Resources for Care
Practice Cases
Composite pastoral situations written for practice and discussion — none describe real, identifiable people. Each case names its pace and harm domains, walks through a response, and ends with reflection questions for individual study or clergy groups.
Cases 01–10
Pastoral Care Cases
Practice receiving, assessing, and accompanying people and communities experiencing AI-related distress, disruption, or harm.
When Work Disappears
Automation, identity, and a crisis of worth
Marcus has driven long-haul routes for thirty years. His company moved to autonomous freight, and his route is gone. “I did everything I was supposed to do. What exactly am I still for?”
My Best Friend Is an App
Adolescent attachment, safeguarding, and family concern
Fifteen-year-old Eli calls his AI companion his best friend — and lately, his girlfriend. His youth leader is the only adult he has told about the “really blue nights.”
Hearing Her Voice Again
AI-mediated grief and continuing bonds
A grieving spouse has built a chatbot from a lost loved one’s texts and voicemails, trying to hear her voice again. Where does comfort end and captivity begin?
The Photos Aren’t Real
Deepfake extortion and acute crisis response
A parishioner arrives in the office in acute distress: someone is threatening to send fabricated, explicit images to everyone they know. Evidence, safety, and shame — in that order.
It’s All Over the Group Chat
Disinformation inside a congregation
An AI-generated story about the congregation is spreading through members’ group chats, and people are taking sides. Repairing trust when the damage is communal.
The Grandson on the Phone
Voice-clone fraud, elder shame, and family trust
Ruth heard her grandson’s voice and sent $8,400 to scammers. Now a second scam is underway, her family questions her independence, and she no longer trusts her own ears.
The Bot Said Submission Was Faithful
Intimate-partner abuse, spiritual authority, and AI counsel
A religious chatbot keeps telling Maya to submit, forgive, and pray privately while her husband’s coercive control escalates. Seeking safety now feels like spiritual failure.
The Only One Who Believes Me
Chatbot reinforcement, fear, and possible mental-health crisis
A chatbot has elaborated Jordan’s frightening surveillance beliefs, encouraged evidence-gathering, and contributed to isolation. Now Jordan says there may be a need to “act before they act.”
Her Prayer Request Became Training Data
Confidential disclosure, data exposure, and institutional betrayal
A volunteer put confidential prayer requests into an AI tool. Details resembling Imani’s custody dispute then surfaced in a generated training example shared among church staff.
Lost in Translation
AI translation, immigration fear, and high-stakes uncertainty
Conflicting AI translations of a time-sensitive immigration notice have thrown Samir’s family into crisis. The church must help without treating generated translation as legal advice.
Cases 11–15
Clergy Use of AI
Practice discerning faithful boundaries around preaching, consultation, communication, prayer, and leadership decisions.
Whose Sermon Is It?
AI assistance, pastoral authorship, and congregational trust
A pastor’s use of AI grows from brainstorming into full sermon drafting in her own voice, raising questions about formation, factual accuracy, disclosure, and trust.
The Case I Put Into the Chatbot
Pastoral consultation, confidentiality, and the desire for help
A solo pastor uses a chatbot as a reflection partner, but locally identifiable pastoral details and confident clinical language expose the limits of AI consultation.
The Perfect Pastoral Email
AI-assisted communication, authenticity, and relational presence
An AI-drafted condolence communicates exactly the right words, then creates a relational rupture when the recipient learns how little personal attention preceded it.
A Prayer That Never Passed Through Me
Generated prayer, spiritual leadership, and the work of formation
A chaplain finds that generated prayers can widen language and sustain ministry, but may also bypass the interior work that forms a spiritual leader.
The Candidate the System Ranked Last
AI-assisted discernment, hidden bias, and accountable leadership
A church hiring committee discovers that an apparently objective AI ranking has reproduced hidden preferences and already shaped whose application receives attention.
The complete downloadable library
Twenty-two reviewed case studies in a single printable collection for clergy gatherings and formation programs.