AI Clergy
Credit: Image co-created by the author with prompts to ChatGPT and edits in Adobe Photoshop. For those unfamiliar, the robot-looking preacher is meant to be evocative of the T-1000 from the classic "Terminator" movie franchise.
Pacific Northwest Conference | May 14, 2025.
People have complicated feelings about Artificial Intelligence (AI)—and rightly so. The generative AI tools that are now widely available have emerged with startling speed and without the technological or ethical guardrails many hoped for. We haven’t spent nearly enough time reflecting on what is gained versus what might be lost.
Recently, I read about the challenges AI presents to college professors trying to discern whether their students’ work is truly their own. Cheating has always been a concern in education, but AI complicates the issue. When students shortcut the process, they miss out on learning itself, which is a costly opportunity to waste, especially today.
I once heard AI described as a tool for co-creation. That resonates with me. Having used various AI tools for some time now, I’m often impressed by what they can produce. But when I let them do too much, I begin to feel detached from the work. Even something as simple as suggested edits from tools like Grammarly can eliminate my voice, removing the quirks and choices that make the writing mine.
AI is just the latest in a long line of tools people have used to enhance our efficiency and impact. Historians have noted how inventions like the codex and the printing press were instrumental in the spread of Christianity. Tools, when thoughtfully used, can serve the Church well.
Clergy, too, are a kind of tool—one we’ve relied on for generations. Pastoral leaders, dedicated to study, teaching, and organizing, have been an incredible gift to the Church. But like all tools, there can be costs if we use them without care or reflection.
And here’s where I get to my point.
Just as we must discern how best to use AI, we must also reconsider how we engage clergy in the work of Christian community. Too often, congregations treat pastors as if they were spiritual search engines: enter the right prompt (or demand), and expect immediate, personalized results. And when things go wrong, we blame the person—when we should be interrogating the model.
But when we view pastors as co-creators—and just as importantly, when pastors view laity the same way—we reclaim our shared responsibility for the Church’s mission. We stop outsourcing discipleship. We learn together, serve together, and grow together.
This shift transforms the Church from a passive, consumer space into an active, participatory one. It echoes the example of Jesus, who didn’t do all the work himself but sent his disciples out in pairs—to preach, to heal, to resist evil in all its forms.
The Church doesn’t need to fear AI (yet), but we do need to reflect on what its emergence reveals about our systems. Perhaps the most pressing question isn’t “Can we use AI in ministry?” but “Have we already turned too much of our discipleship into automation?”
The good news is this: co-creation—with AI, with clergy, with each other—is not just possible. It can be faithful.
Patrick Scriven
Patrick Scriven is a husband who married well, a father of three amazing girls, and a seminary-educated layperson working professionally in The United Methodist Church. Scriven serves the Pacific Northwest Conference as Director of Communications.