White Paper
The Technology Dilemma:
Why Ministry Leaders Can No Longer Opt Out
A Call to Extend Technology into the Fabric of Ministry
A White Paper by Brad Hill,
Chief Partner Success Officer
The ministry landscape has changed.
For years, the Church has debated whether technology belongs in ministry. That debate is over. According to Barna's latest State of Church Technology report, 95% of church leaders agree (strongly + somewhat) that technology opens new opportunities for ministry, and 94% say it helps them fulfill their mission in today's digital culture.
The real question now isn’t whether churches should use technology, but whether they are using it intentionally. While most churches have adopted digital tools, only one in four are using them in ways deeply aligned with discipleship, community, and mission.
The opportunity--and the mandate--is for the church to both use technology redemptively in its own work, and to disciple its congregants to faithfully navigate a modern world that fluidly blends analog and digital experiences.
Today, a significant portion of people’s formation happens through technology. Social platforms, search engines, media ecosystems, and now AI systems influence what people believe, how they interpret truth, and how they relate to one another.
This is not a subtle shift. According to Bain & Company, 80% of consumers now rely on AI-generated results for at least 40% of their online searches, and 60% of searches end without the user ever clicking through to another website. When someone types a question about meaning, morality, or faith into a search engine, AI is increasingly the voice that answers—not a pastor, not a church website, not even a Christian book or counselor.
Remaining passive is no longer a valid option for those involved in any type of discipleship. Failing to harness technology well is a decision to yield the work of formation to someone else. As Thom Rainer said in his blog, The Discipleship of Phones, “Our phones will always demand our eyes. The question is whether we will let them have our hearts.”
95%
of church leaders say technology opens new ministry opportunities.
94%
say it helps fulfill mission in today’s digital culture.
80%
of consumers rely on AI-generated results for a large share of searches.
60%
of searches end without a click through to another website.
Tech is no longer just “how.” It’s also “where.”
Failing to harness technology well is a decision to yield the work of formation to someone else.
“Our phones will always demand our eyes. The question is whether we will let them have our hearts.”
Thom Rainer, The Discipleship of Phones
We are designed for relationship.
The relational core of the Church is not a relic—it is the very thing the culture fears it is losing. The biblical narrative makes clear that humans are created for relationship with God and with one another.
Genesis 1:27
Image-bearing nature reflects the relational character of God Himself.
Genesis 2:18
Human flourishing happens best in community.
Acts 2:42–47
Teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer.
Hebrews 10:24–25
"Spur one another on toward love and good deeds…"
Christian discipleship has always been relational, communal, and embodied. Technology cannot replace this. But it can support and extend it. According to the Barna State of Church Technology report, 79% of church leaders say technology has improved connection in their church.
And the need for that connection has never been greater. A Pew Research study found that 50% of Americans believe AI will worsen people’s ability to form meaningful relationships, while only 5% believe it will improve it. The relational core of the Church is not a relic—it is the very thing the culture fears it is losing.
Technology must support relationship, not replace it.
Healthy ministry never treats technology as a substitute for human connection. In fact, my firm belief is that God has gifted us with technology to extend our work of community and discipleship in an age when many others are using tech to isolate or even divide us. By contrast, the church can be a powerful and inspiring platform, equipping people to navigate technology as a force for the good work of the gospel in everyday lives.
In my work with churches, I’m hearing groundbreaking ideas that use technology to bring us closer together, not further isolated. For example, one church is using its data to understand what causes some groups to succeed and thrive, while other groups seem to struggle. They are also charting people's involvement in the life of the church, finding correlations among leading, serving, attending, and giving. These findings lead to a kind of “matchmaking” that is more likely to result in fruitful relationships. The church is creating bonds that are more likely to multiply, thanks to technology.
"My call is for every leader to deeply consider ways to extend the work of ministry beyond content, beyond events, and into the fabric of ministry."
I’ve seen many, if not most, churches successfully leverage tech as a tool to support events and content
distribution. Streaming, LED screens, QR codes, and apps are fairly commonplace on Sunday morning. This is a good, yet incomplete, use of today’s tech platforms. My call is for every leader to deeply consider ways to extend the work of ministry beyond content, beyond events, and into the fabric of ministry.
In this sense, technology serves as the infrastructure that supports relationships. Just as roads enable travel and buildings enable gathering, technology enables connection across time and distance. But the destination remains the same: gospel communities that create conditions for every person to flourish.
Technology can and should be used to:
Strengthen connection
Connect people into small groups and create conversational pathways for future visitors.
Build community
Amplify discipleship
Build trust and relationship
Extend Reach
Technology is not just a tool. It is a cultural environment.
For many leaders—especially those over 40—technology feels like a foreign language you’ve had to adapt to. But for younger generations, technology is more than native and normal. It is where they live. The data confirms this. According to Pew Research,
97%
of U.S. teens use the internet daily
40%
say they are online “almost constantly”
a figure that has roughly doubled in the last decade.
2/3
of U.S. teens (64%) are now using AI chatbots, with roughly three-in-ten doing so every day.
These are not peripheral habits. For the emerging generation, digital environments are the primary context for learning, socializing, and sense-making.
Identity formation, moral frameworks, friendships, information consumption, and community participation—all increasingly happen within digital environments. For today’s generation, meeting a friend on FaceTime or Snapchat feels as natural as meeting for coffee or sharing a road trip.
Even with my own teenagers, we’ve found ourselves using phrases such as “let’s put our phones down and be present.” Or, as my kids call it when we are in a phone-free environment, “let’s disconnect to connect.” In both cases, the screens are essentially diverting the users from their present, embodied reality.
In other words:
Technology now facilitates a set of places.
Where worldviews are shaped.
Where belonging is experienced.
Where meaning is negotiated.
The more we view technology as a place to do ministry, we develop empathy, creativity, and trust with today’s connected generation.
Covid-19 moved us forward… but there’s more to do
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly advanced the Church’s use of technology. Whether a congregation had been streaming in the past or not, it became imperative to set up a camera and a link on YouTube or Facebook when the building was closed.
"If Covid taught us streaming, will AI teach us to rethink discipleship?"
them to use the technology wisely. Equip parents to have important conversations with the next generation, so they can separate the authentic from the synthetic.
Barna reports that AI is now becoming a spiritual authority in the lives of everyday people — commanding the same level of trust as a pastor. The search for belonging and meaning is still being explored digitally, and if ministry leaders do not recognize and act this shift, they will unwittingly surrender one of the most influential discipleship environments of the modern era.
For additional reading on the new mission field of digital spaces, we encourage you to read “From Social Media to Social Ministry” by Nona Jones.
Neutral, but not unformed.
Technology itself may be morally neutral, but the systems and people shaping its inputs and outputs are not.
Algorithms prioritize attention.
What gets optimized becomes what gets discipled.
Platforms prioritize engagement.
The loudest signals are not always the wisest ones.
AI reflects embedded values.
Training data and defaults shape what feels authoritative.
People sense the tension.
and a majority express concern about AI’s growing influence on daily life
53%
of Americans believe AI will worsen people’s ability to think creatively. and a majority express concern about AI’s growing influence on daily life—a share that has risen from 37% in 2021 to 50% in 2025.
Americans are not unaware that these systems carry values. They are unsure whose values those will be.
Without intentional leadership, technological systems will inevitably reflect the dominant cultural worldview of their creators.
Which means that if ministry leaders do not actively participate in shaping technology for Kingdom purposes, they should expect technology to increasingly shape culture in ways that conflict with biblical truth. I’m grateful for organizations like Biblica, Gloo, Samaritan’s Purse, and YouVersion, along with many others, who are actively working to ensure that the Big C Church has a formative voice in the AI that we all use in the years to come.
Even when leaders aren’t directly shaping technology, they still play a pivotal role in teaching their people discernment, and Barna’s research confirms that people are looking for help: one-third of practicing Christians say they want guidance from their pastors on navigating AI. Put simply, we can’t pretend that all technology will align with a Christian worldview. We will inevitably encounter AI content that runs counter to our beliefs. When a pastor isn’t there to help decipher the response, is the individual
"For any leader who is naturally slow to adopt new technology, this time it feels different. AI already claims the fastest product adoption cycle in history, and it’s rapidly seeping into the everyday corners of life. How should the church respond, and how much time do we have?"
equipped to spot the inconsistencies? This is one of the greatest pastoral moments for the Church in recent memory, marked by a hunger from people in every community to feel equipped to know, grow, and flourish in an AI-enabled world.
AI Has Created a New Discipleship Moment
Artificial intelligence represents an exponential shift in how the world relates to technology.
We’ve largely moved through the first phase of broad-scale AI adoption, with AI now widely used across organizations and increasing evidence showing productivity gains in many workplace contexts. According to Bain & Company, roughly 68% of users of foundational AI platforms rely on them to research, gather, and summarize information.
Source: Bain & Company, “Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing,” February 2025.
The next phase of adoption, however, gets quite a bit more personal. For many people, AI is already functioning as a first point of inquiry for life’s questions.
Harvard Business Review confirms that the top use of AI has now surpassed productivity and idea generation, in favor of “therapy and companionship.” While cases of AI-as-therapist or AI-as-romantic-partner are edge cases (yet becoming more common), we are nonetheless seeing rapid, mass adoption for everyday questions.
People are asking higher-order questions about things that really matter, creating both risk and opportunity.
Identity
Morality
Purpose
Theology
Doubt
Among U.S. teens, the pattern is already emerging. Pew Research found that
12%
of teens have turned to AI chatbots for emotional support or advice
16%
use them for casual conversation.
These are functions historically filled by parents, pastors, and mentors. And while a majority of parents oppose their children using AI for emotional support—only 18% say they’d be comfortable with it—the behavior is outpacing the guardrails.
Among adults, the picture is equally striking. Pew found that 73% of Americans believe AI should play no role in advising people about their faith in God. This is the highest rejection rate of any area Pew tested—higher than matchmaking, governance, or creative work. And yet, the questions people bring to AI do not respect those boundaries. People searching for meaning will encounter AI-generated answers, whether the Church shows up in that space or not.
Source: Pew Research Center, “How Americans View AI and Its Impact on People and Society,” September 2025.
If AI systems are shaped primarily by secular frameworks, they will inevitably reinforce secular assumptions about truth, morality, and meaning. But there is also an unprecedented opportunity, because people’s AI habits are still being formed. People are still learning how to interact with these systems, and that means leaders must engage in this fleeting window to help
their communities develop healthy disciplines for engaging technology:
• Asking better questions
• Testing ideas against scripture
• Seeking wisdom in community
• Resisting passive consumption
In other words, AI can either accelerate cultural drift or strengthen spiritual resilience. The difference will be determined by courageous leaders who intentionally engage the technology and tools available to our generation.
Just as important, thoughtful leaders must strike the right balance between what’s sacred and what’s malleable. The world needs a church that is holy and set apart. The church, meanwhile, needs leaders who understand the times, much like the men of Issachar… so they know what to do (1 Chronicles 12:32). This calls for curiosity, experimentation, and much prayer.
Wise leaders maintain a sense of openness in areas where God allows freedom, and guardedness where the essentials of faith are well-formed. This posture can, and should, extend to the ways we approach technology. In a practical sense:
Understand the goals and/or problems you are trying to address
Be clear about what success looks like
Choose tools carefully
For Christians to reliably and faithfully use tech for good, it must be designed with guardrails that respect the immutability of Scripture. That includes:
• Theological grounding in training data and frameworks
• Human oversight by trusted ministry leaders
• Clear distinctions between biblical authority and synthetic recommendations
• Transparency about the role technology plays
Technology should never position itself as a new authority. Instead, it should help people engage more deeply with the authority that already exists. And technology should never replace the primacy of relationships but should be used to amplify discipleship, connection, and relational flourishing.
The Cost of Inaction
"The public is aware, anxious, and looking for guidance. The window for the Church to lead is open, but it will not stay open indefinitely."
In Matthew 25, Jesus warns his disciples of the cost of inaction when confronted with a need. It’s one of the most compelling teachings of Christ, which should always shape our response to poverty, hunger, and physical need.
We face a similar challenge, where the very mechanisms for
relationships, spiritual formation, and theological clarity are being reshaped before our eyes. As a leader, your call to ministry demands an exegesis of the moment, and a bias towards action.
For many leaders, the hesitation around technology is understandable. Concerns about distraction, digital addiction, and misguided uses of tech are legitimate.
But avoiding technology does not remove its influence.
When we hesitate to engage new tools, we yield influence to misaligned forces. And likely, wait to clean up the mess on the other side.
When we thoughtfully engage, however, we harness the opportunity to not just balance the bad with the good, but to dramatically accelerate the Kingdom impact that is possible.
Conclusion
A Call to Tech-Enabled Ministry
Being a tech-enabled ministry does not mean replacing human shepherding with software.
It means recognizing that the environments where formation happens have expanded.
Faithful leadership requires showing up in those environments.
01
Not to appear innovative.
02
Not to chase trends.
03
But to steward influence responsibly.
The Church has always adapted its methods while preserving its message.
Printing presses expanded access to scripture.
Radio and television expanded preaching.
The Internet reduced time and distance barriers to ministry.
Artificial intelligence will enable a breathtaking Kingdom impact we’re only just beginning to imagine:
Aggregation of Kingdom impact data for donors, city leaders, and networks
Evangelistic breakthroughs and personalized discipleship at scale
Accelerated language translation for scripture, film, preaching and more
Extended reach, distribution, and repurposement of ministry content
Reimagined models for theological education
Precise deployment of food, medicine, and life-saving resources to communities in need
The mission remains the same.
Love one another. Make disciples.
But the environments where that mission unfolds are changing. And faithful leaders must change with them.
About the Author
Brad Hill has been deeply involved in solving technology challenges for the church for over 25 years. He serves as Chief Partner Success Officer (www.gloo.com), and is responsible for putting their platform capabilities to work for churches, networks, and the expanding portfolio of brands in the Gloo family. Prior to Gloo, Brad was President at Ministry Brands.
As a former church tech founder himself, Brad has the perspective to see and leverage patterns in tech innovation that can help the Church further its mission. In addition to his experience starting, building and coaching companies for Kingdom and business impact, Brad has also served in lay leadership at several churches across multiple denominations. Brad lives in Knoxville, TN with his wife and two kids.
Brad Hill
Chief Partner Success Officer
