How to Leverage AI for Your Church & Your Future with Kenny Jahng

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. Today’s podcast is the second of a two-part series (you can listen to part one of the podcast here) with Kenny Jahng, an expert when it comes to using AI in the church, and the founder of Big Click Syndicate.

In today’s episode we’re delving into the implications of AI, the fears surrounding it, and how it can be harnessed to help you in ministry.

* Using AI. // AI has been with us for a long time, used in places such as Google auto-complete, Amazon, and Netflix recommendations. It’s recently gained attention with the emergence of generative AI which works with people to create new things instead of just analyzing and manipulating existing things.

* Getting past FOLO. // Because it’s so pervasive in terms of its potential application, there are many questions and issues that using artificial intelligence brings up. Most notably there is a fear of looming obsolescence (FOLO) and that it will take over jobs. So in ministry there is the question of what is our responsibility to our staff in terms needing to up-skill or re-skill them to protect their jobs in a way to make them sustainable.

* Depending too much on technology? // Another concern that comes up is overdependence on technology and its impact on problem-solving abilities and mental health. Are we really putting meaning into what we do, or depending too much on the technology to get it done? What are humans’ purpose in life if AI machines can do everything for us better than we can? Lastly, there are moral and ethical implications of AI and the potential for misuse.

* Multi-modal in communication. // In spite of these questions and concerns, churches and ministries can learn to leverage AI technology effectively. There are four general buckets to think about where AI can help in your ministry. The first is communications. It may be better emails, social media, newsletters, bulletin inserts, and so on. AI is now multi-modal and does video generation, image generation, and audio generation, so anything having to do with communications is an easy place to envision AI helping.

* Research, analyze, organize, produce, and improve. // The second part to think about is research. AI can help you brainstorm, come up with topic suggestions, summarize contents, or gather information. The third bucket is analyzing and organizing information. AI is great with taking unstructured data, extracting the core concepts, and organizing it all. The last area is improvement. Because AI understands best practices and pattern recognition, it can help you produce and improve something like discussion questions. Or it can reframe content you’ve created so that it resonates better with different audiences.

* Train it so it can learn. // Kenny suggests we think of AI as a seminary student intern rather than a push-button solution. It’s intelligent and has a heart to serve, but won’t get things right all the time. Through conversation and redirection, you can train it so that it can learn.

* Don’t fall behind. // While AI is still in the early adopter phase, it is becoming increasingly pervasive and relevant in various industries, and it can revolutionize ministry too. It’s up to us as the church to not be left behind. The future of AI will accelerate and will provide opportunities for those who adopt, but drag those who don’t.

* Experiment with free tools. // Try out AI through free tools such as ChatGPT or Claude.ai. Copy and paste something you’ve written and ask it what you’re trying to get across and h...