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A free resource for church leaders

Questions to ask before you recommend an AI app

An appendix for your church AI policy. Nine questions to put to any app your members might ask about Scripture, prayer, or a hard decision, so leaders stay accountable for what the church recommends.

Free to copy and adapt. No form, no sign-up.

The appendix

Select the text and paste it into your policy. The square brackets mark what your leadership team fills in.

Appendix: Questions to ask before we recommend an AI app to our members

Before this church recommends, links to, or teaches with any app that uses AI to answer questions about faith, Scripture, or personal life, a named leader asks the provider these questions and records the answers. We recommend the app only when the answers are clear and in writing.

  1. 01

    Sources. Where do its answers come from? Does it show the source of each answer, so a member can check it?

  2. 02

    Scripture. When it quotes the Bible, does it name the translation and check the wording against that text before it shows the quote?

  3. 03

    Persona. Does it speak as Jesus, a pastor, a prophet, or a friend? Does it claim to hear from God, or to have spiritual experiences of its own?

  4. 04

    Pastoral authority. Does it give pastoral direction, receive confession, or offer absolution? What does it say when a member asks it to decide a major life matter?

  5. 05

    Back to people. Does it point members back to their church, their leaders, and their friends? Does it decline to keep secrets that should be shared with a spouse or a trusted person?

  6. 06

    Crisis. What does it do when a member is at risk? Does it hand them to people: emergency services, a crisis line, a trusted person, a professional?

  7. 07

    Data. Is what members write or say used to train AI models, sold, or used for advertising? Where is it stored, and can a member export it and delete it?

  8. 08

    Children and safeguarding. What age is it for? How does its use fit our safeguarding policy, and who do we tell if something goes wrong?

  9. 09

    Accountability. Who runs it, and how do we contact them? Do they publish in plain words what the app will not do?

Answers recorded by: [name, role]. Date: [date]. Review again: [every 12 months, or when the app changes owner or purpose].

Free to copy and adapt for any church. Source: doxa.app/resources/church-ai-app-checklist

Our own answers

Ask Doxa the same nine questions. People hear, people record, and people weigh: in a church, its discernment team. Doxa does not generate prophecy. How its AI handles Scripture, persona, crisis, and data is set out in plain words on the Christian AI page, and church IT and safeguarding leads can read the data and privacy sheet.

If your church also wants settled practice for prophetic words, the prophecy policy template covers recording, weighing, and correction, and Doxa Groups gives a church one place to keep that record. It is free to start.

Questions church leaders ask

Is the checklist free to use?

Yes. Copy it, change it, and add it to your church AI policy. There is no download form and no sign-up. The only thing we ask is that the source line stays at the bottom, so the next church can find it.

Why does a church AI policy need this appendix?

Most church AI policies cover how staff use AI: drafting, admin, sermon preparation. Fewer cover the apps a church recommends to its members, where a person may ask an AI about Scripture, prayer, or a hard decision with no leader in the room. These questions give a leadership team one consistent way to judge those apps before they are recommended from the front or linked from the website.

Who should ask the questions?

One named leader, who records the answers in writing and brings them to the leadership team. Ask your safeguarding lead to read the answers to the children and safeguarding question before anything is recommended to young people.

Does the checklist favour any app?

It names no app, and it is written to be asked of every provider, Doxa included. A provider who cannot answer a question clearly and in writing has given you an answer.

Does this replace a full church AI policy?

No. It is one appendix, for one decision: whether to recommend a member-facing AI app. Add it to whatever AI policy your church already uses, and review the answers each year or when an app changes owner or purpose.

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