REUTERS illustration/Anurag Rao
In 2024, Justin Lester, a pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Vallejo, California, built a custom GPT for his church that uses his sermons to develop small group materials and allows other church leaders to build lessons based on those sermons.
Lester has no qualms about deploying AI in this way. As he sees it, using these tools is important for spiritual growth, discipleship, and community development.
"Jesus said we will do greater things,” he says. “And I think (AI) is part of the greater."
"I think that the work of religion is not trying to get machines to be more human,” he says. “The work of religion is trying to get us all to be the most human human."
From writing sermons to simulating conversations with Jesus, religious leaders and worshippers alike are experimenting with AI — though not without controversy. By Hani Richter February 7, 20266:00 AM EST Updated February 7, 2026
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