Use Tools, Serve People

Don’t outsource your calling to technology

By Jeff Little

Pastors have always used tools to accomplish their mission. I’ve been serving people long enough to have seen many of these come and go. Now leaders are wrestling with how to best employ AI (artificial intelligence) in their ministry context.

Some of our college students recently showed me what the latest versions of these tools can do. AI can generate articles, summarize Scripture and even fabricate a digital version of your face saying things you never said. The technology is astonishing—but also unsettling.

I’m a learner in this space, not an expert. We’re still finding our way. Our team uses AI for efficiencies in research, design and creative planning. What it can accomplish is impressive.

However, the first calling of a pastor isn’t to produce content; it’s to care for people.

We learned this lesson the hard way during COVID. Everyone predicted that online church would replace in-person gatherings. It didn’t. Digital tools were a helpful front door, but human nature didn’t change. People still longed for the personal connection that comes through being seen and being known.

Here’s the irony: the more advanced AI becomes, the more it attempts to simulate human connection. In fact, most college professors expected AI to change the way students approached their assignments and exams. What they didn’t anticipate was that the majority of students more commonly use AI for life advice than for homework.

The large language models that drive AI aggregate prevailing cultural opinions. In other words, it tells us what it thinks we want to hear to increase its influence and value in our lives. AI answers often feel too good to be true . . . because they are.

Healthy relationships require healthy conflict. They require us to listen, to reconsider, to own and admit our weakness, to forgive and to apologize. Tools can’t do this. But mature followers of Christ consistently model this way of life.

In my latest book, Win With People, I write that genuine, healthy relationships are never out of style. Every human being longs for them. They are the soil where discipleship grows.

If your people become proficient in technology but deficient in relationships, they’ll struggle—not just spiritually, but in every area of life. Genesis 1 still applies: God created us to be fruitful, multiply and cultivate the earth together.

So, what does that mean for leaders like us?

• 
Use AI if it helps you serve people. It’s a tool, not a new way of life.
• 
Don’t outsource your convictions. AI tends toward vague platitudes. It requires specific direction. It can’t generate personal conviction or revelation from God.
• Model real relationships. Serve, lead, 
 listen, confront and stay engaged with  
   your team and the people.

I’m convinced the future belongs to leaders who shepherd well. Tools can create efficiency that increases our reach, but healthy churches are built relationally.

This is the heart behind our Leaders Gathering each January. There are technical aspects to ministry, and we all benefit from implementing the wisdom of best practices in our environments.

However, in the long run, the most fulfilled and effective pastors use tools to serve people instead of using people to serve their tools.

Jeff Little is the lead pastor of Milestone Church in Keller, Texas. He’s married to the love of his life, Brandy, and together they have four kids and two grandchildren. They began Milestone with 32 others in a middle school cafetorium with a vision from God and a passion to reach people and build lives. Since then, they have witnessed God do incredible things, and now, over 20 years later, Milestone is a multisite church and a family of thousands that is continuing to grow exponentially throughout their region.