"By Michael Lattis Church leaders and staff are called to wisely administer the resources God has given them. Stewardship, however, extends beyond managing finances. It also includes protecting information. Caring for congregants’ personal and sensitive data is a sacred responsibility that reflects the trust members place in their church. Discretion helps safeguard not only the church but also the individuals, families, and information entrusted to its care. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into church operations, protecting that trust is more important than ever. Churches might use AI to assist with administration, communications, donor engagement, research, content creation, and ministry support. Whether motivated by limited staff capacity, budget constraints, or the growing visibility of AI tools, many churches are exploring how technology can help them work more efficiently. As churches embrace these tools, leaders must balance innovation with their responsibility to protect confidential information and preserve the trust of congregants, donors, employees, and ministry partners. Why privacy matters in churches Churches often collect the same types of information as other organizations, including names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, or payment information. However, some congregants speak to pastors and deacons about deeply personal and sensitive information that might not be shared elsewhere. In face-to-face or phone discussions with their pastors or deacons, members might discuss personal prayer requests, which can cover marital struggles, health concerns, financial hardships, counseling issues, or other confidential matters as part of their spiritual lives. This information is shared with an expectation of compassion and confidentiality and is not meant to be digitally recorded and input into AI for any reason. If a pastor or deacon is not a licensed counselor, counseling should be done on a short-term basis and then referred to a professional clinician. Understanding how AI uses data AI systems rely on data to generate responses. When users enter information into an AI platform, that information might be processed, stored, retained or used to train public AI models, depending on the provider’s policies. Because many misconceptions exist about AI and privacy, church leaders should understand several common myths. Myth #1: “If I delete a chat, the information disappears.” Reality: According to Church & Tax Law, deleting a conversation typically removes it from your view, but it might not be immediately erased from the provider’s systems. Depending on the platform, information might remain in backup systems, security logs, or retention environments for a period before permanent deletion occurs. Some business and enterprise platforms also maintain records for compliance, security or auditing purposes. In certain cases, data might be retained after personal identifiers have been removed. Understanding a provider’s retention and deletion policies is essential before sharing sensitive information. Myth #2: “Free AI tools are just as secure as business platforms, which charge subscription fees.” Reality: Security and privacy protections vary between vendors and service tiers, but free AI platforms are usually much less secure than paid platforms or service tiers. Many enterprise and business AI tools provide stronger privacy controls, administrative oversight and safeguards that help prevent customer data from being used to train free, publicly available AI models. Church and Tax Law suggests they might also offer access controls, dedicated security features and data processing agreements (contractual assurances regarding how church data is stored, accessed, protected and deleted). When evaluating AI solutions, church leaders should carefully review privacy practices and security controls rather than assuming all platforms offer the same protections. Myth #3: “AI-generated content is always private.” Reality: Privacy depends on the platform and its policies. Content created within an AI system might be subject to storage, retention, monitoring, and security practices established by the provider. Before using any AI solution, churches should understand how data is collected, used, stored and protected. The 6 biggest AI privacy risks facing churches AI can provide significant benefits, but churches should recognize and mitigate potential risks before expanding its use. #1: Exposure of confidential congregant information Churches staff might have access to congregants’ job or emergency contact data, and pastors are exposed to prayer requests, member support needs and crisis information, among other private matters. #2: Disclosure of personally identifiable information Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, medical information, volunteer records, and information regarding children should be carefully protected to avoid privacy concerns and legal ramifications. #3: Exposure of financial and donor information Mishandling contribution records, banking information, budget documents, and donor histories can compromise both trust and financial security. #4: Unauthorized access Weak passwords, shared accounts, inadequate permissions, and lack of governance can allow unauthorized individuals to gain access to sensitive systems and information. Access should be restricted to those who genuinely need it to perform their responsibilities. The proper business AI tool will keep your data from being shared outside your organization, but your church’s authorized users might be able to access any information you feed into the platform. So, be strategic and sparing about which private information you share on your business AI platform.1 #5: Exposure of personnel and security information Human resources records, payroll information, background checks, facility security plans, and internal operational data require heightened protection and oversight.1 #6: Reputational damage Even a single privacy incident can damage confidence in church leadership. Members who believe their information is not protected might be reluctant to share personal concerns, participate in ministry activities, or make future financial contributions. Choosing AI tools wisely Not all AI tools are created equal. Churches should evaluate business, enterprise or team solutions carefully before adoption. Features worth considering include: • Clear privacy and security policies • Data processing agreements • Administrative controls and user permissions • Support for data deletion requests • Security certifications such as SOC 2 or ISO 270011 • Measures that limit the use of customer data to train public AI models Before selecting an AI provider, consider asking the following questions: • How is information stored and protected? • Who can access our data? • Do you provide a non-profit discount for churches using your business, team or enterprise platform? Warning Read More >"
"Years of ministry sit unused on drives across your campus. AI is how you find it again — and how you give your media team their week back. By Christina Kennedy Someone’s first introduction to your church happens on a Tuesday, on a lunch break, scrolling. They were not looking for a church. A 30-second clip of a message stops them, and something in it lands. By the time they walk through your doors, they feel like they know you. That clip did the work a lobby used to do. Your digital ministry is now one of the main ways people meet your church, stay connected between Sundays, and bring a friend. The problem is not a lack of footage Somewhere on your campus there is a drive with 2019 on it. Baptisms and testimonies, the mission trip that changed a family, three Christmas Eve services shot from four angles. Some of the most meaningful footage your church has recorded, and nobody can find it. The rest is scattered just as widely: drives on a shelf, an aging server sitting in a rack, a cloud account somebody set up years ago. Nearly every church has some version of this. That is where your team’s week goes Ask how your media director spent Thursday. Looking for a file, copying it between drives, waiting on a transfer, scrubbing hours of youth camp footage for a 90-second clip. They came to communicate the Gospel; they did not come to become IT specialists, sorting and moving video instead of telling the story. That is why the Tuesday clip does not get made. Not for lack of talent, and not for lack of footage. For lack of hours, spent looking. Finding what you already have AI earns its place in a church in a smaller way than the headlines suggest. It does the part no one has time for: knowing what is in all that footage. That is what we built creative.space Intelligence (CSI) to do. It looks across everything your church has recorded, wherever it sits, and makes it findable in plain English. Someone asks for sermon clips where the pastor references the book of Luke, and they come back in seconds. So does every shot of hands raised, because it reads pictures as well as words. The footage stops being lost, and the hours spent looking for it come back. Your team has the material and the time to use it, which is how a clip gets made on Tuesday and finds someone who was not looking for you. Giving your team their week back CSI also takes the first pass. Point it at Sunday’s service and it writes a transcript of everything said, identifies the key moments, and can assemble a rough cut. It can draft titles and descriptions, and translate and caption the whole thing in Spanish, so nobody waits on a volunteer to do it by hand. Your team starts from that instead of from scratch, and your editor still decides what goes out. No prompting skill to learn, nothing new for volunteers to figure out. creative.space gives your team an hour back a day. For a five-person team, that is 1,300 hours a year. At $20 an hour, well under what creatives cost, that is about $26,000 returned to ministry. Will it make our ministry feel manufactured? This is the worry we hear most from pastors, and it’s fair. Nobody wants a highlight reel that could belong to any church. But cookie-cutter is what you get when there is no time. A team that spends the week hunting files posts whatever was ready. A team with its week back can tell the story only your church can tell. Nothing here is invented. Every frame is still your people, your building, your Sunday, shot by someone on your team who was there. AI does not know your church better than you do. It has no sense of what your people need to hear, and it will never convey the Gospel the way someone who loves it can. That stays with your team. What AI gives back is their time. That is why churches like North Point Ministries, Saddleback Church, Church of the Resurrection, Lutheran Church of Hope, Rock City Church, and The Belonging Co., run their media on creative.space. Every message, every baptism, every story your church has already captured can keep serving your community. That is stewardship, and AI is what helps make that possible. Your message is competing with everything else on that phone. It can be paint-by-numbers. Or it can be yours. Give your team the hours back to tell your story. Christina Kennedy leads marketing at DigitalGlue and works with church media teams across the country. She cares deeply for the volunteers and staff who serve behind the scenes every Sunday, and for removing technology as a bottleneck so their churches can reach more people in their community and share the Gospel. Find her on LinkedIn. DigitalGlue has built and supported media infrastructure since 2001, including for Trinity Broadcasting Network and churches nationwide. creative.space is its creative operating system for modern ministry."
"Walking in the footsteps of Jesus in the land of the Bible is the ultimate hands-on disciple-making experience for Christians — not just a vacation to a destination related to church. Educational Opportunities Tours (EO) President/CEO James Ridgway recently interviewed Rev. Tom Smith about how Holy Land journeys have changed lives and inspired the faith of people who traveled with him in the Holy Land. James Ridgway: How did your first Holy Land journey influence your life and ministry? Rev. Tom Smith: It’s safe to say that it began to affect me even before I returned home. But the immediately noticeable influence was the way that it affected my preaching and teaching. I found myself painting word pictures of a passage of Scripture as I would preach or teach. I would give little tidbits of what it means to go ‘up’ from Jericho or the winds affecting the Sea of Galilee as they funneled into that area. It was like I had an entirely new resource to add to my library as I prepared for a sermon or class. Ridgway: When did you decide to start taking groups to the Holy Land? How did the people respond? Smith: I went the first time without a group. But after returning, my excitement was obvious. I talked about it constantly. As soon as I was introduced to Educational Opportunities and learned of how I could ‘earn’ a trip, I decided to go back and take as many people as possible. As soon as I mentioned that I was putting a group together, people started signing up. A journey to the Holy Land is in the hearts of a lot of people — not as a vacation but as part of their faith development — so there was natural interest in participating. Folks were excited that they could travel with me because they trusted me as their pastor. Ridgway: Afterwards, what did you see in the lives of those who experienced the Holy Land? Smith: They were changed. They engaged with Scripture differently. They talked about the way they heard the sermons differently. They began to participate more readily in Sunday School, study groups or accountability groups. Many of them became more open and expressive of being leaders in the congregation. They have a renewed/revitalized faith, it seems. Ridgway: What other benefits come from the Holy Land journeys? Smith: One of the things was how close the group became. They bonded with each other as they shared the experience. They also bonded with me, as their pastor, differently. Instead of hearing me teach or preach a couple of hours per month, they spent 12 to 14 hours a day talking and experiencing this profoundly moving journey. We formed some truly lasting bonds. They also came back with a deeper understanding of the current issues facing people in the region. They experienced not just what the news media shared, but what they themselves saw. They could ‘put a face’ to it, and it opened doors/eyes in a way that nothing else could do. Ridgway: How does a pastor plan a journey to the Holy Land? Smith: There are two ways a pastor could begin this journey. First, they could participate in an EO Familiarization tour. After experiencing the Holy Land personally, they could start planning a group journey. Personal experience helps while recruiting a group. The second way is to jump right in and organize an EO Holy Land journey for their group by going to www.eo.travelwithus.com and reviewing the different itineraries offered and finding one that best suits what they and their folks would love to see. Then, they can reach out to the EO team to partner and build the journey that will help make disciples for Jesus Christ. The EO staff will provide all the tools necessary — including ongoing support — to build a life-changing tour for the congregation."
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