“WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT A.I.?” — USE IT!
We stand in a strange hour, an age our fathers in the faith never imagined; and yet, if you listen closely, you can almost hear them rejoicing at the possibilities. What would James A. Bryan have done with such a tool? What would Gus Nichols have accomplished with a library that answers back? What would John Wesley have written if his horse had carried not only his body but his thoughts across the world in an instant? And who can fathom what Charles Spurgeon would have done if he could take his burdened heart and pour it into something that could help him reach every corner of the earth at once? We would be blind, foolish, and wasteful not to use what God has allowed us to have in our day; every tool is a trust, every talent an opportunity, every resource a stewardship. Use AI to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
But let us be very clear — you must never allow AI to do your thinking for you. It is neither honest nor healthy. The growth of the soul happens through wrestling, pondering, weighing, praying. If you hand that holy labor to a machine, you are not only cheating others; you are cheating yourself. God gave you a mind to love Him with — heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27). Letting AI think in your place is like letting someone else run your race. You may get to the finish line faster, but you will have lost the strength that comes only by running.
But we have to use it faithfully and honestly. Do not let AI do your work for you. Do not let it do your writing for you. If you cannot write well yet, then learn. Put in the diligence. Read deeply, practice consistently, cultivate the craft the way a gardener cultivates the soil. Do not look for shortcuts. The church does not need cloned voices; the church needs your voice, shaped by Scripture, warmed by devotion, seasoned by your journey with Jesus. If AI writes your sermon, your article, your devotional, then you have offered your people a stranger’s loaf instead of your own. It is plagiarism in spirit, even if the source feels invisible; it is dishonest, and it is destructive to your soul. Do not do it.
But AI can serve you — if you keep it in its place. Use it as an editor, not as an author; as a secretary, not as a shepherd; as an assistant, not as an inspiration. It can help you polish what you have already poured your heart into. It can help you find sources you may have overlooked, strengthen arguments you have already formed, reveal blind spots you did not know you had. AI can be the kind of support that once only wealthy ministries, well-staffed churches, or full-time theologians enjoyed. It can help you clean up grammar, clarify a paragraph, restructure a sermon outline, check a reference, or find a quotation you half-remember from a book you read long ago.
In other words, AI can help you carry the water, but it must never draw the well. The well is your heart. The well is your mind. The well is the Word of God dwelling richly within you (Colossians 3:16). That is where truth is born, where conviction is shaped, where the Spirit does His sanctifying work. If you surrender that sacred ground to a machine, you are surrendering the very place where God forms your soul.
So use AI — yes, use it with gratitude and wisdom. Use it to glorify God, to sharpen your voice, to strengthen the church, to stretch your reach, to steward your gifts with excellence. But never let it replace what only you can offer. Never hand over the work God assigned to your heart. Never trade away the diligence that produces maturity, or the wrestling that produces depth, or the effort that produces fruit.
Let AI help carry the load, but you carry the calling. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:17).
BDD
