Screens and Sanctuaries: Faithfully Blending Digital and In-Person Ministry Approaches

State of the Church research identifies ways church leaders and attendees think about and prefer to use digital tools in the crest of the AI movement

BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Gloo and Barna Group have released the latest research for State of the Church, an initiative that includes monthly research and church assessment tools to help leaders see ecosystem trends and better understand the sentiments of their communities.

This month's research focused on trends in church technology and revealed key insights on how both church leaders and attendees think about and engage digital tools for ministry and personal development. Themes include:

• Congregants' hopes for use of digital tools by church leaders
• Churchgoers' desire to hear from pastors on the topic of artificial intelligence
• Gen Z's views of digital tools and relationships
• Perceptions of AI's credibility as a source for spiritual knowledge
• Pastors' use of tech in ministry development

"The rapid development and expansive availability of digital tools can make it overwhelming for leaders to know which tools they can trust to best support their ministry," said Brad Hill, chief solutions officer at Gloo. "At Gloo, we are committed to helping leaders, through efforts like State of the Church research and church health tools, so they can make more informed decisions and, ultimately, amplify their missional impact."

Key highlights:

1. Forty-three percent of Christians and churchgoers say that they want to hear from their pastor about how to use AI wisely.
2. A majority of U.S. adults, including Christians, say that churches could benefit from doing more with technology, such as using tech for online giving and donations (75%), creating a digital resource hub (74%), and using digital communications strategies (68%).
3. While digital resources are ubiquitous, the majority of pastors lean more on scripture (85%), peer insights (79%), and books / printed resources (79%) versus learning from the internet to help inform their ministry leadership.
4. Being part of a faith community may reinforce the importance of in-person relationships, even for young people. Seven in 10 practicing Christian Gen Z (70%) strongly agree that in-person relationships are more valuable than digital relationships.
5. Christian Gen Z have a conflicted response to AI. Though they are more likely than other generations to be using AI, they are torn on whether AI is useful in building community (17%) or hurting community (15%).

"Many church leaders may not realize how much their people welcome digital tools, especially when used thoughtfully in ministry," said David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna Group. "Every ministry will find its own way of blending in-person connection with digital tools, but it's worth exploring. The right tools can help leaders share timeless truths in powerful ways, meeting people right where they are."

The State of the Church initiative helps leaders see trends through research, but church leaders around the country are using their Church Health dashboard to get a more personalized view of the health of their people and their organization. Additional research trends are scheduled to be released by Barna and Gloo in February.

The detailed findings of this month's release are available on Barna Access Plus, Barna's all-in-one research library. Leaders can learn more about the largest initiative for the Church at stateofthechurch.com.

Gloo is the technology platform connecting the Christian faith ecosystem. Gloo connects ministry leaders to resources, people, insights and funding so their people and communities flourish and their organizations thrive. Gloo enables trusted exchange between organizations and people, so they can collaborate with greater confidence. Gloo serves over 80,000 churches and over 1,000 resource partners. Gloo is based in Boulder, Colorado.

Barna Group is a leading research organization focused on the intersection of faith and culture. Since 1984, Barna has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and has become a go-to source for insights about religion, leadership, vocation and generations. Barna is an independent, privately-held, nonpartisan organization based in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas.

SOURCE Gloo