How Pastors Who Feel ‘Overwhelmed’ by AI Can Engage With It Well

“Come at it from a perspective of, ‘Ok, God, what do you want me to do with this technology?’” he said. 

“No one’s expecting you to be the expert. They just expect you to be the facilitator and host of that conversation,” said Kenny Jahng, founder of AiForChurchLeaders.com and editor-in-chief of ChurchTechToday.com. “You can involve your congregation…in the conversation, and you can learn together.”

Jahng said the number one hope he has for all church leaders is that they will begin and facilitate discussions around the use of AI. “I think it’s simple, whether it’s a lunch and learn or you bring in somebody from the outside or go to a conference together and discuss it as a team,” he said. “There are plenty of places to go to have ministry context, church context conversations and see what other pastors and church leaders are doing.”

Resources that Jahng suggests include ChatGPTforChurchLeaders at AiForChurchLeaders.com, the Facebook group, AI for Church Leaders & Pastors, and Exponential’s AI Next initiative. Church leaders can also check out Gloo AI and Gloo’s AI and the Church resources.

“I think everybody needs to appreciate and understand what [AI] is,” said Jahng. “You need to be educated at a base level. You need to have an AI policy so that your people are on board and to build trust with your communities and your staff, all your stakeholders…You need to share with people where you are on it and start those discussions.”

Skytland reiterated Jahng’s encouragement to pastors to invite their congregations into their efforts to engage with AI. “What if we had ministries, like volunteer teams of technologists in your church, and what if you let them do what they do best?” Skytland asked, pointing out that the people attending Gloo’s hackathon also attend churches, yet “none of their churches are asking them to do what they’re doing here [at the hackathon].” 

“It’s crazy, because what they do here is incredible,” he said. “And so there’s a lot of opportunity.”

“If the leader’s job is only to give permission to the people around them,” Skytland said, church leaders should consider who the “technologists and engineers and coders” are whom they could empower.

Ali Llewellyn cofounded Quite Uncommon with Skytland and also helped to facilitate the hackathon. Like Skytland, she has experience serving as a leader in her church. She explained that anyone, not just technologists, can help the church engage well in the conversations about AI. “Let’s be clear,” she said, “we need the technologists doing the bulk of the work. But we need communicators and storytellers and project managers and people who are researchers.” 

“All of our work in ministry is intertwined, and that’s where I think we not only have something to offer in AI because we’re going to build spectacular things, but we have something to offer in terms of a vision for how ministry happens and how impact is built,” she said.

The word “technology” comes from the Greek word “technê,” which refers to the ability to create and to do work. “Technology exists to help us do the work that we’re called to,” said Llewellyn. “The printing of the Bible was a technology. And so we don’t want to be afraid of technology. We want to embrace it because it’s a tool…to do those things that we’re called to.”

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.