The Church’s Unexpected Advantage in the Age of AI

This article is part two of a series from Brianne Shaw on equipping pastors to navigate AI not fearfully, but faithfully. Read part 1 here.

AI can simulate connection, but the Church still forms belonging.

A pastor pulled me aside after I spoke at a church leader’s gathering. His small groups were losing people. But attendance metrics were staying the same.

People were still engaging with church content online. Still watching services. Still connected digitally. But they were slowly disconnecting from the real, embodied church community. They were not showing up in person anymore.

"They say they feel connected," he told me. "I'm not sure they actually are."

He was right to be concerned. And what he was describing is happening in churches across the country right now.

As AI becomes more integrated into everyday life, more people are beginning to substitute digital interaction for embodied community. And the substitution is convincing enough that many people are beginning to believe it is enough. In many ways, the pandemic accelerated patterns we were already beginning to see. 

The Loneliness Crisis Was Already Here

Before we talk about AI, we have to name the crisis it is entering. The loneliness epidemic is not a metaphor. It is a documented, measurable reality.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans under 30 say they feel lonely or isolated regularly, higher than any other age group.  (Pew Research Center, January 2025)

Social media gave us “connection” without presence. Remote work gave us productivity without proximity. Streaming church gave us access without accountability. Each technology offered something that looked like what people needed and fell short of actually providing it.

AI is the latest chapter in that story. And it may be the most convincing substitute yet. 

The deeper question underneath all of this is not simply how people use AI, but what kind of people we are becoming because of it. Technology always shapes formation. And the Church has an opportunity to lead with a vision of human flourishing rooted in presence, relationship, and spiritual community.

Jonathan Haidt, in The Anxious Generation, argues that modern technology has increasingly pulled people away from embodied, relational life and into digitally mediated experiences that often leave people more isolated, not less. I think many churches are beginning to feel the spiritual effects of that shift in real time.

Gloo is shaping AI as a force for good — strengthening relational ministry and advancing human flourishing across the faith ecosystem. With more than 140,000 faith, ministry, and nonprofit leaders served, every tool built across that network starts from the same conviction: technology should strengthen real community, not substitute for it.

People Are Already Turning to AI for Connection and Guidance

This is not a future concern. The data shows it is already happening.

One in three U.S. adults say AI's spiritual guidance is as trustworthy as a pastor's. Among Gen Z that climbs to 39%, and among Millennials, 44%. And 48% of practicing Christians say they would trust AI with their spiritual growth.  (Barna / Gloo State of the Church Research, 2026)

These numbers should stop us for a moment. Because they are not describing a fringe position. They are describing a significant and growing portion of the population that has already begun substituting AI for the pastoral relationship.

That substitution carries real consequences. Not just practically, but spiritually. People are being formed right now, in the absence of real community, by something incapable of fully replacing spiritual community. AI will never and should never replace the role of real and authentic relationships. At Gloo, our core belief that relationships catalyze growth undergirds all of our research, development, and philosophy around AI. That’s why we’re shaping it for good.

What the Church Still Offers That Technology Never Can

Scripture is clear that human beings were created for relationships. From the beginning of Genesis to the early church in Acts, faith formation has always happened in community, not isolation. 

This is not just a preference. It is part of how we were designed. 

We were made for embodied, relational, and present community. The kind where people know your name, notice when you are missing, and show up when things fall apart.

No technology offers that. No AI companion comes close.

The local church may be one of the most countercultural institutions in our culture right now. In a world of digital relationships and algorithmically curated everything, the Church still insists on physical gathering, real relationships, and the slow, unglamorous work of being present with people over the years.

And I believe people are hungrier for that kind of belonging, more than they have been in a long time. It is exactly what the culture is starving for.

Church leaders and ministry teams are now navigating a generation increasingly shaped by AI tools, digital relationships, and personalized technology. The challenge is no longer whether technology will shape people, but whether churches will lead people toward deeper connection, discipleship, and human flourishing within it.

But here is the thing I keep coming back to: the Church can only offer what it can actually deliver. And that requires pastors who are present enough to create the space.

Why Pastoral Presence Feels Harder Right Now

The pastors I talk to are not struggling with presence because they do not care. As a bivocational pastor myself, I know this tension personally. It’s not that pastors do not care. It’s that many of us are running at capacity all the time. The administrative weight of modern ministry is real, and it pulls pastors away from the relational work that makes a church actually feel like a church.

You cannot call your congregation into a real, embodied community if you are too depleted to model it. You cannot notice the person lingering after the service if you are already composing the next email in your head.

This is where I think AI tools, used wisely, have a role to play. Not as a replacement for community, but as a way to offload administrative weight, protecting pastoral capacity and presence that real community requires. 

The goal is not efficiency. The goal is presence. The best church technology should create more space for discipleship, relationships, pastoral care, and real community, not less.

Because in an increasingly digital world, presence is becoming one of the Church’s greatest forms of witness.

What This Moment Asks of Church Leaders

The people in your congregation are already navigating this. They are using AI chatbots for comfort and counsel. They are filling loneliness with something that feels like connection, but is not quite enough.

They need pastors and church leaders who are willing to engage this moment thoughtfully. Not from fear. Not from hype. But from the pastoral wisdom that comes from walking closely with people through the kinds of struggles that algorithms will never fully understand.

You cannot preach your way to community. You have to show up for it.

And your congregation needs to see you doing exactly that.

Because in a culture increasingly shaped by artificial connection, real presence may become one of the Church’s most compelling witnesses to the world around it.

In future articles, I want to explore more practically how churches can engage AI faithfully without losing the deeply human heart of ministry.