Something remarkable is happening in ministry right now. Young men are showing up at Catholic parishes for the first time. Evangelical churches are seeing rising numbers. College campuses are experiencing revival in ways we haven’t seen in a generation. There is a genuine spiritual hunger, and it’s walking through front doors again.
At the very same time, an enormous segment of spiritually curious people will never start their journey by visiting a church. They’re starting on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT deep questions about God and suffering at 2 a.m. They’re processing faith and doubt on Character.ai, in Reddit threads, and in online communities with strangers they’ll never meet. They’re having raw, vulnerable spiritual conversations in digital spaces that most church lobbies will never see.
Both of these things are true at once. And if you’re a pastor, that should both encourage you and challenge you.
Most of our ministry infrastructure is built for the already-convinced
Think about what we’ve actually built. Our church websites, welcome teams, sermon series, small group sign-ups: they’re designed for the person who’s already decided to give church a try. Those people matter deeply.
The neighbor who’s spiritually curious and would never describe themselves that way? The coworker processing grief who’d talk to anyone except a pastor? The young adult with deep questions about meaning who associates “church” with something that isn’t for them? We don’t have great infrastructure for reaching those people. And they’re having spiritual conversations every day, just not with us.
Practitioners working in digital ministry, AI-assisted discipleship, and online congregations have been forced to figure this out. Not theoretically. Practically, every single day. They’re engaging people who can leave a conversation instantly, who stay anonymous by choice, and who owe them nothing. What they’ve learned has direct implications for every pastor, whether you ever launch anything digital or not.
What creates spiritual openness when you remove the building
When you remove the building, the bulletin, and the social pressure of showing up on Sunday, you find out what actually creates spiritual openness.
Ministry leaders working in these spaces are discovering that unchurched people express spiritual curiosity in ways that look nothing like what most evangelism training prepares you for. The triggers are different. The language is different. The moments people choose to open up about their real lives don’t match the on-ramp most churches have designed.
These leaders are also learning hard lessons about trust. When someone can disappear with a single click, you can’t rely on proximity or obligation to keep them engaged. You have to earn relational permission in real time. That skill, earning trust with someone who has zero reason to give it to you, may be the most important competency for ministry in the next decade, regardless of your context.
AI is already in the church, and pastors need to understand where it works
According to the 2025 State of AI in the Church National Survey, conducted by ChurchTechToday.com and Exponential AI NEXT, 63.6% of ministry leaders currently use generative AI tools in their ministry work. Among those using AI, 32.6% use it daily and another 45.4% use it weekly. And 64% of pastors now use AI for sermon preparation, a nearly 20-point increase in just one year.
The church is adopting AI faster than the general workforce. Less than half of the general U.S. workforce uses AI annually, yet nearly two-thirds of church leaders are already actively using it.
AI tools are part of discipleship, pastoral care conversations, Bible study, and spiritual formation. Some of this works remarkably well. Some of it fails in ways that reveal exactly what humans provide that technology never will.
Here’s the tension: 90% of church leaders see value in using AI for discipleship activities, and 67% plan to increase their AI usage in the next 12 months. Yet 81% of churches have absolutely no AI policy in place.
Leaders also report concern about “loss of personal touch and authenticity” (75.6%) and “theological accuracy and bias” (63.6%) alongside their high usage rates.
The pastors who thrive in the next 24 months will be the ones who understand where AI genuinely helps and where it falls short, and who invest their irreplaceable human time accordingly. That requires firsthand knowledge and honest conversation, not secondhand opinions.
People’s lives no longer orbit a physical location
The rhythms that made weekly church attendance natural for previous generations don’t exist for most people anymore. Weekly schedules, family routines, work patterns: they’ve all shifted structurally.
So what does community formation look like when you can’t assume people will show up to the same place at the same time every week?
What does spiritual growth look like when it doesn’t depend on Sunday attendance?
People are genuinely coming to faith and being discipled in digital environments without ever sitting in a pew. That raises a question every church leader has to wrestle with: what’s actually essential for spiritual formation, and what’s just our preferred way of doing it?
Ministry leaders working in online congregations and digital-first environments are living out these questions daily, and finding real answers.
Questions Every Pastor Needs to Ask in the Next 24 Months
These are the questions we’ll be wrestling with at the table, and they’re the same ones every ministry leader will need to address in their own context:
- How are unchurched people actually expressing spiritual curiosity right now, and what does that mean for how I approach my own neighborhood?
- What creates safety for honest spiritual conversations, whether digital or in-person, and why are people sharing more openly online than in my church lobby?
- How do I earn relational permission with people who aren’t looking for church and can walk away at any moment?
- What engagement strategies actually work when people control the interaction and owe me nothing?
- When does AI genuinely help discipleship, and when does it fail in ways that only a human pastor can fill?
- If people are coming to faith and being discipled without ever attending a Sunday service, what does that reveal about what’s essential for spiritual formation?
- How do I build community that fits how people actually live now, when their lives no longer revolve around a single physical location?
- What should I be measuring as success if Sunday attendance is no longer the primary indicator of ministry health?
Come to the Table on March 18
On Wednesday, March 18, at Exponential Global 2026 in Orlando, Anne Bosarge, Kenny Jahng, and Mark Lutz are sitting down for the Exponential NEXT Luncheon Panel: “AI, Digital Ministry, and Church Growth: What Pastors Must Master in the Next 24 Months.”
All three are practitioners who’ve built and led ministry in AI-assisted discipleship, online congregations, and unchurched communities. They know what works to earn trust, create real relationships, and help people grow spiritually in contexts where the old playbook doesn’t apply.
The panel is interactive. Bring your questions. Bring the specific challenges you’re facing in your context, whether that’s a church plant, a college ministry, or an established congregation trying to actually reach your neighborhood. The discussion will be shaped by what you need to walk away with.
The conversation will be practical. And you’ll walk out with insights you can use that same week in your own ministry.
Join us at Exponential Global in Orlando on March 18.
