Stetzer also mentioned the importance of critical thinking skills to help people not assume that everything AI tells them is true. “I don’t know that pastors think of it this way, but, you know, we need critical thinking skills,” he said. “And if you’re going to have people who are going to be growing in their faith, they can’t just be finding everything they need to know regurgitated without understanding the background of it as well.”
On the other hand, AI is a powerful tool that can enable small churches to “look and function like large churches,” particularly when it comes to the automation of processes. “I work with Sermon Shots,” Stetzer mentioned. Sermon Shots is a tool that helps church leaders repurpose their sermons into clips and other engaging content.
“All of a sudden, I think pastors are seeing AI as a bit of a superpower,” said Stetzer, “but with great power comes great responsibility.”
Stetzer, who is a missiologist, also addressed the opportunity of using AI in missions, noting, “I’m actually the co-convener of the Digital Mission Consortia…and this is the big point of our discussion.” Stetzer is also about to launch a master’s degree and a doctoral degree in digital mission.
“I think digital mission is the next and the new frontier, and it’s a frontier unlike any that we’ve engaged before because we have the capacity to cross languages,” he said. “We have the capacity to engage people in ways and places that physical people can’t go.”
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Stetzer compared the opportunity we have now to “when shortwave radio allowed people to broadcast the gospel all around the world…and the gospel was spread into places that are unimaginable.”
“With the already existing reality of the smartphone,” he said, “now with AI tools, the breadth and depth of gospel engagement can be, to quote the Scripture, ‘exceeding abundantly beyond all we might ask or think.’”
Disclosure: Dr. Ed Stetzer is editor-in-chief of Outreach Magazine and provides general editorial input for ChurchLeaders. ChurchLeaders is owned by Outreach Inc., which is owned by Gloo.
