Artificial authority

Pastoral assistant and youth minister Warren Gallatin has witnessed firsthand a growing problem that artificial intelligence poses for believers, especially younger ones, in his Columbus, Ga., congregation. He says that, while AI chatbots don’t know his students at CrossPointe Church like the church’s pastors do, some of those students might be inclined to turn to AI for answers to spiritual questions.

“One of the dangers is that the person’s first instinct with a theological question is not ‘Well, let me call or meet with a pastor about it. It’s, ‘Let me just pull up ChatGPT real quick and type this in,’” he said.

Last month, Barna Group reported that a growing number of practicing Christians express a higher level of trust in AI than even non-practicing Christians do. The survey highlights a problem some pastors are warning about: Churchgoers are turning to AI as a supplement to church activities and pastoral assistance and counsel. Pastors I spoke to noted that while AI can be a useful tool, it can also be a barrier to church fellowship and discipleship.

Christians trust AI in most areas of personal development, the Barna survey found. Researchers said that a high percentage of people trust AI with their financial stability, mental and physical health, confidence and sense of purpose, relationships, and advice on their spiritual lives.

According to the group’s survey, conducted in November 2025, 48% of practicing Christians feel comfortable turning to AI for questions about spiritual growth. Researchers found that 34% of practicing Christians believe a chatbot’s spiritual guidance is just as reliable as a pastor’s, while only 29% of non-practicing Christians and 27% of non-Christians agreed.

A Barna spokesperson explained that the survey defined practicing Christians as individuals who identify with a denomination, attend worship services at least once a month, and claim their faith is a significant part of their life.

Gallatin said he uses AI for his sermon outlines, helping him know which points stand out the most. He also uses the technology to outline staff meeting notes. Gallatin said a chatbot is a fast way to search for specifics when researching theological matters.

“Let’s say we have some really trusted guys that we would like people to look to for theology, if it’s a John Piper or a Voddie Baucham or a John MacArthur,” he said. “You can prompt AI and say ‘Hey, from the theological standpoint of these three guys, how would they answer this theological question or spiritual question?’ And typically, you can probably find some real help.”

Gallatin noted that AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s Gemini do not generate original thoughts but instead draw on these theologians’ published works. Since chatbots train themselves on the user’s input to give more customized responses, a regular user can find information quicker and easier, he said.

But Gallatin expressed concern about dangers that could come from easy access to AI. He suggested that young students in the church use chatbots frequently because they are more convenient and less awkward than speaking to a pastor or leader. There is no scary confrontation when speaking with ChatGPT, and the user can instantly shut it off, something they can’t do in a conversation with a human being.

“AI’s not gonna replace a pastor, but as these students grow and they have children and they’ve used AI their whole life, well, now it’s just, everything becomes reliant on AI,” Gallatin said. “And the pastor’s the second line of defense.”

Thomas Grocki, a youth pastor at MidTree Church in Columbus, Ga., also said he has used AI to make difficult Biblical concepts easier to understand for his youth sermons. But he also warned that some individuals might use AI as a stand-in for seeking out a pastor when they have spiritual questions.

“There can be some bypassing of critical thinking and that shepherding, discipleship, relationally walking through these questions with another person,” Grocki said.

Grocki said that the internet and its ability to amplify pastors’ and prominent Christians’ past mistakes allows people today to “know everyone’s dirt,” which he said contributes to congregants distrusting their ministers. He also warned against an individualistic religion that makes it impossible to carry out Scriptural commands such as the Apostle Paul’s admonition to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). Christians cannot do the togetherness the Bible talks about when they turn to AI, he said.

Brian Howell, a former anthropology professor at Wheaton College, recently took a job at Alpha School in Chicago, an AI model. He noted that AI, like some other forms of technology, is reshaping how people interact. He encouraged his Wheaton students to look in Scripture and church history to define what it means to flourish. It inevitably returns to “being together” and “connecting with each other,” he said.

“AI can help with that to some extent, but it can also very much inhibit that and very much get in the way of real, actual human interaction. People using chatbots for their therapists or chatbots as their pastor is a horrifying idea to me,” he said.

The one thing God called bad before the fall was “the human being alone,” Howell said. Christians must be wary of how sub-creations can break those God-given human connections and be careful not to allow AI to remove the command of a Christian to serve God in community, he said.

Gallatin said he trusts the Lord’s sovereignty with AI.

“He’s given us AI,” he said. “But He gave us each other, He gave us the congregation of the church. It’s both helpful and unhelpful.”