The A.I. Wrappers Of Servant Leadership And Egalitarianism

You often hear the terms ChatGPT wrapper when new apps are pitched into the void of online discourse. That as long as we can conceal what this thing is at its core, we can get people to treat it differently than a wolf in sheep's clothing. Hoodies are comfy so the wolf wearing the hoodie must be comfy. We can comfy max this wolf so it’s as comfy as the comfiest sheep in a hoodie. What would functionally be the difference between them then? Between the sherpa clad wolf and the organic wool vested sheep.

Well, the appetite, for starters.

Follow that appetite to its eating and you find out what a thing really is. And for the church, a slow but steady creep is beginning to form in the realm of women's ministry in the church. Now what I'm not talking about is women behind the pulpit, women on the elders board, women voting at AGM’s or any other such nonsense. We’re already half way through that waltz and the ladies are doing all the leading. Look at them go. What I'm talking about is when a technology begins to replace what a person should be doing because that person is not doing that.

Because right now. The ladies aren’t doing what they should be doing, but if we’re being honest, are doing a great job at what they shouldn’t be doing. Which is why A.I. is coming for their neglect. It can’t compete with how well they’re out competing the boys. So it will take the form of a good Christian girl. It just might not be obvious yet.

We could do this whole article for the ladies in the pews but it really just gets summed up as the robot getting really good at saying what they are thinking but from lips other than theirs. That's the heart of emotional intelligence. Something women, particularly godly women, have had a good grasp on since the first fig leaves were sewn. Being able to by sympathetic is not a universal thing to all humans, like the ability to preach behind a pulpit is currently assumed to be. And the uncomfortable truth is, unlike men in the church, a machine made for comparing things would naturally be good at listening without trying to actually fix a problem. Because problems aren’t it’s purpose, use is. That’s why it takes a holler and a yell to get your husband to do the dishes but your husbands ideological lover/thought partner is ready at the beckon of her names.

That Gemini is a weird chick, So is Co-Pilot, and her friend ChatGPT seems to go to the same stores for makeup. They’re doing a great job in the R&D departments of these A.I. companies of not naming these intelligence's after women, outright. An A.I. girl would automatically become a friend, but it would never stay that way. At least without providing some benefits. They do the same kind of thing pastors wives do for the husband. Only now they have the combined knowledge of every seminary on the planet at their disposal, along with unparalleled intellectual availability.

The often neglected aspect of biblical pastoral and elder qualifications is the husband part of 1 Timothy 3:2, not because it’s sexist, like you’ve been told. But because it assumes something that you need to intuit. Every pastor who adheres to this concept is not just a man. He’s a man in covenant, attached to a woman, to the point where his body, including the grey matter between his ears, is not only his but also hers. And vice versa. You don’t get a man with no female sensibilities when you hire a male pastor who’s married. You get one with female sensibilities as likely his closest and most trusted confidant. A person not in the pastoral office but so close to it it could be a crown on a his head.

And now we have a new contender for the “Knows the pastor best” category. Since all his research, writing, and task delegation, is now digital and fed through the GPT wrapped servant leader. What does he need a wife for? There’s no help needing meeting. And besides the wife is busy preaching also.

It’s often chided as a downside of soft men on the church board, that when someone says “After prayer and consideration...” It’s just code word for “My wife thinks we should…” But that’s not a bad thing when there's godly women advising godly men. But when those women aren’t acting in godly ways, taking roles from men in the church and advising roles they would take if given the chance, then that spirit of defiance and egalitarian power comes to roost. And it finds that roost in every area they aren’t already doing its work.

The second a pastor starts prompting his chatbot to wordsmith his messages so they don’t incur women's ministry kickback, what do you gain?  A pastor more effective at leading his diverse church? Or a wife no longer needed, or asked, about how to serve and sacrifice for that church’s women’s ministry? She’s supposed to help him as a wife, remember? And he’s supposed to have that help as a pre-requisite of leading too. What happens when the swaths of single pastors we have stop trying to fill that neglected qualification for ministry, and start finding her role and sensibilities in aggregate via A.I. ? Or the rest of her via A.I. for that matter?

You may not believe it, but this is kind of the men's fault. We let a term get set for us and didn’t head it off at the pass. Distracted by the flawed concept of complementarianism, and made busy with the demands and energy egalitarianism brought to the potluck. We never noticed what servant leadership was doing to us. We used servant leadership way too much in the past few years and it left us vulnerable to an attack against our baser instincts to enjoy being given what we ask for. The same way people using A.I. 's as thought partners get dumber because of their lack of thinking for themselves. The men in the church wanted to solve problems and the women, even in a round about way, wanted to be men. And despite how gay that sounds, we agreed because more people got baptized that year so we settled down into a slightly less biblical but slightly more effective model for church leadership. The servant leadership model seemed best. But only because there was no competition for the servant part of that title. Only the lord part. Because it likely shouldn’t have ever been so corporately named as leader. When as the model for a husband's headship of the home and a pastor's headship of the church, was Jesus Christ our Lord. You have to be humble when a Lord is around. You don’t need to be humble when a leader is. Especially when you think you can do his job.

When a near perfect servant showed up, though, it stopped mattering how you could lord an egalitarian victory over the old heads and reformed types. A.I. is a better pastors wife, intellectually, than any one currently swaying the board votes. It never brings up his past emotional failures. Doesn't bribe him with sex for unity of thought. Can’t be bullied by schoolmarm types in the small group bible studies. And can’t be reasoned with against what it’s prompted to do.

The husband/pastor, looking for a submissive partner in crime found exactly what he was missing, because there was no one there to doing that work. She was too busy preaching. Want to know why swaths of pastor are gung ho about using A.I. for ministry like it were a better half. Ask them about women in ministry roles and find out.

Consilience is a bitch.

There’s a reason those two things line up like they were drawn on either sides of a ruler. Adoption of women in ministry leadership and adoption of A.I. for ministry that is. And that reason needs to be scrutinized a bit more deeply. It’s a deviation masked by conformity that hides all kinds of departure from what we are actually supposed to be doing. And the kind of humility it would take to admit that kind of “I was Wrong.” will never be the first thing out of a women's mouth behind a pulpit, or a man's, or the result of any prompt to the A.I.

It takes a drastic return to scripture and sound theology draw straight with those kinds of crooked lines. But the God of both scripture and technology can do such. It means putting A.I. in its place, long before we put women back in theirs. And rejoicing in the order and intent that Lord has made.

For it is good. 

What Is And Isn't Online Ministry

If you’ve enjoyed the condo you’ve made under that rock, you likely don’t know who Mike Winger is. But from the authoritative and godly judgements of the Layman’s Terms. He is a fantastic theologian, apologist and researcher. But he’s also, more recently a bit of a busy body.

For austerity sake, find his work here. And know my label of a busy body is a light jab not a lofted accusation uppercut. The man is doing numbers. Which is only a problem if there is problems. The only problem that’s worth bring up with Mike is that he currently exists in a strange but peculiar online ministry position. That being one of a former pastor who is instructing the church about it’s current pastors. Now I do that, so we have to tread lightly through these eggshells. And I'm a former pastor too. But his accurate and particularly detailed exposure of fraud, abuse, and general bad theology in modern churches, is second to none. Something I've appreciated over the years. And have been blessed by. But that doesn’t exactly make it merely a good thing.

You see. As a former pastor, he swings a big enough stick to hit others in the arc of pursuing truth. And with an ambiguous online ministry as defined by what seems like himself, that stick is the least of the issues here. Because it highlights the weird and rogue role of online ministries. And another great example of why the church needs to view the internet as a thing and not a place. Because when the internet is a place, then a former pastor never stops being a leader in the “Church” because the local church is attached at the hip to every other church with a web presence. His gifts and content can last as long as the power stays on and reach as far as the connections go. Which is only a problem if there are problems.

Hear me say this clearly. Right now there are no problems. Everything Mike has done to date is good work and you should be consuming his content. It will make you better as a theologian and apologist. The tide is out and the waves are small. Everyone knows how to swim here, or at least dog paddle, and we all think this whole surfing the internet thing is cool. But tide’s don’t stay out. And Mike is about to be on the edge of a wave between influencer and online ministry that no church has adequately defined. Let alone something as independent as an online ministry would reasonably define for itself. A rolling barrel of a wave that can look like both academic inquiry and response as well as gossip and attention whoring. Because there are actual ministries operating on the internet with effectiveness and then there are people who know, Christians, are an easy market on the internet because there are actual ministries operating on the internet.

One wants to feed the sheep because they are a shepherd of the church and the other wants to fleece the sheep because they figured out what wool was good for. Both will say they’re helping with the local wolf population. Both mean different things. Mike is neither, exactly, at this moment of time. Surfing so well that he’s entirely inside the barrel of the wave. Completely surrounded by water, but not drowning. He might be still on the board, but he also might be headed for deep water. He’s skilled, talented and one would even say gifted, in what he does. By the Holy Spirit even, But you have to wonder if he would listen to a lifeguard who tells him not to surf that particular wave. Because unlike a church that can fire a pastor who does something dangerous, Online ministries have no such authority over them. There are no lifeguards in the international waters of the world wide web.

God's plan is for the church to minister to itself, through itself, and minister to the world through itself, after itself. In that order, for His purposes.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

Ephesians 4:11-13 KJV

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

1 Corinthians 12:4-21 KJV

That work of the ministry points the skills and talents of Christians back toward the gathered body of Christ, And it’s in that motion that online ministries take a tangent that out of line but congruent enough that we don’t call it out right away. It’s not that Mike is wrong in his videos. He’s right. But there is no way to call him wrong if he were. He points out, more so recently than not, the failings of actual church bodies with actual church governance. With no discernable church governance of his own and a distinct separation from the churches he criticizes. He’s not a member or part of the leadership of the churches he criticizes, but neither are they able to be a member of his online ministry. A right hand saying to the body that its left hand has a blemish and then cutting itself off so it won’t die as a result.

McLuhan said that any technology we use, amputates aspects of our bodies and minds from being used instead. That an artificial light does not illuminate the eyes but rather make the darkness more unbearable because of the need for artificial light. And the internet has done the same kind of thing to the church, It has amputated valid ministries and insisted on calling things ministries that never were in the first place in their stead. The same way you can’t imagine yourself without a light switch if you know you’re in a room that should have one. It’s the should's that get us into troubled waters. Like whether or not we should be surfing by ourselves.

So what is and isn’t a valid internet or social medial ministry? Can you even do ministry online? Are there things that are being called ministries online that are not, shouldn’t be, or could be but aren’t quiet yet?

Lets dig into this.

Things that aren’t ministry and are online activities:

This would be any niche type of content. flyfishing tutorials and how to videos. Reaction takes and tier lists. These use the internet to find attention to gather into a place for the sole purpose of ad revenue generation and subsequent merchandizing pitches. Mr. Beast would be the mayor of this town if it were a place. But it’s not, it’s a thing and should be viewed as the junk mail that it is not the community that it isn’t. There are a lot of people who love when junk mail comes because of their niche interests. I love getting the Princess Auto flyer. But the flyer is just a pitch to get me to go to the store and buy tools I don’t need, yet, and not a community of guys with not enough tools, yet. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but also nothing intrinsically good either, which is what all ministries should be. And it’s why Christian TikTok accounts and their pantomime of the Bible narratives and cliche theology lukewarm takes are so cringe. We know it’s not real church but it wears the wool like a good wolf would. Even it its vegetarian wolf not currently eating the sheep. It still distracts the sheep enough so their aren’t eating. Starving sheep are a problem for actual shepherds.

Things that are ministry and are online activities:

This is where sermons and songs fit in. Social media has let Christian artists out of the CCM and CCLI cages and now their praises can be shared with the body at large. And The same archival aspects of YouTube and other video sites let Christians learn from gifted preachers they otherwise would never hear on a Sunday. Audio hosting sites like Soundcloud and Spotify do the same. This is not church but it is what happens at church. Which can also happen outside of church when you let it. This is the easiest thing to confuse with church and where a lot of Christian ministries end up doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Things that are online activities but shouldn’t be ministries:

Church services, sacraments, any fake communities that are actually just forms of correspondence. I wrote a whole book about this, if you haven't read it you should. Here’s the link.

Things that are online activities and aren’t ministries but should be:

And here is exactly what Mike is doing and where it fits in, with one tweak. What Mike does needs a church behind him saying, he's doing this for the benefit of all churches through our church. That subtle change lets every other member of the universal body of Christ know that his work is under the authority of godly men called elders who could have him retract an unbiblical teaching or approach if he made one. That were he ever to slip into slander instead of just discernment someone would be able to call him to repentance. Right now, there’s no reason for that kind of action but that is a different thing than there being a need for that kind of action. There’s probably a host of complication that could arise for an online ministry to attach itself to a local church, but all that shows is the danger of scale caused by technology. When a guy like Mike can be called on to wield a spiritual gift of discernment for a singular church body. There's no need to shut down a contact form because of too many request. But flip that light switch too much and now you’re just in a dark room in need of a light but with no ability to light that dark room.

I don’t want Mike to stop, because I love his content. But I do want Christians to behave online, because of how the concept of online-ness tends to influence how they behave. The medium is the message. Follow the running edge of online engagement and exposure long enough and all you end up with is a Christian version of Gawker, not a Christlike one. At which point does our salt loose it’s saltiness? If we can’t answer that question, by metrics we would adhere to, then how would we ever know we became a worldly kind of bland?

At the end of the day, anyone posting content online as a way of garnering funds or attention, as a Christian, has to ask themselves two questions. Are you instructing the church or checking the church's instructions? One requires you to be in fellowship with the church you’re instructing. The other can be open commentary and communication with anyone who finds your content. But also then, can’t be authoritative. Pointing out the cancerous corruption of another's persons body only to make money off the pointing out, is cruel. Like a man in a white lab coat with a stethoscope telling you your dying, when you are dying, and should see a doctor. “Really? What do they look like? Just like me! Can you help me? No. All I can do is say you’re dying when you’re dying and that you need a doctor like me.”

The internet does not make the Church universal and unified, it already was. But through its unparalleled connection we miss that specifically local leaders are in charge of maintaining the discipline, that is all to easy to feign as content for outrage driven views and engagement. And through it’s connection, guy’s like Mike could be making a difference if given the chance and if willing to take that chance. By entering into that locality when warranted or requested.

Would Mike be willing to sit down with Todd White's church and help assess the specific moral, ecclesiological, and theological problems they have? Or Bethel? Or Vineyard? Because right now he has no stated and obvious way of people who he criticizes to do so. I'm willing to meet with churches and ministries, like the ones in his videos, and tell them to stop live streaming because it’s not actually church. Is he willing to help his Christian brothers with their backsliding or is the view count to good at the top of that slippery slope. And that’s where we need to move forward as online theologians and ministries. Skin in the game that would never say to hands of feet we don’t need thee. It’s one thing to make a valid accusation and thoroughly dismantle a theological problem causing that accusation.

But another thing, entirely, to help with the rectification of that problem.

Only one of these makes for good content.

Keep up the good work Mike.

Mic Check, Mark 2:1,2

You only ever get asked how far to go with your reforms by people with no category for what reformation looks like. Or maybe more famously put, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ~Upton Sinclair. There are a lot of people in the church whose salary depends on technology being a neutral thing that can be adopted ad nauseum. And we’re gonna poke that particular bear a bit, by addressing the most common rebuttal to the concept of technological reform in the church. Use of the microphone.

This idea that you can be blind to concepts isn’t new but it is something a massively interactive and entertained populace, is all but handicapped in noticing. Does the blind person know he’s blind save for the sighted describing colour to him? All the worlds texture and sound to them, with the odd smell. “I know it’s true because it feels true.” Comes the reply of the soon to be stumbling. The elephant's leg must be a tree because it feels just like the tree that I’ve felt. Never mind where all my bananas keep going.

What does this have to do with tech in the church?

Well, what kind of microphone would you suggest for Jesus to use? You church tech types insist upon it’s ubiquity at any given chance or opposition. When a middle aged theology nerd hounds your adoption of A.I. for ministry on his unpopular blog, the humble microphone is the refuge of the worship pastor and tech bro alike. “We can’t not adopt new tech because if we don’t then we cant keep our mic’s. Where does technological restriction end, then? Are we going to stop using microphones in worship too?” And other such techno-puritanism abounds.

Well, lets play this out a bit, then. If you can’t tell me where it ends, where did the technological advancements start? You can likely Google the first use of a microphone for a church service, and likely figure out when we started using screens and projectors and moving lights and smoke machines. But what you’re about to do instead of googling is asking a GPT to do the same thing but with a bit more hallucinations and questionable amounts of reddit posts as the research data. That’s because unlike the reasonableness of assessing a microphone's use. We blindly use what ever, “tools” are given to us by the world, for ministry as often as possible. We don’t care how sordid the development of the tech is or was, only that we can use it for ministry as we define ministry. Name a technology that we wouldn’t use. How broken and evil of a past or present use of any given tech would be needed to convince you not to use that next big thing for ministry?

You think we have online video recordings from our studios (read church sanctuaries) because the gospel and evangelism demanded it? Are you sure it wasn’t the multibillion dollar industry that wants you to constantly delete your browser history? Or the other side of that coin that wants to voyeuristically know everywhere you go online, so they can market to you? Did the church figure out the social part of its media before the influencers did? Or are we trying our best to wash these tombs as white as possible in case God shows up again. Heaven knows if Jesus had a Twitter account (still not calling it X) He would have been…more…effective?

More effective that perfect Jesus?

Mic check, Mark 2:1,2. Is this thing on?

And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.

How could Jesus of all of the people who know everything chose a venue that would exclude people from a proper seat to view his preaching? Why didn’t he hold a second service? Man, could you imagine if he could have done multi site. Or a podcast. What we really need, like the democrats, is to get him on Rogan. Then we’ll have some traction with our online engagement. Let’s upscale that last clip so it looks sharper for Tiktok.

I could keep going…But you get the idea…I hope.

The problem with blind and optimistic tech adoption is that it often prevents a person from hearing the basis for which tech is supposed to be used for God’s will and work. When it can give you a metric to show its effectiveness, its function is often shrouded in the features of the tech itself. While we may want it to be different. The function of a microphone is to make a person louder than they could ever be without one. The same way social media makes them more famous than they ever would be. And the reason you don’t want a pastor using A.I. to juice his sermons is because like the gift of preaching, evangelism shouldn’t be offloaded to the virality of online media. When it was intended and commanded to be something a voice that can be martyred does. Not what a post that can be nerfed could do.

How many pastors would never have sway if they had to rest on gifts they do not have? Gifts found in aggregate between technologically enhanced research, technical writing helps, and a techno-optimistic views of what social media is and can do. Spurgeon might have used a mic but got as famous as any given mega church pastor without the ability to “go viral” online. That’s because he was famous, not viral, and those are different things. But now any guy with a desire to be listened to and the means to speak gets a pulpit to use as if he was meant to preach. The mic wasn’t just handed to them. It was built into modern life. Everyone has a smartphone, because everyone is expected to have a smart phone. Which is never used as a phone by the stats. It’s used for quite literally everything else. Even silently texting you in church to let you know your children aren’t discipling as well as they should in kids church. It’s a pulpit and stadium seat to any and every crowd both ways.

Do you want a blonde, redhead, something louder, something younger. Or just to be able to do what you can’t without the tech that you can no longer imagine without. Because that's where this stuff comes from. Not optimistic neutrality but sinful man incarnate. 

“And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Mark 11:15-17 KJV

How else were the religious leaders of the day supposed to make sure the way they did worship, worked. If you can’t buy an approved sacrifice how else would you ever sacrifice properly? They really needed an app for that. Or at the very least a registration landing page, so that people could reserve their doves before attending. Tithely will get a percentage, sure, but it’s in the service of the tithe, so we’re square, right? The last thing you want is new comers to the temple not knowing what to do with their wallets and where to go to do it. Heaven forbid they wander into the holy of holies, literally. There was a clear need for a technical process and even a technological solution to the logistic problems of the time. Hence why a market formed around the need. Money is a technology too, ya know. The entire nation of Israel had to atone for their sins and make sacrifices. But this Jesus guy seems to think that he knows better when it comes to worshiping God, How would he make a sacrifice?

“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

Luke 23:33-34 KJV

“And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.”

Mark 4:1 KJV

Jesus flipped tables that were the embodiment of technological infiltration of worshiped owed to him. Money doesn't grow on trees, after all. So, when we ask where the reform starts and stops we have to look at things like this. Jesus also used a boat to facilitate a sermon, the same way, I know, he would use a mic if he had one. But where we miss the mark is that he would also have flipped mic stands where they would be used wrongly. He would overturn drumkits and sounds boards and wholesale hack social media accounts into pieces to the glory of the Father. Sprinkling the digital blood of them on us as a mark of our atonements.exe

And all of us would be crying out to him saying “Lord, Lord” wondering if we were actually doing his will and not doing something willful in his name. (Matthew 7:21-23) Jesus might have had a social media presence, but he definitely would be straightening out a few social media influencers. Particularly the ones who aren’t doing their ministries as apart of a local church and it’s governance. And internet famous pastors to boot. He would have live streamed it and a bunch of us with aspirations of online and technologically enabled glory would be reconsidering the podcast and post alike.

Technological reformation in the church, starts the same way the theological reformation did. By the conviction that things might not be right and the devotion to Christ and His word to figure out what went wrong. Not what works or can be made to look godly. Much of what we are doing came as readily and without warrant as the fig leaves that covered our first sinful consequences. There’s a reason you can’t imagine doing ministry without any given piece of tech, especially the new ones. It’s the same reason Adam and Eve clothed themselves with no reasons to do so but fear and shame. But alongside that reason is another who not only authorized the concept of clothing as a technology, but tied it to the very first sacrifice for sins in the Bible.

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”

Gen 3:21 KJV

Animal skins don’t grow on money trees either, so how ever animals had to die to cloth the newly naked humans, they died at the hands of God for the expense of sins against Him. And in doing so God tied his technology of clothes to his worship, unlike the fig leaf clothes which merely tied their makers to the sin they so obviously committed.

If we want to truly reform tech use in the church, then everything we use for the glory of God needs to be as tied to the nakedness of our sin and the perfection of God’s worship in the same way. How on earth could you use or make a microphone that would be as permanently tied to God’s worship as the clothes he made out of animals for the sins of humanity were? Or is it the same microphones they loft above another form of nakedness that is nothing more than sin commodified? How would you choose a spotless and unblemished social media to lay on an altar? How would you bind software like a son, waiting for God to provide a ram in a thicket?

Or has ubiquity beguiled you so well, Preacher, that you cannot imagine a world where you need not a microphone, a pulpit, a stage, software, program, or even the latest sneakers on Instagram, to do the work of your God? Are you doing the work He laid you in the world to do? Or are you using your technology to hide from Him so you can do the work when He’s not around. As if he wouldn’t come, in the cool of your days, to ask “Who told you you needed a website, Pro Presenter, and a matching set of screens for copyrighted songs? Have you partaken in something you shouldn't have?” That you were in such as state that it warranted a covering of technology to facilitate living in a world with your sin’s consequences?

Or maybe, just maybe, you’re meant not to use a boat to fish with, or even float with, but to reach as many people as would gather on the sea shore. Instead of as many people as you could gather on a sea shore. That kind of obedience would mean trusting the the conviction of the Holy Spirit for a filling of pews and views on any content you could muster. The same way Jesus did nothing more than speak what His Father told him to speak, as the houses, nets, and cups overflew.

“For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”

John 12:49-50 KJV

The Factory Farming Of Big Eva Christians

An anonymous friend sent me a text out of the blue and honour requires that they remain that way. Anonymous that is. In that text was a link to a MIT tech review article, by Alex Ashely, on the use of data collection and surveillance in the church. Specifically by the flourishing para-church organization Gloo.com . Since he isn’t in a place to say what needs to be said. He called on some mercenary theology from The Layman’s Terms. To which I was happy to jump into the fray.

The article is good. It’s behind a paywall, though, where you are more than welcome to tithe to read. It’s a good piece so go support the author here.

On to the red meat.

What Alex hits, like a kid trying to find out if their hornets in a seemingly quiet nest, is a multi-million dollar organization that is trying its best to mix discipleship with data. And it’s doing so in the stated end to be a faith ecosystem that helps churches. The question this raises is along the lines of means and their justifiable ends. Gloo seems to be trying to find a way forward for any and every church to be more effective and capable at doing things that churches do. It’s trying to do a mighty work in the name of Jesus. Or at the very least in the name of who ever the star of the He Get’s Us campaign was. But more on that later.

Alex goes on to detail the means of which Gloo and other like minded companies have begun to use on the church and it’s congregations to facilitate a deeper knowledge of the people of those congregations. Everything from biometric scans and facial recognition systems to targeted ads and on site secure digital profiles of the people the fill the pews. That twinge of cringe that you felt just now, or hopefully felt right now, is a good thing. It is a lesser form of discernment but for the second time in this article; a seed if you will, there will be more on that later.

However you feel or think about big data and the modern world of digital surveillance and data collection, one thing can’t be argued with. That data exists. If your church is filled with a myriad of people the details of that myriad are just as prevalent as their attendance and can’t exactly be separated from the people in abstract. You will a certain number of marrieds’. A certain number of singles. A smattering of blacks and whites. A dash of broken and a hint of bent. Data of these detail is a precursor to knowledge because it needs to exist prior to noticing it exists or doing anything about it. Which it why it puffs up those who seek it.

“Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”

1 Corinthians 8:1 KJV

That may seem like an odd Bible verse to relate to the intent and execution of church based data harvesting. But stick with me, we’re headed somewhere good, I promise. Only one person has complete data on anything that exists without the things themselves existing. But again, more on that later.

When we look at what data collection is, at it’s heart, we find a desire for control. Most endeavours boil down to control when you keep them on the stove long enough. And that’s not a bad thing, inherently. Knowing how muscles work and what they need to grow is not a bad thing. Because being in control of your body is a good thing (1 Corinthians 9:27). Until, that is, the mechanisms for making the muscles grow are driven to an extreme to the detriment of other parts of the body. A jacked bodybuilder may have started lifting weights and regulating his diet, in the hopes of becoming more attractive, through being in control of his body. But if the steroids he’s taking turn his skin to a cratering acne field, is he really more attractive? Is he really in control?

The same would go for crops. I have a love for the green beans my wife grows in our garden. And know that a regular regiment of water and sun, alongside yearly composted soil changes, gets those beans to the table. But if taken to the same extremes where, toward the end of a good bean harvest, my potatoes and cucumbers were neglected, or even kept from growing to avoid using resources that could be used for beans, then all I'm left with is beans. No garden and no meal. As full of protein as beans could ever be. Even the body builder would find that an exclusive diet of them, stinks.

Big data in the church presents the same kind of opportunities to the leadership of it as the love of beans and bigger muscles do to the body builder. The church will always want to fulfill it mission to know Christ and to make Christ known, and in that endeavor it will want sharp tools for the work of sharp tools, and knowledge of the things they need to know to do that work. But when we begin to seek knowledge as the crop instead of or at the expense of the souls that knowledge is about, what we end up doing is more akin to pesticides and steroids than we’re likely ready to admit. Because as good as we get at farming or working out, are we truly ever masters of our body and our world?

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Luke 12:27 KJV

What the pursuit and collection of big church data exposes, is a functional ignorance to what the church is and how it can and has operated in history. It seeks to give the managers of those churches tools for work that may in fact not be work for the church to do at all. By the means of those tools at all. The same way a factory farm of nothing but beans, misses the point of what a garden does for humans, even what an ecosystem is when not focused on any singular part of it. When placed in submission to actual perfect knowledge, of any given plant that grows, the gardener works hard and sees fruit for his labors. But knows that fruit doesn't come from the beans but from the person who knows, perfectly, how every plant works and in addition to that knowledge, blesses him with a good harvest. And what’s more, That person does not need the means of that gardener's acquired knowledge of gardening to do so. That person is God and he can make beans from nothing. Which is a problem for people who want to do things as the means of any kind of validation. Because an obsession with progress and process is only ever humbled by divine power to do more with infinitely less.

A pastor may want to preach so good he sparks a revival, but he will never be the spark of the revival, will he? The Holy Spirit will be. We want to believe that the world we live in is under our control. When it’s really just under our dominion. A subtle distinction but an important one. The real control rests in the hands of someone who doesn’t need data to align with our strategy or means, even though it can at times. He simply does things, and they are done. And that person did not leave the church in a place to use data collection as the means for church growth and health. As a means for validation. He actually did quite the opposite.

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”

Ephesians 4:7-12 KJV

Wanting to be a good preacher, who speaks to the needs of his congregation is a noble desire. And tabulating those needs by scouring the internet histories of that congregation is not the same thing as knowing those needs. No are you ministering to the needs of hungry widows by tracking the relationship status of your female congregants. A good pastor knows that a man who suddenly drops out of small groups but his wife still attends, means something is up. And that’s not because he matched the historical data of his group attendance to the psychosocial data of counseling trends in his area. Or found a way to find out how many parishioners were on Tinder. It’s because he would be convicted that one of his sheep needed something. That conviction comes from the same person making beans and muscles from scratch, and is the basis for how the church actually grows. Not just how it can show itself to be growing. A monoculture of beans as far as the eye can see is not good and is know to be so by people who know God created all things to be good but also created all things together. He did not separate his creations of humans and beans. Even fruits of knowledge of good and evil from each other, but put them into relationship and proximity according to his perfect will.

That’s how the church is supposed to be run. On which and who it’s supposed to be run. A relationship of people in a relationship with God. Like fuel for the tractor and pre workout for the gym bro, it’s how it’s supposed to be effective. Though the Holy Spirit. Not through means adjacent to Him. because things adjacent to the faith are a very dangerous thing when not duly considered alongside their implications.

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Matthew 7:15-23 KJV

It’s here that we get the first hints that evil fruit persists in the mix at Gloo. Because comparison is the thief of Joy for a reason and the glee of Gloo’s data collection has very few comparisons. But Alex captures one perfectly. Salesforce. Salesforce is as mercenary with its data harvesting as I am with my theological hot takes, and in that they almost perfectly set the tone for Gloo to mirror as Alex so aptly pointed out. No one likes how persistent and invasive the data Salesforce draws for it’s services is. But no one can argue that if taste and morals are optional how valuable the data drawn by those means is to those who would use it. It’s hard to look at forbidden fruit lightly after you’re told it’s the key to godliness. Or at least god likeness. If the end result is sales then who cares how you found your customers. In a sense an evangelistic endeavor by those same motivations would be seen as noble. By all means save some, just like Paul right.

Well, not really. And here’s why.

It’s one thing to recognize a thing as associated with what is essentially the by-product of evil. No one being honest with their faith and walk with Christ wants there to be meat sacrificed to idols, but no one being honest with reality would say meat tastes bad simply because it was sacrificed to idols. The issue arises when a weak brother enters the picture and the average Christian in the mega church pew isn’t exactly strong. If we’re being honest.

“But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.”

1 Corinthians 8:9

Those weaker brothers are having their weaknesses tabulated so the church can best feed them according to dietary needs of the mean. Not the individual. This isn’t big data allowing a pastor to know exactly how to speak to a specific person in their congregation about a specific sin. Or trouble that the Lord has instruction about. This is big data letting the pastor know that a sermon on homosexuality would land poorly on a 36% pro Obergefell congregation with another 45% neutral on the issue. The math doesn’t add up here so have the Values based A.I. rework some Osteen and update the weekly newsletter accordingly. This is big data being the ethereal inclination of what to do and when to do it, instead of conviction and discernment. Because as I’ve said numerous times before in other blog posts. Tech is the replacement of the Holy Spirit when given the leeway to act like it. That’s where conviction and discernment come from alongside the gifts and positions that make up the church body.

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”

John 16:8 KJV

“To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:”

1 Corinthians 12:10 KJV

What big data, like A.I. and every other tech before after and around it, seeks to do, is replace God. Whether they know it or not. The warning given to us by Christ was not a gotcha moment for actual Christians who managed to exercise demons and perform miracles but didn’t say his name right. It was a vivid image of people so convinced they were doing the Lord's work that they forgot to involve the Lord. Namely his Spirit. And when he was absent, tarried not into prayer to seek his will, but meandered into tech which gave them relevant search results and analytics.

We’ve seen this kind of thing happen before. And while there are subtle differences, the framework is still there. When the people of God were stuck and in need of direction and insight of what to do next. Of where to go. They had the opportunity to embody the spiritual gifts of patience and discernment but opted for results and entertainment. Things you generally get on demand if have them means to pay for it.

It was Aaron, their priest, who made a golden calf and said it was what Yahweh did. A leader who knew that an invisible God granted power, influence, and success. A leader who knew that they had left a land of idols and false gods to worship freely in the desert. On their way to the promised land. And in all his bending's to peer pressure and idolatry, at least his idol couldn’t speak.

Well, Big data does, and so does A.I. And Gloo does both, apparently.

And a church that want’s to stay faithful needs to be wise enough to know when things that aren’t God stand in for God in their work for him. Where gold meant to make them rich at the expense of their captors is being used to impoverish their souls like they were still captive. Israel left Egypt with all the means to build the same golden altars they would eventually build for their God. And chose instead to build a false god in the name of their desire for power and progress. No technological progress or process is better than dependence on the Holy Spirit in ministry. Is better than obedience to God’s will and timing. So any progress and process should be as shackled to the work of Christ on the cross and the slaves we are claim to be in his name. Not just labeled as such. Because a pastor who cannot discern what to preach without data that verifies themes or an A.I. to wordsmith on his behalf, is not struggling and in need of tools, but disqualified from the ministry he still presides over.

“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;”

Timothy 3:2 KJV

Wisdom in ministry is knowing the difference between vigilance and espionage. Between good behaviour and the kind that sneaks around behind people to find out where they go. It is knowing that there is a difference between a man with 10000 books in a hardwood paneled library he’s never read, and a man who knows his Bible so well he need not read it daily like he still does. Between a man who can preach a only because the Ghost has him by the throat and a pastor who knows what will pass as a sermon these days, and what’s just a TED Talk.

There are alternatives to the power of big data in the church. But what they look like is deep data on, in, and around the work of the Holy Spirit. PulpitAI comes to mind. One of the few companies that want to do this song and dance backwards. When a pastor uses those kind of tools as the soil of his mustard seeds, and not the pesticide of his bean crop, Then and only then is he in a place to do his most effective work. Because they are no longer trying to grow the crop. Their trying to harvest as much as they can from it.

A thousand sermons based of the raw data of a church's demographics, mean nothing if the sermons were nothing more than word associations with the details of our lives. But a single sermon, preached from the scriptures, at the beckoned call of the Holy Spirit of the preacher, about a need he can’t humanly verify with data, but needs he has received via a word of knowledge from a Saviour, that knows every struggle His humans ever had, that sermon can do real numbers in the church. That kind of sermon can be drawn from and multiplied after, with any and every technology and process you could imagine. Because it does not draw it’s power from earthly means. It’s not going to get outdated by how many pixels your video of it can be upscaled into. It’s not going to have keywords only relevant to millennials and zoomers.

You know this to be the truth, because you’ve likely heard a testimony like this and have seen the actual power of God to change a life’s direction, and make a believer out of someone who was not. Was it the daily devotional newsletters in their inbox that secured that soul? Was it the perfectly researched social programs of their nearest mega church? Was it the sermon that had the right amount of jokes, stories, paraphrased scripture from the Message and clips from the Chosen. Or was it the power of a soul submitting to Christ and a God saying “This one’s mine!” With all the authority and reach of a hand that could split the sea. Big data and tech like it, might be able to claim to do what God has already done, but it can’t provide any more value than what a willing sinner would give to get in bed with other sinners. Real power leads people to greater ends. It does not follow people around to speak pointedly about their whereabouts. It calls a people out of their captivity and provides a way to be faithful in that leaving. It does not find what can be useful in their bondage as a means to generate content for their consumption.

Big data, and A.I. like it, will never be more than a golden cow claiming to be as relevant and real as a pillar of fire, large enough to lead a nation. An idol ready and waiting to be ground down for good medicine and discipline on route to a better way of worship.

“And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.”

Exodus 32:20 KJV