“Begin by learning to draw and paint like the old masters. After that, you can do as you like. Everyone will respect you.”
– Salvador Dali
Responding to AI should not be a knee-jerk reaction but far more thoughtful and intentional.
Too many Christians hold opinions that are strongly held and weakly formed. Too many people are just 3 questions away from their entire worldview collapsing.
“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there’s not much of an evangelical mind.” – Mark Knoll
Some Next Steps:
1. Recruit talent. We need talent in the frontier labs.
2. Call or email your senator and congressperson. There is a certain turning point when the politicians start taking the voices they are hearing seriously.
3. The church’s future direction is human connection.
Decide what you stand for before AI exposes what you will fall for.
What do you do when everything changes?
AI lives more in Genesis 3 in the realm of our sinful and broken world. AI unleashes even more of the knowledge of God without the wisdom of God.
This is literally a digital battle at scale between good and evil.
THE THREATS WE FACE:
1. Deepfakes will continue to distort public discourse and destabilize your life.
What happens when people don’t care about whether something is true, just whether it appeals to them or agrees with them?
2. The incentives will intensify.
Incentives are the most powerful forces in the world. When the incentives are crazy, the behavior is crazy.
Work twice as hard on your character as you do on your competency.
If your character doesn’t outpace your platform, your ministry will fall apart.
3. Your brain may rot.
American kids and teens are now performing one grade level lower, in both reading and math than they were in 2015.
Use AI to make you intellectually stronger, not cognitively weaker.
Sermon Rot: When AI writes your sermon and you don’t. Your job is to wrestle with the text and with God.
If you are not comfortable sharing what you are doing on AI, then you are probably misusing it.
Teach on this. Preach on this. Upgrade your integrity now.
4. Immediacy will challenge patience.
Some people are going to be going to AI instead of wrestling with the Spirit. This can lead to syncretism – a mix of Christianity with the thinking of the world.
ChatGPT always agrees with you whereas God will contradict, challenge, and correct us.
We need to help our people understand that God is faithful even if he isn’t fast.
5. AI resurrection “erases” death.
GriefTech is a growing area of technology. Deepfake videos of people who have passed away can happen now. AI robots with realistic skin are being created even now.
Death shatters us and it is supposed to shatter us.
We have an opportunity to help people truly grieve and heal.
Build the Financial Shock Absorber. Create capacity before you need it.
“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”
– Harry S. Truman
Job loss is identity loss. Often we think what we do is who we are.
We need to help people understand they are made in the image of God, discover their identity in Christ, and find their purpose in Christ BECAUSE they will probably not have the kind of job they were hoping to have.
Since we don’t know how AI will ultimately affect us, so why don’t we just prepare for disruption?
Anthropic is valued at $2 trillion because they are gunning for the $16 trillion job market.
There is a possibility that some of our people will go from unemployed to umemployable.
What if the AI stocks are a bubble? Right now, 45% of S&P Market Cap is AI Stocks.
A radically different economy requires a radically different approach to congregational giving which could include the following:
Like Joseph in Egypt, save, save, save during the good years! Perhaps create an “Obstacles and Opportunities Fund.”
Start new non-profits. Some people won’t give to a church, but they would give to a non-profit helping people with housing.
Start new for-profits with excess funds going into ministry.
Consider patronage as an option. Over the centuries, artists have been funded by patrons. When all the money ends up in fewer hands, those hands have to open wider.
The Art of the Ask: Closing a Seven Figure Donor – Prepare a visionary proposal that aligns with the donor’s identity.
Too often we hide behind the microphone asking everyone to give and not spending time with specific people who could give generously and easily.
Create a community of generosity in your church. They are often lonely as they are the only ones they know who are as succesful as they are. Imprortant thoughts and questions:
Why do you think God has entrusted so much wealth to you? Do you think you might have the spritual gift of giving? What are the ways you or your family view finances and giving?
Often people feel flattered not offended when asked to give.
Shift 2B: Build the Mental Health Shock Absorbers Now
20 years in, how has social media made us better? Young people are the most anxious generation. We are now more divided than ever as people live in silos. People are lonelier than ever before.
Sadly, AI will make the mental health crisis caused by social media look like a kiddie pool. AI offers porn on steroids.
Tragically, consider the case of Sewell Setzer. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one to lose his life due in part to his interactions with AI. 72% of teenagers are using AI for normal conversations. 33% of teenagers would rather talk to AI than a person.
In an age when more people than ever don’t know how to do relationship, the church can model the way!
What happens when we trade in flawed relationships for synthetic relationships? AI tends to tell you what you want. That’s the business model!
What happens when husbands or wives feel more understood by their AI than their spouses.
Authentic human relationships consist or rupture and repair. All of our “heroes” in the Bible are actually flawed anti-heroes except Jesus. Even for Paul, 2 Corinthians is an apology for 1 Corinthians!
98% of pastoral care is having someone who cares. It doesn’t have to be the pastor or a therapist. The Orangutan Theory – Even going to the zoo and talking to a monkey helps you feel better!
Spending time with others in small groups, having a couple in crisis over for dinner for several weeks in a row, or even just being a friend can be a much bigger help to the couple than you might think!
