Should Churches Use AI for Social Media?
CHURCH MEDIA = WORSHIP
Ask your local pastor, “What is the role of Social Media in the church?” Most would see it as a “communication pathway, the Gen-Z inbox, or a marketing platform.” However, during my time serving as Communications Director at a church in the heart of California's Central Coast, I came to a very different belief system. I believe that Social Media should be viewed as an altar, or at the very least a continuation of the pulpit.
Today, we live in a world that prioritizes efficiency and returns over beauty or intention. However, as the Epistle of St. James 1:27 says, we find exactly what the church is to do with its intentions: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” If Pure Religion is to remain unspotted from the world, then our Church should remain free of the world’s priorities. Efficiency and returns should hardly be the sole focus for the Church.
I believe that everything the Church creates should be a beautiful aroma to the Lord, and that everything she touches should be done with a heart of worship toward her Bridegroom. Following this reasoning, everything from our song selections on Sunday morning to the content we post online should be not only human-made, but created through a heart of worship.
Abraham and Isaac (Titian)
WORSHIP IS SACRIFICE
I know it’s a question as old as time, but what do we mean when we say the word “worship?” Perhaps more importantly, pluck a non-believer from a crowd and plop them into any random Sunday Service across North America, and what do they both see and hear worship as? What does the average parishioner learn worship to be? What does Scripture teach worship to be?
Now, I am no pastor; neither have I attended any form of seminary or Bible college, so I am going to rely on R.T. Kendall here: “How a word is first used in the Bible largely determines how it is understood afterward.” So when is the first time the word “Worship” is used in Scripture? In Genesis 22:5, “Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Abraham and Isaac were ascending the hill in order to do what? Offer up a sacrifice to the Lord. Worship, therefore, as its chief priority, should be a sacrifice. Or as St. Paul says in his Epistles to the Romans, “As a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Worship is something that is given, and its worth lies in the heart of love that offers it.
WHAT IS AI?
Among other things, Artificial Intelligence are absolutely massive collections of information, fed into giant models that interpret information and ultimately create human-desired responses from that said information. In our post-2022 world, when people say AI, they usually are talking about Large Language Models, or LLMs. These are models that are often trained to reply to human-written prompts in human-like ways. Whether that be realistic images or designs, long drawn-out paragraphs of text, or even entire webpages built from scratch from LLMs. So what does this have to do with Social Media?
Well, we’ve already established that everything a church should produce should be worship. Which, of course, includes its social media content. So let me ask you a simple question: can AIs worship? A model can generate a flyer, it can even place a Bible verse on a colorful unique gradient and write a caption that sounds thoughtful, warm and intelligent. What it cannot do is worship. Robert Francis Prevost writes that AIs “do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean,” and worship itself is sacrifice in love toward God.
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
Christ said in the Gospel of St. John 4:23-24, that the Father seeks worshippers, “Who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.” The LLMs we use today, sure, have been given swaths of information and truth, but what they have not received, and what we will never be able to give them, is the Holy Spirit. God alone dispenses Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit, which means we, as mere humans, can never give AI enough information or truth to simulate true worship.
Now you might come to me and say, “AI is just a tool. The church didn’t build its cathedrals without those!” I’d reply that a tool extends the worker’s hands, whereas what I believe AI does is substitute for the worker himself. I would also come alongside you and say that yes, tools have always been used by the church. From the printing press to projectors, lights, and cameras, the church is given these tools as talents to be learned and used. What I would argue is that a greater tool that many churches have neglected is, of course, Social Media.
OUR 0% AI PROMISE
This is where our convictions have become business decisions. Here at Church Content Co., we will never use AI to create client content. If anyone is more convicted about this than I am, it is me, AJ Slobig, and I scrupulously ensure every caption, graphic, email, and video is made by a person who loves the Lord and wants to bring him glory through their gifts and talents as designers and copywriters.
I used to tell new trainees, “Church media is worship. If you don’t see it that way, we’re the wrong business partner.” You’ll probably hear me still say it to you. If you want the cheapest way to fill a calendar with Social Media content, there are many other options besides Church Content Co., but if you want your sermon handled with love and care by people who treat it as an offering to the Lord on His throne, that is the only kind of partner we know how to be.
So to answer our original question here in the title, “No. I do not believe churches should ever use AI to create social media content, and I actually think it is an absolute sin to substitute what ought to be an act of worship with the work of AI, which has no ability to love God.” Let’s make an effort, whether that be partnering with us or simply setting a standard across our congregations, to never give God something not glorifying to him, lest we fall into the original sin of Cain. Instead, may we press on, offering the Lord the firstfruits of our talents, and may our offerings be pleasing to Him by faith and thanksgiving.
God bless my friend!
And thanks for reading!
AJ SLOBIG
Co-Owner of Church Content Co.
