Nearly every pastor in a new Barna report wants churches to set boundaries for artificial intelligence, but most say their own congregation has not put any guidelines in place.
“They’re using it to prepare for ministry, not to replace what happens when they’re actually with people,” Daniel Copeland, Barna’s vice president of research, said in the organization’s June report on pastors’ AI use.
That distinction gives church leaders something concrete to work with: Where does a helpful tool stop and a pastor’s responsibility begin? Barna’s Oct. 6 report shows widespread agreement that churches need an answer, even if many have not written one down.
Among the pastors surveyed, 94% said churches should have either a formal AI policy or informal guidance. Their preferences split almost evenly: 45% wanted a formal policy, while 49% preferred informal guidelines only.
What happens at their own churches looks quite different. Just 4% reported a formal policy and 17% reported informal guidance; the remaining 79% said their church had neither.
Barna surveyed 442 US Protestant pastors online in December 2025, using representative quotas for church size, denomination and region. The findings describe what those pastors reported, not an inspection of every American church, and the research does not establish why so many congregations lack guidelines.
Related: Pastors Overwhelmingly Don’t Trust AI to Have the Final Word on Scripture
Nor does the gap mean pastors have stayed away from the technology. In its June reporting from that pastor survey, Barna found that half used AI to brainstorm ideas, 36% used it to research biblical or theological topics and 24% used it to write or edit sermons.
A church can welcome help organizing an email or generating discussion questions without handing a chatbot the responsibility to teach Scripture. Deciding how staff should check answers, acknowledge outside influences and handle sermon preparation gives that distinction practical meaning.
Barna’s Aug. 25 report on Bible interpretation shows why leaders approach those tasks carefully. Ninety-four percent of the pastors expressed concern about AI misinterpreting Scripture, while 60% wanted it to explain differing interpretations of contested passages without deciding which one was correct.
“Their approach points to using AI as a tool to aid their learning, not to tell them what to think,” Copeland said.
Congregants have questions, too. Barna’s July 21 report found that one in three practicing Christians wanted their pastor’s guidance on AI, while only 12% of pastors felt ready to give it.
The Christian respondents came from a separate survey of 1,514 US adults conducted in November 2025; the 1,514 figure describes the entire adult sample, not just practicing Christians. Barna produced this research with Gloo as part of its State of the Church initiative.
“The danger for pastors is underestimating just how normal AI is for the people around them,” Copeland said in the July report.
For families, that makes the conversation bigger than how someone drafts Sunday’s message. It also touches how children and adults evaluate answers about faith, seek advice and know when to bring a question to someone who actually knows them.
A sensible starting point need not involve mastering every new app. Church leaders can explain what they use, where they draw limits and how they verify information — keeping Scripture, truthful teaching and real relationships at the center of ministry.
Read Next: Most Pastors Are Already Using AI — Just Not in the Pulpit
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