In many churches today, technology is no longer confined to the sound booth. From the pulpit to the church office, artificial intelligence is quietly finding its place among the pews. What was once a conversation reserved for tech companies and universities has become a genuine discussion inside places of worship, and increasingly, the people building these tools are Nigerians.
Some faith leaders are now using AI to write sermons, translate messages into local languages, manage giving records, and even conduct full services through AI-powered avatars. While many pastors see it as a blessing, others fear it could drain the soul out of spiritual leadership. The question is no longer whether AI will enter the church, but how far it should go.
Running a church is no small task. There are announcements to prepare, newsletters to write, members to follow up with, and services to plan week after week. For smaller congregations with limited staff, the workload can quickly become overwhelming. Many churches now use content management systems paired with email marketing platforms that help determine the best time to send newsletters, learning what kinds of messages members respond to. Chatbots on church websites and social media pages can answer common questions around the clock in multiple languages, opening doors to wider audiences. AI-powered transcription tools convert a pastor’s sermon from audio or video into written text, generate short clips for social media, and add subtitles for those watching from home. Tasks that once took hours can now be completed in minutes.
On the financial side, some congregations use AI tools that analyse donation patterns and automatically send personalised thank-you messages or updates showing how funds are being used. It is a small touch, but one that often encourages greater generosity and deeper member engagement.
Perhaps the most striking development from abroad came out of Germany in 2023, when a church in the town of Fürth held a full Sunday service led entirely by AI, not a robot walking the altar, but an avatar projected on a screen, speaking words generated by ChatGPT. She directed the congregation to stand, led prayers, and delivered a sermon to more than 300 attendees. Reactions were mixed. Some found it fascinating. Others felt it was cold. “It was too fast. No time to think or reflect,” one attendee said. Many agreed that something essential was missing, the human warmth that makes a church service a genuine spiritual experience. A more measured approach came from Houston, where Rabbi Josh Fixler created “Rabbi Bot”, an AI trained on his own past sermons, used during services as a teaching aid rather than a replacement. It is a model that many believe offers a more responsible path.
Yet some of the most exciting innovation is now happening right here at home. On 21 August 2025, a Nigerian developer named Dara Sobaloju posted what he thought was just an idea on X: “I want to build a Bible presentation AI agent for church use. Imagine Bible verses coming up on screen as the pastor preaches just based on what he’s talking about or his paraphrases and quotes.” The post struck a nerve. Pastors, developers, and churchgoers flooded the replies with questions and encouragement. That idea became Pewbeam AI.
Pewbeam AI is an intelligent, real-time church presentation software that listens to a live sermon and automatically displays the exact Bible verses being referenced within just 80 milliseconds. No more frantic manual searches by projection teams. No more delays that break the flow of worship. What makes it especially suited to Nigeria is that it runs entirely without an internet connection once installed, no cloud dependency, no dropped signals, just reliable performance in any church setting. Sobaloju was driven by a problem he had observed for years: projection teams scrambling to keep up with a preacher who spontaneously quoted or paraphrased scripture, breaking the congregation’s focus mid-flow.
Pewbeam is not alone. Tolulope Adeniyi is building Spetra, a tool also powered by OpenAI’s Whisper model, that listens in real time while the pastor is preaching. When a relevant verse or phrase is detected, the media person can instantly present it on screen with a single click. Meanwhile, in Lagos, Olanrewaju Taiwo started with sermon transcription before pivoting to a Bible app called Meno, Greek for “abide, ” which uses Google’s Gemini model to explain Bible verses. Another tool, Loghema (formerly LogosAI), provides real-time Bible verse detection with sub-two-second latency and supports multiple translations including KJV, NIV, ESV, NLT, and NKJV, with support for local payment gateways like Paystack and Flutterwave for African churches.
Larger institutions are also moving in this direction. In 2025, the Deeper Christian Life Ministry launched Ask Kumuyi, an AI chatbot that fields questions about sermons from its General Superintendent, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi. The Great Commission Movement of Nigeria has adopted AI for its online missionary platform, using it to process seekers through various web channels. These are not experiments imported from abroad they are homegrown solutions designed for Nigerian realities.
Not everyone is convinced. Some church leaders worry that AI risks reducing the spiritual process to an efficient transaction. One pastor warned that members miss out on vital experiences when they skip the hard work of seeking understanding themselves. “There’s a process of metamorphosis that the member is missing out on,” he said. “With AI, you miss out on the labour of reading the verses, meditating on them, and reflecting on the points made by the pastor.” Privacy is another concern, churches now collect growing amounts of personal data, and that information must be handled with great care.
The big question remains: how far is too far? If AI writes the sermons, projects the verses, manages the tithes, and runs the chatbots, where does the human calling fit? The answer, most agree, lies in balance. AI should serve, not lead. It should help the church reach more people without replacing the pastor’s voice or the congregation’s heart. In Nigeria, where church life is woven tightly into emotion, community, and identity, that balance matters more than anywhere
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