So-called “generative AI” like the (in)famous ChatGPT will change how most white-collar works work.
I attended the Higher Learning Commission Conference this past weekend, where one of the keynote speakers, Daniel Susskind, talked about how AI will likely change the way doctors, lawyers, analysts, consultants, and, yes, teachers perform their jobs.
Susskind is a research professor in economics at King’s College in London. He is the author of multiple books about technology’s impacts on work, most recently “A World without Work.” The title plays on the widespread fear of AI taking over “knowledge” jobs like “research professor in economics.”
But Susskind paints a different picture than AI robots and chat-bots becoming lawyers, doctors, and professors. Instead of AI replacing entire jobs, he argued in his keynote, AI will replace some tasks within jobs. A job, after all, is a set of tasks.
Some of those tasks can be perfomed better, faster, and cheaper with ChatGPT, while other tasks may be performed better by humans.
Which brings me to this email’s topic: pastoring.
A pastor or bible teacher performs many different tasks. The vast majority of their time goes into the weekly sermon or the weekly bible lesson. According to sociologist Josh Packard’s research in “Church Refugees,” 60+ hours may go into the Sunday morning service between the pastor, the worship leader, the worship band, the hospitality team, and so on. Having taught some bible studies, I can attest to the hours that true preparation can require.
But what if pastors and bible teachers could take back some of those hours? What if they could have ChatGPT spit out a sermon or lesson, edit the sermon or lesson, and then devote most of their time to pastoral care, to connecting with their congregants and bible study members?
People would enjoy closer, stronger mentorship and relationship with their spiritual guides, and those guides would burn out much, much less.
What do you think? How will AI change the work of the church? Let me know in the comments.