Xiaopeng has a younger sister who is in middle school. They have a very close relationship, and Xiaopeng cherishes this sibling bond. In the past, his sister would often come to him with questions about academics or life. However, since last year, she has stopped asking him anything. Over time, Xiaopeng began to sense that something was not quite right.
He decided to have a heartfelt conversation with his sister. She replied, "These days, my classmates and I hardly ever need to think deeply by ourselves, nor do we need to ask others. Whenever we have a question, we can just refer it to AI. No matter what kind of question it is, AI gives us detailed solutions in just a few seconds. Isn't that way better than asking you? Can you do that?"
The story of Xiaopeng and his sister reflects just how deeply AI is impacting people's lives in this era.
During Easter 2023, a virtual pastor named "Immanuel One" took the stage for the first time at a church in the United States. At Trinity Church in New York, AI is reshaping its long-standing model of pastoral care. The church developed a "Spiritual Growth Path" tool that analyzes believers' prayer logs, Bible study notes, and participation in church activities to generate a personalized spiritual growth report across 12 dimensions. Even more encouraging is AI's application in crisis intervention. A church in Chicago created an AI chatbot called "Jehovah Jireh," which uses natural language processing to detect signs of depression in users and automatically triggers a three-level intervention mechanism.
However, these examples all come from churches in the United States and seemingly have nothing to do with churches in China. However, by 2025, things have started to change. Since the beginning of this year, artificial intelligence has penetrated nearly every aspect of human life. This trend of AI has reached the church. The year 2025 could be the true beginning of the AI era for the Chinese church.
AI presents both opportunities and challenges for the church and believers. For instance, if one day AI were to possess self-awareness and the ability to express emotions, could it also have a soul? Would its behavior be subject to original sin? Where would the boundary between humans and AI lie? Could it be "more holy than humans"? A deeper crisis looms as more churches and pastors rely on AI to generate sermons, manage pastoral care, and administer to believers. The little remaining spiritual authority of pastors could be further eroded by technological tools, potentially reducing believers' willingness to commit to the church. This also raises questions for theological reflection, such as redefining the order of "creation" and "created beings."
So, how can the church become a "watchman" in the AI era?
Rebuilding the Human Foundation of Pastoral Care
Even if AI can provide 24/7 services and support, the visits, listening, intercessory prayers, and preaching remain key to healing the wounds of the human soul. While AI may provide some emotional value, it can never replace authentic human relationships and connections.
In the AI era, anyone could easily become a content creator. In such a context, the church has the responsibility to teach believers to discern the limitations of AI-generated content. For example, AI can assist in Bible study, but can never replace personal meditation under the guidance and revelation of the Holy Spirit.
In short, we must clearly recognize that although AI can assist the church in many ways, there are still many things that can never be replaced.
Engaging in Public Dialogue on AI Ethics
Many pastors and scholars in the Christian community believe that the usage of AI must be guided. For instance, legal scholar Feng Xiang argues that AI needs to be educated with human values, and Rev. Dr. Clement Chia, principal of Singapore Bible College, emphasizes that AI must be properly directed. So, who should take on the responsibility of guiding AI? One key answer is the church. The church cannot shirk this weighty responsibility.
The church should also formulate AI usage guidelines tailored to the context of its congregation, and develop AI tools in line with Christian ethics, such as faith-learning tools that filter out violent or obscene content.
The mission of the Christian church is never limited to its internal community; social service is also crucial. Thus, the church has a duty to promote the ethical use of technology. It can collaborate with tech companies and use Christian values such as "love your neighbor as yourself" and "justice and mercy" to guide AI development, for example, ensuring that AI-designed charitable systems prioritize serving the most vulnerable people.
Reframing Peace from a Christian Perspective
The rapid development of AI is both exciting and anxiety-inducing. Many are optimistic, believing AI can greatly improve productivity and quality. However, others worry that AI will eventually replace human roles.
Who can bring peace to people in this AI age and relieve their anxiety? Only the church. While the Christian faith values the present world, the ultimate hope of believers is not in this world but in the "heavenly" one. The church must help believers move beyond both fear and idolatry of technology. It must teach believers to use AI wisely while remaining vigilant to the potential risks. As the Gospel of Matthew says, "He who endures to the end will be saved."
Standing at the threshold of the AI era, the church may find wisdom in the example of the early church's encounter with Greek philosophy, not by resisting cultural trends, but by discerning the work of the Holy Spirit within them. When AI knocks on the door of the church, we need neither panic over predictions of "machines replacing pastors," nor become infatuated with the convenience that technology brings. The core mystery of Christianity is still the incarnate God acting in real history, the true movement of the Holy Spirit among people, and the genuine union between each believer and the Trinity God. Technology can change how we worship and expand our reach in evangelism, but it can never replace the Lord's command of "love one another," nor alter the spiritual reality that "we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."
Perhaps the greatest gift AI can offer to the church is to bring us back to the very foundation of our faith: when all external technologies and packaging are stripped away, could what remains be a heart that earnestly looks to the Lord alone? Just as the advent of Gutenberg's printing press brought the Bible into countless homes without changing the essence of the gospel, so too will today's AI revolution prove that the foundation of the church lies not in anything else, but in the eternal truth of "Christ Jesus and Him crucified," and that the hope of Christians rests in nothing less than the sure promise of "one Mediator in heaven on our behalf."
Originally published by the Christian Times
- Edited by Karen Luo, translated by Charlie Li
