The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The AI Assistant Pastor: Helpful Tool or Theological Nightmare
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping ministry tools, raising profound questions about efficiency versus spiritual discernment. We explore the theological implications of AI-powered pastoral work and why human presence remains irreplaceable in church leadership.
• AI tools for ministry are proliferating, from sermon preparation to automated pastoral responses
• These technologies synthesize data but lack spiritual discernment and conviction
• "Proximity beats precision" - AI can quote scripture perfectly but can't sit in a hospital room
• Ministry is incarnational - Jesus didn't send an email, he showed up
• Using AI for brainstorming and logistics can support but never replace spirit-filled leadership
• The danger comes when we outsource discernment and mistake clarity for wisdom
• Be curious and cautious with AI, but most importantly, be present with your congregation
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What if your church staff included an AI assistant pastor? Think about it. Would that be a breakthrough in ministry efficiency or just a theological disaster waiting to happen? Today, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're going to explore the real potential and the very real risks of integrating artificial intelligence into church leadership and, yes, even into pastoral care. We're going to tackle the rise of some of these new AI tools that can write sermons and answer emails and even offer pastoral advice, and ask one big question Should they?
Speaker 1:If you're a pastor, churchly trying to navigate and figure out all this stuff that's happening with artificial intelligence, or AI, as I like to say, because I can't seem to say the words artificial intelligence, it takes too much effort. This is the right podcast for you and I'm so glad you're here. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes, I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and I'm also your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast every single weekday. All right, so what if your assistant pastor wasn't a person at all but a machine? Think about that. Would we have ever even asked this question, let's say, even two or three years ago? But now it's a question that, if you're not asking what role AI has in your church and in your ministry and on your staff. Even you may be behind the curve as quickly as this is going. Now we're not just talking about scheduling software or sermon templates those things have been around for a long time. Or sermon templates those things have been around for a long time Actual AI making some kind of pastoral decisions preaching, counseling, leading. Is this the future or is it just a theological nightmare?
Speaker 1:Let's first of all talk about the rise of the AI assistant. Okay, ai is already shaping the tools that your team uses, probably each and every day. It may have. You may have even started using some different AI tools, and sometimes it's whether you realize it or not, every time you go to Netflix or anytime you go to YouTube, and it suggests a video for you personally. That's AI. It is taking everything that you've watched in the past. Your social media feed is entirely shaped by AI. It's taking what you've liked, what you've looked at, what you clicked on, and it's feeding all that. So you're already using AI.
Speaker 1:The question is now these tools are starting to become available and actually being inserted into ministry from AI-generated sermon outlines to automated pastoral email replies, tools like ChatGPT, sermonary AI, pastoral Bot, and just a few. There are getting to be I was going to say tens, but soon there'll be hundreds of these tools, many of which are specifically targeted toward pastors and church leaders. They're just exploding in popularity and these tools are marketed to save you time. But is efficiency always worth the trade? Because here's the twist you might save a day on sermon prep, but slowly lose your discernment muscle in the process. Who knows? This is all new territory, right? So should we look at this as theological guidance or algorithmic guesswork? And this is kind of really where it gets kind of sticky.
Speaker 1:Right, ai doesn't believe in Jesus. Although I had chat GPT tell me a couple of days ago that it is praying for a meeting that I have coming up, which I thought, okay, no, you're not. No, you're not. Ai doesn't believe in Jesus. Chat GPT and perplexity and all the others out there. They don't have a soul, they don't have a spirit and this is important they don't have any conviction. Okay, they predict and they mirror out what's already there. So, for example, chatgpt, when it told me that it was praying for my meeting, it looked at everything in that discussion. It knew who I was and it knew what I wanted to hear and it gave me what I—just like a conversation with a person. When you're leaving the conversation and they say I'm going to pray for you, that's what AI did.
Speaker 1:So when AI offers you pastoral counsel or constructs maybe a theological argument, you have to remember it is not discerning truth. It's not doing that at all. It's synthesizing data. Okay, let me repeat that because that's really important. When you use an AI tool specifically around theological things, it's not discerning truth, okay, it's synthesizing data, okay. Which can beg the question can something spiritually blind guide people into spiritual truth? That's really the question. Right, to answer that question, let's dig down just a little bit, okay, and here's a principle I'd like to share with you that I think is really important Proximity beats precision every time. Okay, let me give you an example.
Speaker 1:An AI assistant pastor, if we can use that term, might be able to quote Romans 8.28 flawlessly, but it can't sit in a hospital room and it doesn't cry after you've had a miscarriage. Pastoring is incarnational. Jesus didn't send an email, he showed up. And church leaders, your presence, not your productivity, your presence is what transforms people. So let's look at a little bit of the hidden dangers of outsourcing soul work. Okay, the more we let AI do the work of discernment, the more we risk outsourcing the very thing that makes ministry ministry right. Prayer becomes auto-generated. It can Chet GPT I saw a John Piper video on this where he asked Chet GPT to write a prayer as someone else and it actually did a stunning job right. But again, it's synthesizing right. Prayer can become auto-generated. Chatgpt can write a crazy good prayer. Counseling ChatGPT can give good counseling advice, but Chat, chat, gpt. Counseling becomes transactional and leadership can become mechanical and, worst of all, congregations start mistaking clarity for wisdom, and those things are not the same thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so should you use AI in ministry at all? Absolutely yes, I use AI every single day in my work at chemistry staffing. My work is not mostly theological, although it has some theological aspects to it, but I would say, yes, use AI, but use it with caution. Here's how I would say to use AI right. Just to get started, use AI to brainstorm, use it to automate logistics, use it to support your real, spirit filled leadership, but never, ever let it replace the slow, hard, sacred work of talking with people and being present. Let AI be your assistant, but never let it be your guide, but never let it be your guide.
Speaker 1:Ai is powerful Okay, it is, but it's not pastoral. It is not pastoral. It cannot take your place, it can never be pastoral. So here's your next step Be curious and be cautious, but most of all, be present, because that is and we've talked about that before here on the podcast being present as a pastor, as a ministry leader, that is your superpower. I hope maybe this maybe helped you think a little bit differently.
Speaker 1:Ai is not something that I am personally scared of. Long-term, I'm with everybody else. I'm a little bit scared, but short-term, no, use it however you can to help your ministry, but don't let it. It's going to be easy to succumb to that temptation because it can spit out some really great answers and some really great prayers and some really great sermons, but you need to be present. You need to do what God and what the Spirit has called you to do. Hope this was helpful. Love to hear your comments, your feedback, your criticism, any of that. You can reach out to me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and I'll be right back here tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks so much. Have a great day you.
