Igor Omilaev / Unsplash
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. A tech-savvy member will suggest that a committee can make its work more efficient if it uses AI to summarize its meetings and suggest a way forward. Or after an incredibly hectic week has drained your inspiration, you will contemplate the ethics of using ChatGPT to help you finish your sermon.
Although AI has been around for a while, people are asking more questions about how this technology should or should not be used in ministry. Ministry, at its core, is about human and spiritual formation. The questions that we as church leaders need to ask concern whether we will be passive or active participants in the way congregations adopt this evolving technology. Will we be thought leaders in conversations about ethics, or will we simply react when controversial issues arise?
One of the fundamental tasks of the church is to bear witness to the meaning of being made in the image of God. Our mission is incarnational. When a friend is in trouble, we show up for them in person — with food and hugs. Artificial intelligence can assist us with research, analyze data and generate ideas, but it cannot sit in a hospital room at 2 a.m. and cry with someone. It cannot discern from a quick glance into someone’s eyes after worship that even though they say they are doing fine, they need a pastoral follow-up because they really aren’t doing fine at all.
Artificial intelligence already is having too big an impact for Christian leaders to just sit back and watch this technological revolution unfold. Thankfully, we know what it means to be truly human — because the Gospel of John tells us that in Jesus the “word became flesh.” That means we do not need to be fearful in the wake of this new technology. We do, however, need to intentionally and thoughtfully bear witness to what a machine can’t ever be.
Resources
Why religious leaders need to understand agentic AI
To ignore or remain silent about the agentic revolution is to forfeit the ability to shape and speak into the moral framework of a world already being reshaped by agentic intelligence, writes a scholar.
By Heidi A. Campbell
Is AI out of control?
One researcher’s survey on technology use in congregations points to how quickly new technology can be adopted, both willingly and not.
By A. Trevor Sutton
Why I knit in church
Engaging with natural materials and making things with our own hands can help us be more fully incarnate, writes a pastor and knitter.
By Christine Hribar
Feasting brings people together in community
The hope of the church lies in a commitment to feast with one another, writes the author of the new book, “We Will Feast.”
By Kendall Vanderslice
Before you go
From a historical perspective, the church has occasionally been on the leading edge of technological innovation. For example, the invention of the printing press enabled the mass production of Bibles, which gave ordinary people access to Scripture and improved literacy rates. It also amplified the impact of the Protestant Reformation.
Innovation always leads to disruption and opportunity. What’s important for Christian leaders to keep in mind is the humanity that lies at the center of who we are and what we do. The data centers used to power artificial intelligence may make some tasks easier but given the amount of water needed to keep the equipment cool, we must also consider their environmental impact — which often disproportionately impacts economically poor communities.
There’s no question that AI has and will continue to change things. Let’s make sure that as innovation brings change (and change is already happening fast!), people of faith don’t lose the gift of human intelligence.
You can always reach me and the Alban Weekly team at alban@duke.edu. Until next week, keep leading!
Prince R. Rivers
Editor, Alban at Duke Divinity