Nona Jones: Why the Church Can't Afford to Sit Out AI

In this episode of AI & the Church, host Michael Whittle talks with Nona Jones — whose career spans Meta, YouVersion, and the board of Gloo — about why intentional AI adoption is no longer optional for churches. Nona argues the church's real challenge isn't whether to engage AI, but whether it will help shape AI for faith communities or be shaped by tools that were never built with Christian values in mind.

She breaks down the difference between frontier AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) building general-purpose intelligence and applied AI companies that adapt it for specific communities — and points to the Flourishing AI Benchmark, which shows every major frontier model currently falls short on measures of human flourishing from a Christian perspective. Nona also unpacks the "toy vs. threat" mindset many church leaders default to, why AI's real value lies in helping small church teams surface engagement, giving, and congregational health patterns they'd otherwise miss, and why misusing AI — not AI itself — is what makes ministry feel less human.

The conversation covers practical territory too: what she'd fix first for pastors (time and margin), how purpose-built tools like Pulpit AI and Trends AI differ from generic AI wrappers, and why scripture accuracy has to be a non-negotiable standard for any AI used in ministry. She closes with a direct challenge to leaders who haven't engaged yet, and an honest, both/and answer on whether she's hopeful or cautious about where AI and the church will be in five years.