I've been thinking about a pastor who said we shouldn't use AI to help write our sermons.

This irked me. He's not wrong, but he's not right either.

We've grown uncomfortable with not knowing. And that's the real danger.

Wrestling with God

Andy Crouch puts it perfectly: "Your experience with the Bible should be perplexity. Yes, you should get to points and just be like, I really do not know what is happening at this moment and let alone what it means for me. And if you can turn to a system that will always give you some kind of explanation, you are missing out on the dependence on God that the word is meant to stop you in your tracks."

Stop you in your tracks. That's what we're avoiding.

AI offers an escape from the discomfort of not knowing immediately. But that discomfort isn't a bug - it's a feature. It's where formation happens.

Revelation

Think about your last truly meaningful encounter with scripture. Chances are, it wasn't when you got a quick answer. It was when you wrestled. When you sat with a verse that confused you, challenged you, or left you wondering what God was actually asking. Then out of nowhere… bam! Revelation. Knowledge of what you were reading was somehow converted to depth of revelation in your soul.

Revelation is incredibly powerful.

"Most of the time when I offer something up to God in prayer, I get back silence. I'm waiting. And AI doesn't make you wait... it gives you an answer," Crouch observes. "Whereas I think part of relating to God is... He is absolutely for me. But the path to him will not be done on my terms."

AI trains us to expect immediate answers. God trains us to wait, to wrestle, to sit in the mystery.

Solitude

Crouch talks about Solitude, silence and fasting as spiritual disciplines. I believe they're more culturally relevant today than perhaps any other time in history. They're the practices we need in a world that is hyper-connected and is hyper-competing for every single second of our attention.

When we use AI for work that is supposed to be sacred or where we are to be experts in, we're outsourcing the very experiences that form us into people who can actually hear from God.

Redemptive AI in my vocation

This isn't just about pastors. Doctors use AI for diagnostics but still need clinical judgment. Lawyers use it for research but must craft arguments. Teachers use it for lesson plans but shape character through presence.

Every profession has sacred work that requires wrestling with uncertainty, sitting with problems, and allowing the discomfort to form you into someone capable of wisdom.

As Crouch puts it: "We need to keep formation in the loop, keep the forming of ourselves even as we benefit from these tools." Sacred Connections: Faith, AI, and the Essence of Being Human - Redeeming Babel

Printed paper was once a technology

This fear of new tools isn't new.

• When Gutenberg invented printing, Catholic leaders worried about common people reading Scripture without guidance.

• When radio emerged, critics called it "the devil's tool." Evangelist Paul Rader responded: "There's nothing in the Bible that tells the world to come to the Church; but there's everything in the Bible that tells the Church to go to the world!" Broadcasting the Gospel | Christian History

We should not be fearful of AI. It is an incredible tool. Humanity has faced similar dilemma's when posed with world-altering technology: Will we use new tools to go deeper, or to avoid the depth altogether?

AI is your assistant, like Cliff Notes

AI is a lot like Cliff Notes. Helpful for research. Terrible as a replacement for reading the actual book.

When I prepare to teach high schoolers, AI can help me find illustrations. But it can't replace the hour I spend on my knees, asking God what He wants to say to these specific kids this Sunday.

The goal isn't efficiency. The goal is Jesus.

How I use AI?

It's funny, I recently powered up a laptop from 2007. A blast from the past. Saw that I was journaling even back then.

I consider writing a way for me to process my thoughts and culture.

I'd say that I consider writing a sacred work.

I will happily admit that I use AI to write. It is an incredible tool, a wonderful research assistant.

It helps me find quotes of authors I've read. Check citations, polish grammar, and organize my thoughts. With that said, there is no replacing the time I take to just sit with ideas. To wrestle with what I'm reading in scripture, books, and in conversation with others. To bring it to Jesus and ask him to accompany me to make sense of it all.

Just like there's no shortcutting reading a book. There's no shortcut to spiritual maturity.

Back to the question above... There's something wrong about the black and white framing around AI being helpful to sermon writing. I would reframe it this way:

Are we using AI to be an assistant? Or are we allowing it to take over our sacred work and keep us from wrestling with God?

Email me your thoughts. I'm curious how you're wrestling with this tension.