How to Prepare the Church for the Coming AI Storm
Fostering congregational resilience in a rapidly-changing world
In this series, we’re exploring how leaders can guide their churches in the AI era. The second guideline addresses a critical need: fostering congregational resilience amidst the seismic shifts brought about by artificial intelligence. As AI moves from the fringes to the forefront of our daily lives, church leaders are tasked with steering their congregations safely through these transformative and turbulent times.
This article explores the essential strategies to build a church that not only survives but thrives in the face of AI's challenges and opportunities, ensuring a steadfast faith in an ever-evolving world.
Guideline #2: Preemptively Foster Congregational Resilience
Conceptually, artificial intelligence has been swimming around the collective human conscience for quite some time. In this sense, AI is old hat. What is new is the fact that computer scientists have dragged it from the world of imagination and incredibly specialized use cases and catapulted it into the mainstream. Already, its effect is vast.
AI is bringing about a dramatic shift in the sands of our world’s landscape, whether you realize it or not.
As we venture deeper into the AI-driven era, church leaders face the crucial task of preparing their congregations for the inevitably profound changes of a coming technological revolution conceivably bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before.
In a world of dramatically shifting sands and ensuing storms, it is of paramount importance that we heed the words of Jesus and build our houses on the rock:
24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”
- Matthew 7:24-27 (CSB)
Our mission, then, and the second guideline for church leaders in an increasingly AI-driven landscape, is to foster the congregational resilience to weather the coming societal, cultural, and technological changes and to come out the other side with our houses intact.
Let’s call it spiritual house-inspection.
But how do we do this?
How do we prepare our churches for the future impact of AI? Here are some considerations—for all leaders in the church, by the way, and not just the lead pastor.
Lead your church toward seeing the fullness of God.
Our perspective of God determines the direction of our lives.
We will never be able to comprehend the majesty of the Lord, but the more accurately we see him as he truly is—the more difficult it becomes to do anything but give our all to him.
Worship is the necessary response to a rightful view of God.
On the other hand, when we are lukewarm toward the Lord God Almighty, we take measures to distance ourselves from him and display symptoms of an inaccurate view of this all-surpassing King who is infinitely beyond human descriptors.
A proper perspective of God is the catalyst for worship, the antidote for idolatry, and the reason for iron-clad, immutable and eternal security in an ever-changing world.
A proper perspective of God leads to a rightful view of the world.
However, we must be specific here. A rightful view of the Lord is also (read: necessarily) intricately linked with the wonder of the Gospel. The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is essential in understanding the grace, love, and mercy of God. It is freedom from the shackles of sin (1 Cor. 15:3), the gift of a new self (Eph. 4:17-24), and the open door for an indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 3:16; Rom. 8:9) —all of which help us to see the wonder of God in higher resolution.
Church leaders will go a long way to preparing their churches for the changes that AI will bring by simply encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ to elevate God to his rightful place as the undisputed King of all creation.
Lead your church to grow in biblical literacy.
If our perspective of God determines the direction of our lives, the Bible is one of the primary means by which we can shape that perspective. For this reason, biblical literacy is critical.
The great metanarrative of the Bible reveals God’s nature, character, and attributes to us. As we gaze at Jesus, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), we are shown the Father (John 14:9).
The entirety of the Scriptures points to the majesty, plans, and purposes of God. The more we know the Bible and allow our hearts and minds to be shaped by it, the more inevitable our sense of awe and worship toward our Creator becomes.
And yet, wherever you look, biblical literacy and engagement are declining. A 2014 Religious Landscape Study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that fewer than 35% of adults read the Bible at least once a week. Worse still, 2021-2022 saw an “unprecedented drop” in the number of U.S. adults who read the Bible, with almost 26 million Americans reducing or stopping their interaction with Scripture, according to the American Bible Society’s State of the Bible report.
At this critical juncture in history, church leaders must encourage believers to draw deep from the wells of Scripture. Aside from gaining a rightful perspective of God, there are several other significant reasons:
To know objective truth in a subjective, post-truth world (Psa. 119:160; Isa. 40:8; John 17:17; Col. 2:8; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Bible is our lighthouse in a sea of misinformation.
To strengthen our faith in trying times (Luke 8:11-15; Rom. 10:17; 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 11;1)
To provide us with moral and ethical guidance by offering principles, commandments, and teachings that instruct believers on how to live in a way that honours God whatever the circumstance.
Because artificial intelligence is a wholly new field, the global Church is in somewhat uncharted territory. However, we can take confidence in that, while the field itself is unknown, the heart issues at the root of each problem are as old as Adam.
Moving forward, we can best prepare for the coming changes that AI may bring by rooting ourselves firmly in God’s Word.
Lead your church toward biblical wisdom and healthy discernment.
With the right perspective of God and a deep understanding of the scriptures, we will be well on the way toward exhibiting biblical wisdom—no matter the circumstance.
We’ll discuss this in more detail when we arrive at guideline 6: proactively pray for God-given wisdom.
Lead your church toward understanding the potential changes that AI might bring
The purpose of this newsletter is to help believers to reconcile the potential changes and challenges on the horizon in light of artificial intelligence. Here’s what I wrote in the first article, The Church Has to Engage With Artificial Intelligence:
I fear that, generally, we’re choosing collectively to see AI as a novelty and not an agent for utterly changing how we live, work, and minister in the world. There are important questions to answer that go far beyond “can ChatGPT write my sermon illustration for me?”
Call it doom-mongering or due diligence, but we must consider the bigger issues at play here. What are the theological, ethical, economic, societal and cultural implications of AI? What happens if we stumble into artificial general intelligence (AGI) or even the next phase, superintelligence?
If you’re new here, I’d love to recommend two articles for you that scratch the surface of these very issues:
Guidelines for Church Leadership in an Increasingly AI-driven World: This extended essay discusses most of the above in varying levels of detail.
Global Leaders Urged to Address AI’s Extinction Risk - How Should the Church Respond?
Can I also recommend that you subscribe to this newsletter? In the near future, we’ll be tackling some of these implications in more detail.
Conclusion - Weathering the storm together
The AI storm is coming.
By fostering congregational resilience, embracing scriptural wisdom, and leading with discernment, church leaders can guide their communities not just to weather this storm but to emerge from it more unified and steadfast in their pursuit of God.
Leaders, I pray you’ll rise to the challenge.
READ MORE: UNPACKING THE SEVEN GUIDELINES FOR CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN AN INCREASINGLY AI-DRIVEN WORLD:
Preemptively foster congregational resilience. [You are here]
Build adaptability into church structures.
Embrace positive technological developments.
Stay informed in a rapidly changing environment.
Proactively pray for God-given wisdom.
Keep an undistracted focus on the mission of the church.
Great stuff as always Dave. We need a seminar series for churches on this.