails are while the policy is being developed, and (4) when the policy will be reviewed. These four decisions can be made in a single board meeting.
What is the most important thing a church board needs to know about AI?
That AI is already in the church whether the board has discussed it or not. Staff and volunteers are using AI tools. The question is not whether to engage with AI but whether to engage with it thoughtfully and intentionally, or haphazardly with no guardrails.