Pastors must prepare for the “disruptive impact of artificial intelligence,” said leadership expert Carey Nieuwhof, who believes that “AI is going to make the mental health implications of social media look like the kiddie pool.”
Nieuwhof is an author, speaker, podcaster, former attorney, and founding pastor of Connexus Church in Barrie, Ontario. His ministry focuses on helping church leaders be healthy and lead thriving organizations. Nieuwhof sat down with ChurchLeaders at Gloo’s third annual AI Hackathon in Boulder, Colorado, to share his thoughts on the disruption AI will cause to society and how church leaders should respond. He is currently working on a book on the topic.
“I began to realize it’s probably the biggest story of our day that nobody is talking about in the way we need to be talking about it,” said Nieuwhof. “What I mean by that is, you know, when AI first emerged a few years ago with ChatGPT exploding onto the scene, [the] subject was, is this of the devil, right?” At that time, people were wondering if they could or should use it.
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“I think the majority of church leaders are pretty open to it now. A lot of churches are using it,” Nieuwhof said. “But most of the conversation is around, ‘Well, what prompts are you using, or what is the ethical use? Or do you have an AI policy for [your] church?’ Which are all great questions to be asking.”
“But I think there’s a series of much more profound questions,” said Nieuwhof, “that we need to be asking that, in the general culture and in the church, we’re not asking yet.”
Carey Nieuwhof: AI Poses Serious Challenges for Pastors
Gloo is a technology platform with a mission to “release the collective might of the faith ecosystem.” The company held its third annual hackathon on Oct. 8-10, with the theme of “hacking for human flourishing.” Nearly 700 people attended. Nieuwhof spoke on the second day of the hackathon, giving a talk titled, “Why the Church Might Be the Last, Best Hope for the AI Age.”
“All the governance is being taken off now of AI, and basically the technology is just running at 10,000 miles an hour,” Nieuwhof told ChurchLeaders. “And even the developers on the secular side of artificial intelligence don’t understand what they’re building, by their own admission, and don’t understand fully where it’s going.”
“So we have this stallion out of the gate running at a thousand miles an hour,” he said. “No one is sure what kind of damage it’s going to do or what the impact is going to be on human flourishing.”
Pastors must ask deeper questions about AI, said Nieuwhof, because the implications of this technology for society are significant. For example, Nieuwhof mentioned that Dario Amodei, CEO of the AI firm Anthropic, said earlier this year that he believes the impact AI will have on white collar jobs will be a “bloodbath.”
Leadership expert Carey Nieuwhof believes “AI is going to make the mental health implications of social media look like the kiddie pool.”Click to Post
