The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
AI Will Change the Church (Whether You Like it Or Not)
Could the key to engaging the next generation of churchgoers lie within the realm of artificial intelligence? Join me, Todd Rhoades, as we unravel the dynamic relationship between AI and the church's future. In this conversation, we tackle the juxtaposition of tradition with technological innovation, addressing the urgent need for churches to evolve in tandem with AI advancements to remain pertinent, especially to Gen Z and millennials. These younger demographics don't see AI as a looming threat; rather, they embrace it as an ally in career and personal development. We'll dissect how this technology could revitalize church operations without stripping away the irreplaceable human warmth and compassion that is central to our faith communities.
This episode isn't just a monologue; it's a call for your perspective on AI's unfolding role within our spiritual lives. As we navigate the complexities of incorporating AI into the church's fabric, I'm extending an invitation for your input. Can AI truly enhance our communal experiences without overshadowing the core values of empathy and personal connection? Whether you're a tech-savvy believer, a skeptical observer, or a curious bystander, your voice matters in this pivotal exploration. So, lend us your ears, and perhaps your thoughts, as we embark on this journey to harmonize age-old beliefs with the pulse of modern technology.
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How in the world is AI going to change your church? I'm going to prognosticate today and give you some ways that I think AI will change the church and maybe even your church, whether you like it or not. Thanks for joining me. My name is Todd Rhodes, I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and you are tuned in to the healthy church staff podcast. Thanks for listening today and I appreciate you being here. Let's talk a little bit about how AI will change the church, whether you like it or not. Let's start off by let's identify the issue. Let's really look at what's going on here.
Speaker 1:Gen Z, which ages 12 to 27. Look at AI maybe a little differently than what we do. Younger generations see AI not as a threat, but as an advantage in their career. Some interesting statistics about a third of 2024 graduates and over half of the tech majors are planning to use AI professionally, and that's according to a trends report put out by the company Handshake. When you get a little bit older with Gen Z, 48% of Gen Z think that AI will advance their careers by providing faster knowledge access, even linked into the survey here recently, where they found a 75% monthly increase in AI skills added to Gen Z profiles back in 2023. Particularly, the younger you get, it's just going to be like people that younger people not that young anymore, but younger than me that don't remember that we're never around before the internet. They have no recollection of a world without the internet. That's how a lot of people are going to be coming up. They're going to have no idea of what a world is like without AI. This is really going to change church dynamics as well. No methods may fall short, particularly with young people, as we bring them on our staffs and as AI permeates your daily life. For Gen Z again 12 to 27 year olds AI isn't just a wave of the future, but it's the tide of the present. They're not looking at AI in the future, they're looking at it right now. One more statistic and then we're going to talk about, maybe, how to respond.
Speaker 1:57% of Gen Z responded, 62% of millennials, and those are 28 to 43 year olds. Even millennials 62% reported that they're more excited about the benefits of AI than worried about the risks. How do we respond? Ai is something that we talked yesterday about how fast the technology has moved along, but getting AI into church operations could help modernize and streamline processes and anything that AI can do and we talked about this yesterday interpersonal relationships can do much better. That human connection in the work that we do is paramount, and AI, at least not yet, can't do that. It can't show empathy and emotion, and it can't do the one-on-one conversations that are so important in our work.
Speaker 1:That said, though, the church's ability to adapt to change is going to be crucial for its long-term survival and engaging with younger generations and to be able to remain relevant as AI continues to become more common in our society. If we ignore it as a church, it may lead to us really being disconnected. Benefits of AI isn't a nice to have. It's almost a must-have. You may be pushing back and saying, todd, I don't really need to know about AI, I think it's evil, I don't think it has any place in the church, and I would just remind you that that line of thought was said so many times over the year. Matter of fact, I've got a podcast in the hopper that I'm going to record soon that talks about different kinds of technology and how the church has shunned it when it came out, all the way back to the press, to the church organ, to oh my goodness, there are so many different technologies that have been introduced over the years that the church has just poo pooed all over and didn't want to have anything to do with. And now it's just commonplace.
Speaker 1:Proceed cautiously with AI, but just to stick your head in the sand and say it's not a thing and it'll never affect anything that we do in the church is just not a wise stance, in my opinion, these days. All right, so what do we take away from this? All right, first of all, ai is just a tool. It's nothing more. It's just like the internet, it's like television, it's like radio Even I just mentioned going back to the Gutenberg press. It's a tool, it's a technology, and adaptation is going to be key. Churches that adapt to changing cultural and technological lens, landscapes, are going to be more likely to thrive and actually to survive.
Speaker 1:And particularly as we engage with Gen Z and other generations, younger generations, it's going to be really imperative that we know what we're talking about and that we allow them to use some of their strengths in what they see as being very common place it might be foreign to us, but they see as very commonplace and allow them to use those kind of tools and gifts in the church. Again, it's not going to replace the human element, but it can make things a little bit more productive when it comes to our faith. We may find that AI is an unexpected disciple that's a quote that I found as I was researching this podcast and AI can actually be a tool that we might be able to use. So what do we do from here? It's going to change everything, but deep down, we know it's going to change. We don't know necessarily how it's going to change or how fast those changes are going to come, but what do we do next?
Speaker 1:First of all, you got to start with yourself and encourage yourself. Give yourself. Yesterday we talked about how to do some deep work. Maybe take an hour or two and just familiarize yourself with AI and its capabilities. Read how other churches are using it. There's some good Facebook groups on the church and AI and that show not only the benefits but also some of the pitfalls. Start to have some conversations. Speak openly with younger people in your congregation. Find out what your kids are doing with AI for crying out loud. Find out what people maybe you've got people in your church that are younger, that work at tech firms or work in the area of technology. Maybe you've got people in your staff that are already researching this. Maybe they're using it and you don't even know. Start those conversations, get to learn from them and start to experiment a little bit. Don't write your sermons with AI for crying out loud. Start incorporating AI into some small ways into your church operations.
Speaker 1:If you think, no, never Todd, I'm not going to do that with AI, ai is we use AI every day and we have for quite a while, and you might not even realize it. When you go to your Amazon card and it suggests different things for you to buy, that's all AI. When you go to your Spotify and it recommends a new song to you, that's all AI. It's not new, although the latest iteration of it is moving, so, so quickly. Here's my admonition to you Don't worry about it. It's not going to take over your job. You're not going to lose your job over AI, but it's important that we navigate these waters together, because, for young people and for the future of our church, we're going to have to learn about AI and we're going to have to figure out exactly how we can bridle it and use it and how we're not going to use it as well, those are important things as well.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear how are you using AI in your church? Maybe you've decided we're not going to use AI ever. Let me know that too. I would love to hear from you with your feedback. You can email me anytime at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Thank you so much and we will be back. Tomorrow we're going to talk about how do you care for your staff after termination. Heavy topics for Friday we're going to talk about it tomorrow.
