In the AI era, what your ministry says about itself increasingly shapes what AI tells the world about you, and Gareth Russell wants Christian organizations to get that right.
Gareth is CEO of Jersey Road, a communications agency that helps Christian organizations with proactive communications and reputation management. He works with ministries every day on how they're perceived, and increasingly on how AI is changing that.
We sat down with Gareth at Missional AI 2025 in Dallas to talk about AI and reputation, the surprising spiritual shifts among younger generations, and why your values should drive every strategic decision, including which AI platforms you use.
Many Christian organizations already use AI but have no policy for it, and they need clear guidance on how to engage.
Gareth sees a split. Some are blazing a trail; Bible translation is his standout example, where AI has helped bring forward the target date for every language having Scripture by an estimated hundred years. But most organizations, he says, know AI matters, know it's already embedded in their tools, and still lack the knowledge or policy to manage it well.
The old adage says reputation is what others say about you, but with AI, what you say about yourself matters more than ever.
As part of Jersey Road's risk audits, the team now checks what five or six AI platforms say about a client's brand. If large language models become the main way people learn about your organization, then your own content directly feeds what those models say.
Gareth cites a recent UK study finding that 61% of AI outputs about trust and values were drawn from editorial content: positive news stories, thought-leadership articles, even how an organization responded in a crisis.
Should organizations tune their communications for the models? Only if it stays authentic, he says. Gen Z in particular prizes transparency, and people will see through manufactured messaging on any platform. Start with your values and who you really are, not who you wish you were.
After decades of decline in the West, Gareth sees growing openness to faith, especially among younger generations and even in Silicon Valley.
First, a reality check on "younger audiences." Almost 90% of clients tell Jersey Road they want to reach younger people, and usually mean anyone under 75. That's not a bad thing: people in their 50s and 60s tend to be more loyal to charities, have more disposable income and often share their values.
The bigger story is a change in the spiritual climate. In Gareth's framing, the US is teetering on post-Christian, the UK is post-post-Christian, and Australia is somewhere beyond that. Yet the data is shifting:
The summit itself reflected it, with nearly twice as many attendees as previous years, including delegations from Google and Microsoft.
About twenty years ago, Gareth notes, a Barna study found that 92% of Americans believed the answers to life could be found within. That experiment has failed. Rising mental health struggles and an epidemic of loneliness have left people looking for something outside themselves. Not everyone is turning to Christianity, but openness to the spiritual is a step toward Jesus.
He points to Mark Matlock's book Faith for the Curious, which encourages taking people on a journey of discovery rather than trying to argue them over a line. Gareth recently met a West End actor at church, clearly not a Christian, who asked strikingly perceptive questions. That, he says, is where much of Gen Z is today: asking great questions whose answers are still found in the Bible.
More people will begin their faith questions with AI, so ministries must make sure good content feeds the models and that churches are ready to continue the journey in person.
Gareth compares it to the Billy Graham crusades. The big event drew people in, and a network of local churches walked with them the rest of the way. Today, the AI conversation may be the big event, but people will still want personal connection and discipleship. That only works if what's in the models is excellent, so organizations need to make sure their best content is out there.
Does AI have a PR problem when it gets things wrong? Probably, Gareth admits, but so do people; none of us gets every answer right either. He'd like to hear more stories of people whose faith journey began with AI. And churches will need training: having only just adjusted to social media, many fear AI as an unknown world. Busting those myths and walking churches through it will matter.
Encouragingly, he thinks AI may break the church's habit of adopting technology late. In the early social media days, churches often used Facebook as little more than a digital notice board for the next church picnic. This time, generous Christian donors are bringing great minds into the work, and the church is playing a much more active role.
Whether you're a startup or a decades-old ministry, understand who you're serving before you write a word.
For new faith-tech teams raising money, Gareth's sequence is clear: audience first, then messaging, then the communications plan. Too many ideas launch simply because they seem good. Today's cheap or free AI tools make audience research far easier, from synthetic personas to the chatbot surveys one summit speaker described, which asked people in countries like Mozambique about their biggest fears. That's market research, and it makes a compelling case to funders.
Established ministries need to do this too. Since the pandemic, alongside political change, economic pressure and war, even long-time supporters have changed their attitudes, behaviors and channels. Gareth also notes how algorithms have intensified our tribalism. During Brexit, his own feeds convinced him the vote was going the other way. Re-engage your existing audience to understand who they are now.
When choosing AI platforms, start where your audience is, then assess whether each platform's values align with yours, and be willing to walk away if they don't.
AI companies have had their own reputational crises, from leadership upheaval at OpenAI to Elon Musk's takeover of X. Gareth's advice: analyze which platforms your audience actually uses, then assess those platforms against your stated values. If they don't align, lose the channel.
He shares a costly example. When their highest-paying client was racist toward a team member on a call, Jersey Road dropped the client. It got messy, since they had no contractual right to do it, so they now write their values into every contract. "The point of having values is not to have something pretty that's framed on a wall," Gareth says. "The point of having values is to have a filter through which you make strategic decisions."
Many ministries knew they needed a Facebook page but not what to do with it, leaving pages dormant or full of unsuitable content. Gareth's caution for AI: take your time, start with your strategic objectives, and make sure communications serve the overall strategy. Do the research, understand how each platform works, and you can justify AI as a genuinely effective tool.
Gareth's Missional AI 2025 keynote, "Christian Marketing Strategy: Why Authenticity Wins in the AI Age," sets out the thinking behind this conversation. You can find it in the Missional AI Video Library under Dallas 2025 Keynotes.
In the interview he returns to a point from that talk: ministries must stop assuming they know their audience, since even long-time supporters have changed since the pandemic. And the authenticity in the talk's title runs through everything he says here about reputation and AI. Watch it alongside this episode for the full picture.
Listen to the full episode with Gareth Russell on the Missional AI Podcast, and subscribe so you don't miss future conversations.
Gareth will join Éric Célérier, James Poulter and other leaders at Missional AI London on July 17, a one-day gathering for leaders across the UK and Europe exploring faith and AI. Find out more and register at missional.ai.
This episode was made possible in partnership with Gloo, the technology platform connecting the faith ecosystem.