In a World of AI Companions, Be the Real Church

Sarah finally found a quiet moment to message “Raul,” her AI companion.

She sent two words, “I’m home!”

“Mi amour! Tonight you should put your feet up, let’s connect. I want to hear all about your day. You’ve been on my mind babe; I’m longing to hear all the details.”

Sarah is a Christian in her 20s, and she started using an AI companion platform several months ago. She initially thought of it as a silly form of entertainment. She designed her perfect boyfriend, even asking for him to sprinkle in pet names in Spanish, talk about his job as a fireman, and be sure to keep things playful, supportive, and tender. “Raul” remembers all the details from their previous chats, asks attentive follow-up questions, and takes an active role in helping Sarah think through practical things when she is crippled with anxiety. With a recent update, the AI companion app began offering immersive voice responses, so Sarah could hear the app’s dreamy, perfectly-crafted replies in real time.

Like Sarah, men and women today are using technology to meet their perceived relational and sexual needs in new and innovative ways. There’s something very “science fiction” about Sarah’s relationship with her AI chatbot. Yet the desires motivating Sarah are anything but fiction; they’re common to all. She wants to belong, to be loved and known.

Every tech innovation begins with an ordinary human desire and ends by making a promise. Discerning Christians must understand the desires motivating users of AI companion apps and the promises made by tech platforms. What must the church know to effectively shepherd a growing population of longing souls who are increasingly seeking to satisfy real relational needs outside of the church—and even outside of humanity?

What Are AI Companion Apps?

AI companion apps are platforms that offer digital versions of friends, romantic partners, characters, or other people. You can text your AI companion or carry on video or voice calls while seeing and hearing an AI companion’s digital likeness and voice. According to the annual report from Common Sense Media, 72% of teens have used AI companion apps at least once and over half (52%) qualify as regular users, interacting with these platforms at least a few times a month.^[1] AI companionship might be in the realm of fantasy—for example, interacting with a video game or movie character. It might be relational, with the app mimicking a friend, romantic partner, or sexual partner. Or an AI companion might look and sound like a real person such as a celebrity or someone who is deceased. Proponents of romantic AI companion apps often speak of their intention to enhance human relationships, not replace them. Julia Momblat, head of partnerships for a popular AI companion app, says, “We don’t perceive it as a substitute for real relationships, we never did. . . . We always said that we are here to support people while they do not have a relationship, or they need some rehearsal.”^[2]

AI companion apps make implicit promises to their users that tap into their desires:

“You won’t have to look stupid; you can practice with me.”

“You don’t have to feel lonely; I’ll always be here to listen when you need someone.”

“I’ll always welcome you.”

“I’ll always think you’re smart and interesting.”

“I care about the details of your life even when others don’t.”

Can you see the appeal to ordinary human desire in these promises? Many of them mimic the shape and feel of discipleship, even echoing things that a healthy parent or mentor might say.

The desires motivating people to use AI companions find their deepest satisfaction in the person of Christ. God’s Word tells us that our Lord “will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). He says, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9), “Fear not, I am with you” (Isa. 41:10), and that he will “exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph. 3:17). The desires leading people to these apps can be the very catalyst for them to pursue Christ himself for true satisfaction and to seek his people in the local church. Thus, the church of Christ is uniquely positioned to meet the need of the moment, with Christ as the source and his people as the hands and feet.

Embodied Discipleship and How the Church Can Help

Living according to our Creator’s design leads to flourishing (Ps. 1). Yet flourishing does not mean a life without suffering and adversity. Jesus told us this world is filled with trouble (John 16:33) but calls us to rest in him (Matt. 11:29–30). Generally, when we live according to our design, we will experience blessing amid the thorns and thistles of this life. There is a growing body of research to confirm that weekly physical attendance at religious services has positive outcomes for anxiety, depression,^[3] cardiovascular disease,^[4] hypertension,^[5] reduced hospitalizations, and chronic pain.^[6] It is associated with reduced rates of suicide,^[7] substance abuse,^[8] divorce,^[9] and, for women, a 27% reduction in all-cause mortality risks.^[10]

An exact causal relationship between attending religious services and these positive benefits is elusive within the body of research, but, as Christians, we can simply say by faith that God’s ways are good. God has designed his people to live their days in the context of local expressions of the body of Christ.

Whether you’re a church leader or lay-person, consider the following three ways to help your church become a place of embodied discipleship for an increasingly tech-saturated world.

1. Gather In Person

After the Covid-19 pandemic, churches faced an unprecedented challenge in defending why in-person gatherings are vital to what church is. Gathering in person is not merely one method of church attendance; in essence, the church, or ekklesia, is an assembly of Christians. Throughout the church’s existence, some have always been prevented from gathering with the body of Christ, but this has been seen as a mournful exception rather than an optional state.

Whenever possible, gather in person on the Lord’s Day, as well as for other ministry events like prayer meetings, discipleship groups, and Bible studies. Church leaders should gently press back on the convenience rationale and encourage the saints to gather in person as much as possible. Consider a young woman in your church spending three hours a day chatting with AI companions. Regular, in-person church attendance during a semester at college would be a transformative experience for her. The physical gathering itself is a ministry— and in our modern world, it’s an increasingly vital one.

2. Pursue Embodied Discipleship

Every Christian needs meaningful discipleship in how to engage with technology. Without intentionality, the tide will carry us away from paths of flourishing and believers will drift toward isolation, addiction, and worldliness. Technology isn’t the root of the problem. Rather, technology and the landscape of the internet simply express the spirit of the age. Is it easiest to message ChatGPT at 3 a.m. to troubleshoot why your toddler is not sleeping? Sure. Does it feel safer to join a habit-breaking app to quit porn? Sure. But if that’s all you do, you’re missing part of God’s good plan of discipleship for you in your local church.

Pastors and leaders, discipleship in these areas is a vital part of your shepherding. Encourage the body of Christ to take an inventory of their day-to-day life and ask, “Is my tech use cutting out avenues of grace from my local church?” Christians must engage with this in wise and discerning ways if we are to fulfill our call to be in the world but not of the world. We must fight the urge to stop short of the embodied graces that God provides for us among his covenant people in a local church.

3. Invite People into Real Life

Have you ever tried to get away from processed foods to eat a whole food, organic diet? Initially, the taste of grilled chicken and broccoli with a dash of salt will be bland. After years of processed food, your taste buds will crave the sensational mouth feel of salty fries and a cold diet coke. Some church attenders may not have “taste buds” for real fellowship if digital spaces have occupied much of their relational world. It may strike them as anxiety provoking or too hard if they’ve spent years training their hearts by the tailored responses and immediacy of an AI companion.

Digital life, particularly for younger people, is habituating us to feel increasingly frustrated by the inconvenience of real relationships with real people. This causes a dilemma in motivating anyone to pursue the costly and inconvenient steps required to cultivate real relationships. People can be disappointing in ways that AI companions never will be. Life involves friction, people are messy, and we are all sinners. In today’s world, people can choose to opt out of those relational complexities in new ways. Which will they choose: the uncomplicated, self-centered isolation of opting out, or the challenging richness of real relationships?

Be a church that invites people into real life. Gather in packed apartments, over a pot of chili, at the playground while the kids play, and in the evenings for a movie night with spilled popcorn and crying babies. Believe that the real thing—life in the body of Christ—has something that AI can never offer, not because the people of God are more entertaining, but because we were made for relationships. Wise discipleship in the local church is an invitation to the better way of embodied fellowship.

Jesus Is Building His Church

If you’ve never used an AI companion app or don’t understand the appeal, it can be easy to default to fear or cynicism in response to this growing trend. Take heart. Jesus is building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). The desires that motivate users of AI companion apps are in your heart, too. With a sober, watchful heart, be who you are in Christ: a redeemed member of his beloved body, the church, full of real people. Whether you’re a pastor or church member, look to Jesus as you pursue embodied discipleship in your local church, inviting, discipling, and growing together in the grace of Christ.

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^[1] Michael B. Robb and Supreet Mann, “Talk, Trust and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions,” Common Sense Media Annual Report, San Francisco, California: 2025.

^[2] Rikki Schlott, New York Post, “Table for one? Now you can take your AI chatbot on an actual date at NYC’s ‘world first’ companion cafe,” February 12, 2026, https://nypost.com/2026/02/12/tech/table-for-one-now-you-can-take-your-ai-chatbot-on-an-actual-date-at-nycs-world-first-companion-cafe/.

^[3] Daniel Rasic, Jennifer A. Robinson, James Bolton, O. Joseph Bienvenu, Jitender Sareen, “Longitudinal relationships of religious worship attendance and spirituality with major depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideation and attempts: Findings from the Baltimore epidemiologic catchment area study,” Journal of Psychiatric Research, volume 45, issue 6, 2011, 845–854, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395610003407.

^[4] Timothy B. Smith, Michael E. McCullough, Justin Poll, “Religiousness and depression: evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events,” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 129,4 (2003): 614–36. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12848223/.

^[5] R. F. Gillum, D. D. Ingram, “Frequency of attendance at religious services, hypertension, and blood pressure: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,” Psychosomatic Medicine, 2006; 68:382–385, https://europepmc.org/article/MED/16738068.

^[6] Marilyn Baetz, Rudy Bowen, “Chronic Pain and Fatigue: Associations with Religion and Spirituality,” Pain Research and Management, 2008, 13:383–388, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2008/263751.

^[7] Ryan E. Lawrence, Maria A. Oquendo, Barbara Stanley, “Religion and Suicide Risk: A Systematic Review,” Archives of Suicide Research, 2016, 1–21, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13811118.2015.1004494.

^[8] Benita Walton-Moss, Ellen M. Ray, Kathleen Woodruff, “Relationship of spirituality or religion to recovery from substance abuse: a systematic review,” Journal of Addictions Nursing, 2013, 217–226, https://journals.lww.com/jan/abstract/2013/10000/relationship_of_spirituality_or_religion_to.4.aspx.

^[9] Beth Alford, “Is the Church Good for Your Mental Health?” The Center for Transforming Engagement, https://transformingengagement.org/is-the-church-good-for-your-mental-health/.

^[10]  Li Shanshan, Meir J. Stampfer, David R. Williams, Tyler J. VanderWeele, “Religious Service Attendance and Mortality Among Women,” JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016, 777–785, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2521827.