On A.I. Pastors and Ministries

A warning on why the work of the church must remain human

Photo by Stephen Radford on Unsplash

As I have been discussing the past few weeks, A.I. is quickly reworking many aspects of our lives. Everything from bedtime stories to higher education is being upended. And my response in each case has been that we have a choice to acquiesce to this technology or we can retain and lean into being more fully human. My argument has been that we are not fated to lose ourselves to A.I.; we can resist. I want to make this same basic argument about churches because I’ve been made aware of increasing pressure placed on pastors and churches to adopt A.I. to make ministry more efficient. Large Christian tech companies like Gloo are pushing A.I. on churches. For example, their “Chat” A.I. product (which is still in Beta) promises a safe, Christian alternative to other LLMs. Gloo touts: “From sermon preparation to event planning and email writing, Gloo AI Chat takes care of the details, saving your staff time so they can focus on growing your ministry and connecting with your congregation.” Other services like Subsplash allow pastors to upload sermons and through the magic of A.I. produce clips for TikTok and Instagram, devotionals, study guides, newsletters, and blogs. Another Subsplash feature, Sermon Assistant, “takes your preparation to new heights. Use AI to refine your outlines, explore scripture, and discover illustrations or practical applications—all while keeping your message aligned with your heart and vision.” Meanwhile, the site A.I. for Churches advised churches to lean into A.I. for Easter, giving advice like using A.I. to come up with sermon outlines and to brainstorm innovative service ideas.

I could go on. My point is that we’re only beginning to see the pressure on pastors and churches to adopt A.I. into their ministries, and already big money is involved. That will only increase. And while companies like Gloo have been asking questions about the ethics of A.I., their embrace of the technology and encouragement for pastors to use it for sermon preparation and email writing concerns me. At best we’re building the plane in the air. The temptation to condone what is profitable is significant. And that concerns me. Because these tools for “making ministry efficient” will be profitable. But they will also be less human. They will “offload” the work of pursuing wisdom. They will make our churches more shiny and polished and corporate, but less human, intimate, and wise.