Your lead pastor wants options for the staff retreat by the next staff meeting. They want places within a two-hour drive, dates that work, and a rough sense of what each one offers.

That’s a whole afternoon of tabs. You search, read, open another tab, and search again. Then you dig through your email to remember which weekends are already taken.

Questions like that stay on your list for months. You know they’re worth answering. You never get the open afternoon.

Claude can do that digging for you now.

WHAT RESEARCH DOES

Research is a mode in Claude for bigger questions. You turn it on and ask.

Claude runs a search, reads what it finds, and uses that to decide what to search next. It keeps going until it has worked through the different parts of your question.

Claude can search the web. It can also search your connected apps, like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, plus any other connectors you’ve turned on for that chat.

When it’s done, you get a full answer. Claude’s web search answers come with citations and links to the sources. Click any link to check it yourself.

HOW TO TURN IT ON

These steps come from Claude’s help center.

1. Make sure web search is turned on. Research needs it. On a Team plan, an owner has to turn on web search for the whole workspace first.
2. Click the “+” button in the lower left of your chat.
3. Click “Research.”
4. Look for a blue indicator at the bottom of the chat window. That means Research is on.
5. Ask your question.

To turn Research off, click the blue indicator again.

If Claude doesn’t seem to be researching, ask it directly. Start with “Claude, please use the research tool to” and then add your question.

3 WAYS TO USE IT AT CHURCH

Start with that staff retreat. Ask Claude to find retreat centers within a two-hour drive that can host your whole staff.

Ask it to check your Google Calendar for open weekends in the spring. You get one answer with places, dates, and links.

Research also helps with board reports. Say your board asked what other churches are doing about building security.

Ask Claude to research it, then pull what your team already discussed from Gmail and Google Docs. You walk into the meeting with both in one place.

You can use it for community needs too. Before you plan a new outreach, ask Claude to research the biggest needs for families in your town.

Ask for public sources only. Click through the links before you share anything with your team.

One tip. Give Claude the details up front. Tell it who the answer is for, what you’ll do with it, and what you already know.

GUARDRAILS FOR CHURCHES

During Research, Claude can use your connected apps on its own. It doesn’t stop to ask for approval each time. So think about which connectors are on before you start.

Your Gmail may have pastoral care emails, member details, or donor notes. If your question doesn’t need your inbox, turn that connector off for the chat. Ask public questions with web search only.

Always check the sources. The links are there so you can read the original page. Do that before a fact goes into a board report or the church newsletter.

On a Team plan, the owner controls a few key settings. The owner turns on web search for the workspace.

Admins also choose which Claude models each role can use. Research runs on specific models. If an admin turns those models off for your role, Research won’t work.

Research can also use up your usage limits faster than a normal chat. Save it for the questions that need it.

WHO CAN USE IT

Research is on all paid plans: Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. It works on the web, in the desktop app, and on mobile.

One note on mobile. If you start Research in the mobile app, Claude only searches the web.

It skips your connectors, and you won’t see a warning. Start it on the web or in the desktop app when you need your Gmail or Docs.

Ask the question you never had time to dig into.

If you want to learn how other leaders use Research in their work, come join us in The Builder Collective. It’s a community of executive leaders learning how to put AI to work. You can find us at thebuildercollective.ai.