How Church Leaders Can Lead Faithfully in the Age of AI

AI is accelerating the loneliness crisis in our culture and threatens to be a weak substitute for true, embodied community.

AI is here. And as with so many technological advancements in history, we see both opportunity and risk. As we’ve seen in the first two articles of this series, AI is accelerating the loneliness crisis in our culture and threatens to be a weak substitute for true, embodied community. As image bearers of God, we are designed for real community with other image bearers. The church offers these relationships in a unique community, unlike anything else the culture can offer. 

At its best, the church has always been a community of truth, love, sacrifice, hope, encouragement, repentance, and faith. We need to explore how pastors and church leaders can respond to the AI revolution. It should start with a reminder of our message and our mission.

Our Message and Mission Haven’t Changed

The church has a message and a mission, and these don’t change with the shifting sands of the cultural moment. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” The message of the cross and resurrection is always at the heart of the church’s work, and that work is deeply relational. It always has been. 

God didn’t just send a message; he came in person. Jesus Christ was fully God and fully human, entering our world physically and relationally. He was sent by the Father so that he might live a sinless life, die for sinners, and rise from the dead. And after he rose, he told the disciples that the embodied message of the gospel was going to be carried forward by them. 

“As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John 20:21). The church’s mission continues in the pattern of Christ’s incarnation. We go to people and live among people. We embody the gospel. AI can’t replace that mission, and this AI moment we’re in doesn’t change the mission we’re on. 

But cultural changes do affect the context in which we carry out that mission, and AI technology is no exception. So how can pastors and church leaders lean into the mission in this moment? Let’s look at three practical ways. 

Study and Teach about AI 

First, church leaders should be leading the way for their people in studying and teaching about AI. We can’t ignore the topic. We must think about it, learn about it, and then share those things with our congregations. 

We should also work toward the formation of wisdom through sermon series, discussion groups, podcasts, classes, and reading groups. As leaders, we don’t need to be technology experts. But we do have to help people ask the right questions.

Lean into the Unique Contribution of the Local Church

Second, church leaders must lean into the unique contribution of the local church. No other institution in our culture offers what the church can offer, and few can even come close. The church invites people into a regularly gathered, multi-generational community centered on shared formation in Christ. 

This kind of community can provide a context for formation, leading to real discernment in relationships, just like the church modeled in Acts 15:28. There we see the church’s leadership tackling a difficult problem in community, led by the Spirit: “It seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15:28). Not even the apostles had an isolated corner on Spirit-led discernment, and neither do we. Discernment requires community. We need each other. 

AI is a tool, but not the goal. Our goal remains unchanged: God’s glory, our good, and the good of others.

Learning How to Use AI Wisely

Third, church leaders should learn to use AI wisely. “Be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves,” Jesus told us in Matthew 10:16. So instead of panic or passivity, instead of simplistic rejection or uncritical embrace, we should be walking in wisdom. 

AI can offer administrative efficiency, as well as tools for distributing teaching, content, and even research help. Used rightly, it can multiply impact and free up leaders to focus on what matters most in ministry and mission: people. 

But in all of this, we must remember something essential, and it’s a countercultural opportunity. AI is a tool, but not the goal. Our goal remains unchanged: God’s glory, our good, and the good of others.

We are living in a time when people are separating from one another. As many social factors (including social media) have already shifted many relationships into disembodied spaces, the church can offer a powerful alternative. A community of true physical presence, true spiritual worship, and deep relationships, including confessing sin and serving others. 

God gave leaders to the church to lead, and this is a moment when we must step up and do just that. People in our churches are already using AI and navigating complex questions. We should be at the forefront of formation rather than reactive to cultural influences. The message and the moment demand nothing less.