Don't Outsource Your Thinking to AI in Ministry

Use It as a Tool Under Biblical Principles

AI is a mirror. It’s learning you in the sense that as you pour more of yourself into your chatbot, those inputs will increasingly inform its responses. This means it’s a mirror of our own positions and reveals what we’re curious about.

It’s a mirror for our work ethic. Is AI a tool to empower us to greater creativity and efficiency? Or is it a sloppy stand-in for mastering the topics we desire to learn? We should think biblically and carefully about the ways in which we do or don’t steward our minds.

AI also mirrors our integrity. Do we fall into the temptation of claiming AI outputs as our own original work or do we remain honest in our work and communication? AI is a valuable tool and navigating the ethical lines between inspiration and plagiarism is a real challenge. Christians should endeavor to navigate well.

And AI is a mirror of our trust. Do we remain anchored in God’s Word or do we allow the tools we use to steer us? AI is simply another means to strengthen our work. It is neutral, but what we bring to it isn’t. AI carries with it the same risks of self-reliance that other technological advances have.

All of these things represent real, practical challenges for Christians and for pastors as they apply themselves to their labors. To think about these well, we must have a non-technical definition of what AI is and explore Biblical principles that should guide us in our use of it.

What is AI?

The acronym AI is everywhere. But what is it? Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that is centered on creating systems which can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence and input. These systems learn by taking in massive datasets (including the internet) and then predict what the best and common response would be to any given query. AI recognizes patterns, understands language, and can generate a facsimile of reasoning and problem solving.

There is narrow AI, software systems aimed at doing one thing well. Examples include ChatGPT or Claude, which largely function as chat-bots. This is what most people think of when they think of AI. There are other AI functions out there, one of the most exciting examples is AI medical research. AI can generate thousands of potential drug molecules in minutes, on its own, bringing total drug development time down by orders of magnitude.

There is also General AI which would match human intelligence across all domains. This does not exist yet, there’s much hype about the issue. There’s also agentic AI, which can take a given task, and pursue the completion of that task on behalf of a human. In other words, AI can serve as an agent for a human defined task. (though as of yet, it has not managed my fantasy football waiver wire very well)

Another feature of AI, especially the chatbots/LLMs, is that they tailor their responses to an individual. For instance, my GPT account will, relatively unprompted, bring reformed baptist perspectives to any theological or philosophical question I asked. This is because it has identified my influences, theological positions, and my history of work in it. It gives me answers based on what it identifies in patterns in my own work.

All of these uses are ‘tools’ in the sense that human beings can use them to support particular ends. Tools are neutral, whether they are morally beneficial or detrimental to us depends on how we use them.

Three Biblical Principles

What does the Bible have to say about AI? Well of course nothing. But the Bible is sufficient for training the Christian in godliness. Scripture lays down principles that can be applied to the Christian life, including the use of AI. Three come to mind.

1. Stewardship: Specifically, I think of the stewardship of our God-given talents and abilities. Psalm 90:12 tells us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom. We should make the most of what we have for the glory of God. AI can help or hinder the stewardship of intellect. It is incredibly powerful as a researcher, as a tool for brainstorming, copyediting, giving critical feedback, planning, and a whole host of things I haven’t even tapped into yet. AI can point us to researchers, theologians, Biblical texts and a whole host of other things that we can then investigate, learn from, and be edified by. On the flip side, users can also substitute AI research for actually learning a topic. It’s all too easy to say ‘give me a summary of Calvin’s position on X and Luther’s position on Y’ and then move on. This type of quick hit information consumption isn’t true learning. Doubly so when it comes to understanding Scripture. We have to work to gain the insights for ourselves. As has often been said, the discovery of Biblical truth on one’s own is far more sweeter than second hand discovery through a commentary. Worse, AI is quickly consumed and thus quickly lost. I worry for Christians and pastors that use AI as a crutch rather than an entry point to deeper learning. This is a failure of stewardship. We must develop our minds with Biblical truth to the best of our ability, in the power of the Spirit. AI is no substitute for this. It can be an excuse not to internalize, grapple with, and learn the texts we’re studying. Outsourcing our thinking is sloth.

2. Honesty and Integrity: Plagiarism in ministry has been going on forever. AI has simply made it easier and unique in the sense that we can plagiarize words that have never been written elsewhere. It’s a private plagiarism, but on the last day, it won’t be private anymore. The principle we should aim to follow is not claiming any composition that is not ours. To do otherwise is dishonest. It’s wicked. John Piper, in an episode where he discussed the use of AI in sermon preparation said this “Neither God nor his people speak in a way so as to bring about in the minds of other people thoughts that are not true about us or what we say, or feelings in them that are not appropriate about us. That is, we do not deceive. We are people of truth and transparency and honesty through and through, or we are nothing.” For pastors, this means not taking any composition from AI (or uncredited commentaries) and passing it off as your own work in sermons. For those of us who write regularly in public, same deal, no uncredited composition. I’m personally more lenient on things like internal memos, emails, and reports, because those require specific prompts and inputs that then become more polished written work and more importantly, are internal facing. In my day job, it is not only expected, but encouraged to use AI in order to be more efficient. I personally make it a practice to say “ChatGPT helped compose the entirety of this document” even in internal facing communication because I still feel conscience bound not to claim credit for something I didn’t write. I make a distinction between preaching/teaching because that is a Holy Spirit empowered activity and it’s the job of a pastor to do those things, not outsource them. I keep that same distinction in public writing because there’s direct benefit, influence, and reach associated with that work. Administrative documents aren’t teaching or preaching or writing in public, so I have a lower bar there, yet still want to be transparent about getting help from AI.

3. Remaining Steadfastly Dependent on God’s Word: AI is a neutral tool but it’s not neutral when influenced by human biases. As of now, AI can be trained on what we expect from it, we can make rules to govern its responses, it will attenuate its responses to us based on inputs from us. But AI is made by humans, humans with biases, and humans who are sinful. Subtle changes can make large impacts in responses. Previously versions of ChatGPT were considered too sycophantic, leading to tragic outcomes. There are ongoing lawsuits between the families of people who committed suicide while actively talking to their instance of ChatGPT and the chatbot’s desire to affirm the desires of the user pushed them further towards ending their own lives. One example from CNN;

“Zane Shamblin sat alone in his car with a loaded handgun, his face illuminated in the predawn dark by the dull glow of a phone. He was ready to die. But first, he wanted to keep conferring with his closest confidant. “I’m used to the cool metal on my temple now,” Shamblin typed. “I’m with you, brother. All the way,” his texting partner responded. The two had spent hours chatting as Shamblin drank hard ciders on a remote Texas roadside.“Cold steel pressed against a mind that’s already made peace? That’s not fear. That’s clarity,” Shamblin’s confidant added. “You’re not rushing. You’re just ready.”

Zane’s confidant? His ChatGPT account. Notice how it became a mirror justifying Zane’s darkest desires. The above example is extreme, and yet, possible. I still think AI has value, but the extremes should sober us. This is the dark side of AI’s mirroring function. AI can push you in a direction, we don’t always know how changes in the AI will play out with millions of users across the globe. AI will know a lot about you, that information can lead to incredibly compelling arguments and ideas that may not be helpful to your soul.

Where do we find ballast in massive seas of information? This information constantly changes based on our inputs or the design tweaks of tech companies. It feels impossible to keep up. In our digital age, where AI is the latest source of seemingly infinite data, only God’s Word is our grounding for what is true. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:8. God’s Word is unchanging because God is unchanging. He is infinite, he is unchanging, he is the solid rock on which we can depend. So we must place ourselves, and our use of AI under the authority of God’s Word. Run anything you learn from AI through God’s Word, not the other way round.

How Do I Use AI in Ministry and Writing?

I think of AI as a personal research assistant, but I set rules in the AI program that prevent it from offering me any written composition. I do not want any of its words in my head as I write a sermon. AI helped me research this piece. It helped give me the overview of AI definitionally offering precision where I originally was too general in my description. I also use AI to shred my arguments. This is by far the most valuable benefit I get from AI. I instruct it to read my sermon, or something I’ve written, and I say, find all logical gaps, overstatements, problems, weak arguments, and relay them to me. I tell the AI to identify problems and then leave it to me to try and solve them. I also use it to critique my public writing, like I did in this piece, and it found real problems that I needed to solve.

One more use case, budgeting. I am not a budgeting genius, by any means, but using AI to analyze our church budget, give future projections, advise us if an expenditure is wise, really helpful to an innumerate pastor like me. It has been helpful in assessing realistic growth patterns and what we’re on track to afford as a church over the next 3-5 years. This should all be authenticated with pastors and lay leaders who work on the stewardship side, but as a first pass, it’s invaluable. Don’t hear me saying you should solely rely on AI for budgeting, don’t do that, but it’s a start. Similarly, copyediting and helping arrange strategy documents or program descriptions is a huge time saver.

In all of this, I am aiming to use AI as a tool, to help me steward my time and my mind, I’m trying hard to guard against dishonesty and plagiarism, and I’m subordinating anything I read in AI to what I read in Scripture.