Most of the risk in church AI use doesn’t come from bad intentions. It comes from default settings nobody looked at.
In software, we say defaults are decisions. Whoever set the default made a choice for you. So before your team uses AI for church work, spend twenty minutes on the settings. Here’s what to look for.
A caution first: these companies rename and move their settings often. Look under Settings, then something like Privacy or Data Controls. If you can’t find it, search the provider’s help center for “training” or “opt out.”
1. Model training
This is the big one. Does the company use your conversations to improve future models?
- ChatGPT: Consumer accounts have a data-controls setting to stop your chats being used to improve the model. There’s also a temporary chat mode that isn’t saved to your history or used for training.
- Claude: Consumer accounts ask you to choose whether your chats can be used for training. If you allow it, Anthropic says it keeps that data much longer. Incognito chats aren’t used for training.
- Gemini: Tied to your Google activity settings. Turning activity off may also turn off chat history. Church Google Workspace accounts are controlled by your administrator.
- Grok: Has its own data controls for Grok chats, and a separate X setting about whether your public posts are shared for training. Check both.
Business, team, and enterprise plans from the major providers generally don’t train on your data by default. That’s one of the best reasons to use one for church work.
2. Memory and history
Many assistants now remember things across conversations. That’s handy for a personal account. It’s a problem if a volunteer once mentioned a congregant’s situation and the assistant “remembers” it later. Review what the tool has stored and turn memory off for any account used with church information.
3. Connected apps
AI tools increasingly connect to email, calendars, drives, and other apps. Each connection widens what the AI can see. Connect only what a specific task needs, and remove connections you’re not using.
4. Shared links
Most chatbots let you share a conversation by link. Those links can be forwarded, and some have ended up searchable on the open web. Don’t share conversations that include anything you wouldn’t post publicly.
5. Who owns the account
If the church’s AI work happens in your youth leader’s personal account, it leaves when he does. Use church-owned accounts for church work, with an email address the church controls.
A one-page checklist
Print this for your staff:
- [ ] Training turned off (or using a team plan that doesn’t train)
- [ ] Memory reviewed and turned off for church use
- [ ] Only needed apps connected
- [ ] No shared links with sensitive content
- [ ] Church-owned account for church work
- [ ] No congregant names or details, ever, in a consumer account
Paul writes, “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Faithfulness in small things includes a settings page.
For the full set of guardrails, see our church’s AI policy.
Setting up AI accounts and training staff to use them safely is part of what I help churches do. I have more than twenty years in business and technology alongside pastoring. If that would help your church, here’s how I work.
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