The Power of AI
When I became a Christian as a teenager, if anyone had mentioned AI, I would have assumed they were talking about the latest science fiction film at the cinema. Stories of AI predicting crime before it happens, ghosts in the machine, or intelligent robots fighting humanity to save it. Who knew all we needed was Will Smith or Tom Cruise to save us all.
But today, it feels like AI influences most areas of our lives. Work places desperately trying to respond to the speed AI is developing and how our work systems and processes respond to this. As church leaders, we shouldn’t be switched off to these changes. As Christians, there are important ethical questions we need to wrestle with as AI becomes more embedded in society. (2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John Lennox is an excellent introduction to many of these issues.)
But whether we like it or not, and whether we even realise it, AI is already playing a significant role in our churches.
We might use it in our data analysis, AI powered translation tools for services, music and creative production, and even in our Bible studies. YouVersion now offer AI assisted reading plans. Perhaps most significantly, AI is becoming part of our sermon and teaching prep. With the right prompts, we can quickly explore historical backgrounds, biblical context, and theological perspectives. What once required an afternoon in the library can now be accessed in seconds.
Our congregations are also using these same tools. During a Sunday message, anyone can quickly fact check biblical references, explore the original context of a passage, or compare different interpretations mid message. With this level of access to biblical resources, we might expect our churches to be filled with people who have a deep understanding of Scripture. Yet recent studies suggest otherwise, with only around one in twenty churchgoers demonstrating a biblical worldview. AI is already playing a significant role in our churches, and it can be an incredibly valuable tool. But as the digital landscape continues to shape our world, we also need to consider how our role as church leaders is changing with it.
Here are a few reflections that feel important and foundational to how we should continue to operate as church leaders, regardless of how technology develops.
We are presence carriers
What we can bring as pastors is the facilitation of the presence of God. The reality of the divine in people’s lives. We need to always be and continue to be people that have been in the presence of God. Saturated in spirit that a digital world is never able to do.
It’s been wonderful to witness so many new people come to faith in the last year. Lives made new especially in younger generations. But on the flip side, it also feels like there is a real apathy in some parts of our congregations. There is an increasing jadedness that doesn’t seem to be going away and more than ever we need an encounter that breaks through into people’s hearts that breeds a hunger for God. We need to be leaders that can lead people into the life they can have in God.
2. A move in cynicism
In the early/mid 2000s during the height of the New Atheist movement there was huge cynicism around faith and the ideas connected to faith. Lots of people scoffed at the idea of faith in Jesus and deemed the bible as fairytales. As new atheism crumbled with many from that movement now converting to Christianity there has been a switch in cynicism and it feels we have moved into a different cynical age.
The amount of people that trust the church is diminishing, even with many new people experiencing faith for the first time, there is still a distrust for the church and its leaders. We can’t change that, but we can be trustworthy. Integrity and character need to reign supreme. We need to continue to turn up for people despite their cynicism and expect a move of the spirit in our interactions.
3. Pain and loneliness
The world our people live in is faster, lonelier, more wounded, more distracted, and more detached than ever.
As technology becomes more capable of simulating conversation and companionship, the church’s calling to cultivate genuine community becomes even more significant. It’s not just about gathering people but how do we help people become the household of God, where people are truly known, loved, and formed in relationship with one another.
We are also in an age that feels pain deeply. There is no AI tool that can faithfully accompany someone through grief, loss, or suffering in the way another human can. The church’s response must be to become a community that is willing to journey with people over the long road of healing. It calls for pastors and leaders who are prepared to stay present in the difficult moments, resisting the temptation to offer quick fixes or easy answers. We need to continue to be leaders willing and faithful to walk in the mud with someone until they find solid ground again.
Colossians 2:6-10 ESV - “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
Blog generated by my own thoughts, written with questionable intelligence.😆
Ps Liam Daniels