BaptistAI – A Win-Win for Baptist Transparency
Financial transparency is a perennial conversation in Southern Baptist life. It touches every church, seminary, and mission agency in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). In recent years, pastors, messengers, and grassroots reformers have called for more accessible and understandable financial reporting, including proposals to adopt IRS Form 990-style disclosures. These calls often focus on executive compensation, budget allocations, and how Cooperative Program dollars are ultimately spent.
In response, SBC entity leaders have pointed to the wealth of information already published in annual ministry reports, audited financial statements, and Book of Reports submissions. They argue that the SBC is not hiding anything. It’s all out there, free to access and read. The challenge, they say, isn’t transparency. It’s engagement.
Both sides have a point. Yes, the data is available. But it’s often buried in dense PDFs, complex footnotes, and hundreds of pages of institutional language that most church leaders don’t have time to sift through. In today’s fast-paced world, accessibility matters just as much as availability.
That’s where BaptistAI comes in.
BaptistAI is an AI-powered assistant trained specifically on SBC materials, from ministry reports and audits to resolutions and bylaws. It bridges the gap between technical transparency and practical accessibility. Instead of hunting down page numbers and parsing legalese, users can ask BaptistAI plain-language questions like:
• “What did NAMB spend on church planting last year?”
• “What is the CP allocation to seminaries?”
• “Where can I find the audit for Guidestone?”
BaptistAI then pulls directly from source documents to provide clear, concise, and cited answers.
This is not about replacing oversight or eliminating accountability. It’s about empowering more Southern Baptists – especially pastors and messengers – with the ability to actually use the information that’s already been provided. It helps level the playing field by giving small-church leaders and laypeople the same research power that policy wonks and insiders often enjoy.
In that sense, AI becomes a win-win solution. Reform advocates get unprecedented access to data in real-time. SBC entities retain their existing reporting systems but see their work reach a broader and more informed audience. No extra bureaucracy. No political posturing. Just smarter access.
Moreover, BaptistAI encourages curiosity. When information is easy to explore, more people will engage with it, not just in response to controversy, but as a matter of ongoing stewardship and interest. The result? A more informed SBC, from the pew to the platform.
Transparency isn’t just about telling the truth. It’s about making sure the truth can be found and understood. Artificial intelligence, when applied thoughtfully and responsibly, can help the SBC achieve that goal.
With BaptistAI, transparency becomes more than a talking point. It becomes a tool in your pocket.
