AI and Christian Ministry: Benefits, Dangers, and Biblical Wisdom
Do you use ChatGPT? It is the most popular form of generative AI—a computer function that is able to generate content. ChatGPT can create realistic artwork, write computer code, brainstorm ideas, write articles, and perform research. All this ability is available to you, for free. It is the wave of the future, and the race for AI is turning into a global arms race.
Like every new technology, generative AI will be disruptive. What sets it apart is that, unlike other technology that replaced manual labor, this replaces skilled thinking. AI can now write books, do taxes, and code, so what happens to the jobs of those who once did this?
This has significant implications for those engaged in Christian ministry, including those who create content—blogs, books, articles, podcasts, and more. Three questions arise for those in Christian ministry: What are the benefits of AI? What is the danger of AI? and How can I use generative AI wisely?
What is the Benefit of AI for Christian Ministry?
Make no mistake—AI is an incredibly useful tool. Don’t ignore it or try to live without it. Just like computers and email, it has dramatically changed the world, and we can embrace that change. If you’ve never used it before, I encourage you to give it a try—not because I’m an early adopter of technology, but because this is the future, and you may as well start learning now.
You can use AI for plenty of personal reasons—asking it questions about facts, having it explain complex topics, asking it to design meals or suggest recipes. The uses are virtually endless.
Within Christian ministry, you should learn to use this powerful tool for many of the things that you previously had to do manually. After you write an article, ask ChatGPT to give you editing ideas—it will point out misspellings and even give direction about ways that you can improve the article. You can also use it as a thesaurus to suggest other word choices.
You can use the technology to perform research for you. Recently, I provided the following prompt: “Write an essay of several thousand words on how ancient and classical writers talked about contentment, including their own words and examples from their lives.” Sure enough, within a matter of seconds, the AI had written an entire essay on this topic—including references to the primary sources.
Is there a topic that you need to learn about, quickly? Ask AI to educate you. Do you need to find an obscure quote but can’t remember exactly how it goes? Give AI the gist, and it will find the quote. You basically have a free researcher available to you.
These benefits are just the tip of the iceberg. AI can generate ideas, create slideshows, format speeches, and much more. It’s important to learn this technology because of its incredible potential.
What is the Danger of AI for Christian Ministry?
Superpowers like this always have a dark underbelly. Of course, I have to note that AI is not always accurate—it can make mistakes, so you have to double-check. That said, the technology is rapidly improving, to the point that this is increasingly less common.
Far more dangerous is the fact that this technology is changing how we think, and whether we think critically. We already have short attention spans, and now we have a machine that can write our papers and give us the answers to complex questions. Society will become dumber. College degrees are rapidly becoming formalities, since students no longer write papers themselves—they just have AI come up with the content. This trend is clear across society.
We must think more deeply about this as we consider the effect on Christian ministry. Generative AI is dangerous because it presents three subtle temptations.
AI Tempts Us to Unethical Ministry
The most obvious temptation of AI is that we would use it in a way that dishonors God—by claiming credit for what we have not done. While secular students might submit AI-generated papers for college assignments, a Christian pastor should never be guilty of preaching a sermon created by AI or uploading a blog post that is written by it. This is wrong because it constitutes plagiarism. Taking credit for what we did not create is dishonoring to God and is also living a lie.
AI Tempts Us to Laziness in Study
I’ve never studied calculus, and more than ever, I feel that it’s unnecessary in my life. If a calculus question arises, I can just ask ChatGPT, and it will provide the answer. I don’t need to understand how it came to that answer.
This is totally appropriate for me, but it would be extremely dangerous for an engineer. If you are building a rocket engine or designing a skyscraper, human lives may hinge on your understanding of calculus. It’s the same in most any other sphere of knowledge: we need individuals who have a deep understanding of the topic.
Because so much of Christian ministry is done in private, it’s very easy to cover up our lack of knowledge and simply present the finished product. You can now use ChatGPT to explain a topic from the Greek New Testament and then preach a message about that phrase—referencing the Greek—without having ever studied Greek. This is the equivalent of an engineer using ChatGPT to give a calculus answer without personally knowing any calculus.
The danger of generative AI is that it makes us think we don’t need to engage in deep study to understand the Word of God. Allow a personal example. I’ve recently been posting articles on the book of Romans, providing insights from my own study. I spent three years in study, reading Romans in Greek, going through hundreds of pages of commentary, and investing hundreds of hours.
Alternately, I could have used ChatGPT to provide a summary of each section of Romans, then written articles based on the summaries, even having ChatGPT pull significant quotes from ancient writers to intersperse in my articles. I’m not even talking about being unethical here—only showing that the results could look very similar. I might even have thought I actually had a good understanding of Romans based on this approach. But without the deep, personal study, I would not actually understand the depth of the book.
It is said that the pious archbishop, Robert Leighton, spent three-quarters of his time engaged in study. Such an individual actually understood his content, and his ministry was richly blessed by God. You can easily short-circuit this study with generative AI and even appear very knowledgeable, but this is incredibly dangerous.
AI Tempts Us to Misunderstand Ministry
In all aspects of knowledge, AI excels. It can generate knowledge at a rate that exceeds any human being and provide surprisingly good information. Mixed with a wrong understanding of ministry, this is combustibly dangerous in several ways.
To begin, ministry is not just about providing good knowledge or data to others. It’s not just about having theologically correct sermons or putting out good and accurate content. Ministry is far deeper than that.
If ministry were just about content, we could have robo-pastors. We could have robo-counselors. But content is only a part of service to God. Part of ministry is the way the Word of God works in the heart of the minister. Have you ever given counsel to someone else, only to recognize that you needed it? Have you ever prepared to teach a Bible study, only to realize that you needed to apply that truth? Surely this is part of God’s plan for Christian ministry and to view it any other way will lead to spiritual bankruptcy.
This is why a lazy approach to study is so dangerous. AI can give us answers, but it can’t create the heart change that comes from prolonged, intense time in study, which shapes the Christian minister.
Also, ministry to others involves the human heart, affected by the Holy Spirit. AI can give an answer to a question, but it can’t pray for you. AI can provide good general counsel, but God is often pleased to use one of his servants, bathed in prayer, saturated in the Word, and guided by the Holy Spirit, to provide wise, direct, and biblical counsel to specific problems.
On top of this, AI can’t suffer. If I am going through a hard time, AI can provide me with advice and counsel from people of the past. But that is not the same as receiving advice from a person I know, a person who has weathered trials with faith in God and who is there to encourage me. In each of these ways, AI is a poor substitute for genuine Christian ministry.
How can I use AI wisely?
It is possible to avoid the morally dangerous pitfalls AI presents to the Christian minister and content creator. The following guidelines can help you use AI in a way that will enhance, rather than undermine, your ministry.
Never Use AI to Create Content
This is straightforward. No blog post, article, book review, or Bible study that you claim as your own should ever be generated by AI.
Prioritize Deep Study
More than ever, we need empty space in life devoted to uninterrupted study of the Word of God. This means being unplugged and delving deeply into Scripture. Read full-length commentaries, learn the biblical languages, and commit to gaining a deep-level understanding of what you need to know. This is not just a challenge that AI brings—the modern world, with all its speed and convenience, is constantly pushing against this. Deep personal study will go far in safeguarding both the soul of the minister and the souls ingesting the content.
Eat a Steady Diet of High-Quality Books
This is similar to the above suggestion. Read the Puritans, read technical commentaries, and constantly fill your mind with deep and rich tomes that were created before our time—when attention spans were longer! This will deepen your own understanding and add a depth to your ministry.
Bathe Ministry in Prayer
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that ministry just consists of a knowledge transfer. Every aspect of your ministry should be bathed in prayer and in seeking God, especially for his Spirit to work and use your words. This will help keep AI in its proper role and not become all-encompassing.
Excel in Your Content Creation
The best that AI can do is reformulate what is already out there. This means you can do better than AI if you generate new ideas or word things in a more hard-hitting, concise, and punchy way that it can. Strive to create more realistic, practical, and personable content than AI ever can—because you can and because this will safeguard your soul and your ministry
Conclusion
Would the great Christian ministers Spurgeon or Edwards have used ChatGPT? I think so. I think they would have recognized its unique abilities and sought to harness its power. I also think they would have been very careful with it. I think they would be meticulous and take great care to follow the above suggestions.
So yes—engage with this technology, but do so with care.
In place of comments, I would love to hear from you personally. Please reach out to me via the Contact Page to share your thoughts and perspectives on this post!
Enjoying this content? Subscribe to receive it directly in your email, once a week.
