What the New Wave of Denominational AI Statements Means for Your Church Technology Decisions

TL;DR: Six major denominations issued AI guidance in spring 2026. Across Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, and LDS traditions, the statements converge on three operational principles: AI must support human ministry rather than replace it, member data requires explicit protections, and churches need written policies rather than vendor defaults. If your ministry is evaluating a ChMS renewal or a new AI feature rollout, those three principles generate a clear set of vendor questions.

Core Insights:

The SBC Brentwood Statement (June 8, 2026), signed by chief executives of most major SBC agencies, explicitly advises against outsourcing pastoral relationship to machines.
Pope Leo XIV’s May 2026 encyclical warns that AI may weaken human creativity and judgment and that technology is “never neutral.”
Only 5% of churches have a formal AI use policy, even as 64% of church leaders say such a policy is important.
The LDS Church’s updated General Handbook specifically prohibits entering sensitive member data into AI tools not provided or managed by the church.
Denominational guidance does not name ChMS vendors — but it does name principles that apply directly to vendor contracts, data governance agreements, and feature activation decisions.
The ELCA’s nationwide AI policy guidelines are expected in June or July 2026, making this a live governance moment for Lutheran congregations.

Several major denominations — including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, and the ELCA — issued formal AI guidance statements in May and June 2026. These statements share a consistent thread: AI should support human ministry, not substitute for it, and member data must not be processed without explicit safeguards. For churches evaluating ChMS platforms with embedded AI features, this guidance translates directly into vendor questions about data governance, training-data policies, and human oversight in automated workflows. In this post, we translate what six denominational bodies have said about AI into the specific technology decisions that follow from their guidance, drawing on what AI features church management software vendors are building into their platforms in 2026.