Church AI Settings Checklist

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.”

The checklist

• ☐ Training turned off, or the church uses a team or business plan that doesn't train on your data.
• ☐ Memory reviewed and turned off for any account used with church information.
• ☐ Only needed apps connected. Email, calendar, and drive connections each widen what the AI can see.
• ☐ No shared links to conversations with anything you wouldn't post publicly.
• ☐ Church-owned account for church work, on an email address the church controls.
• ☐ No congregant names or details, ever, in a consumer account. That includes prayer requests, counseling notes, giving records, and anything about minors.

Where to look

• ChatGPT: a data-controls setting stops chats being used to improve the model. Temporary chats aren’t saved or used for training.
• Claude: consumer accounts choose whether chats can be used for training. Incognito chats aren’t used for training.
• Gemini: tied to your Google activity settings. Church Google Workspace accounts are controlled by your administrator.
• Grok: its own data controls, plus a separate X setting about your public posts. Check both.

Instead of pasting a prayer list

• Strip the names. “A man in his 50s facing surgery” is enough for AI to help you word a prayer guide.
• Use AI on the structure, not the content. Have it design a prayer-list template. Then fill it in yourself.
• Keep people data in your church management system. That’s what it’s for.
• Train your volunteers. Most people who make this mistake simply never thought about it.

“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:2

Faithfulness in small things includes a settings page.

Staff and volunteers: _______________________________   Reviewed on: ______________