Category Archives: technologyinministry

Virtual Public Lecture: You Are Not A Machine: Fruitful Disciple-Making In An Artificial World

You are invited to a virtual public lecture presented by Ambrose University.

https://ambrose.edu/event/3341

Description: Many of our discipleship metaphors and understandings come from a mechanical view of the world shaped by technological advancements largely foreign to the agrarian world of the Bible and the metaphors Jesus used. If metaphors shape our world and help us understand the abstract, then how might the machine-ladened metaphors we’ve used warp our view of discipleship, and what can we do about it?

Speaker Bio: Rev. Dr. Bryce Ashlin-Mayo (DMin, George Fox University) served for twenty-five years as a pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada, most recently as Lead Pastor of Westlife Church. Bryce is currently Dean of Theology and Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta. Bryce has written several books on social media and digital ministry including, “Digital Mission: A Practical Guide for Ministry Online.”

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the Future Pastoral Ministry

***This post was written entirely by AI (I asked it to write a blog post on using AI as a pastor). It is posted intentionally without edit or comment***

As a pastor, you may be wondering how you can incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into your work to better serve your congregants and improve your ministry. In this blog post, we will explore some ways that AI can be used as a pastor, as well as some potential benefits and challenges to consider.

One way that AI can be used as a pastor is through the use of chatbots. Chatbots are computer programs that are designed to simulate conversation with human users, often through messaging applications, websites, or mobile apps. As a pastor, you could use a chatbot to provide information and resources to your congregants, answer frequently asked questions, or even provide spiritual guidance and support. For example, you could set up a chatbot on your church’s website that allows people to ask questions or share their struggles, and the chatbot could provide personalized responses based on the information it has been trained on. This could be especially helpful for people who may not feel comfortable reaching out to a pastor in person or may not have access to traditional pastoral care.

Another way that AI can be used as a pastor is through the use of natural language processing (NLP) algorithms. NLP algorithms are designed to understand and analyze human language, and they can be used to analyze texts such as sermons, Bible verses, or other spiritual writings. As a pastor, you could use NLP algorithms to help you understand the themes and patterns in your own writing and teaching, or to find relevant passages from the Bible or other spiritual texts. You could also use NLP algorithms to analyze the language and sentiments of your congregants, which could help you tailor your messages and support to their needs.

AI can also be used as a pastor through the use of virtual assistants. Virtual assistants are computer programs that are designed to perform tasks and answer questions for users. As a pastor, you could use a virtual assistant to help you manage your schedule, organize your tasks, or keep track of important information. For example, you could set up a virtual assistant to send reminders about meetings or deadlines, or to help you find relevant resources or information. This could help you save time and energy, allowing you to focus on the more important aspects of your ministry.

There are many potential benefits to using AI as a pastor. One of the main benefits is that it can help you reach more people and provide support to a larger number of congregants. For example, a chatbot or virtual assistant could be available 24/7, allowing people to access support and resources at any time of day. AI can also help you personalize your support and care to better meet the needs of your congregants. For example, a chatbot or NLP algorithm could analyze the language and sentiments of your congregants to provide more targeted and relevant responses. Finally, AI can help you save time and energy, allowing you to focus on the more important aspects of your ministry.

However, there are also some challenges to consider when using AI as a pastor. One potential challenge is that AI may not be able to fully replicate the human element of pastoral care. While AI can provide information and support, it may not be able to provide the same level of emotional support or deep understanding that a human pastor can. It is important to recognize the limitations of AI and to ensure that it is used in a way that complements, rather than replaces, human pastoral care.

Another potential challenge is that AI may raise ethical concerns or raise questions about the role of technology in ministry. It is important to consider these issues and to have open and honest conversations with your congregants about the use of AI in your ministry.

In conclusion, AI has the potential to revolutionize pastoral care and ministry in many ways.

***This post was written entirely by AI (ChatGPT) – openai.com***

Effective Online Ministry Workshops/Course 2021

As the church begins to regather in person, it is vital that we don’t lose all the digital advancements we made while critically evaluating and reflecting on our digital ministry. Through a series of three workshops, we will seek to understand digital culture, evaluate what worked in the last year, and begin to design a long-term online ministry strategy for the future for either a fully digital ministry or a hybrid approach.

It will examine how the internet and social media is profoundly changing culture and explore how the Church can effectively engage this new medium for the advancement of God’s kingdom and mission.

Session #1 (Aug. 5) – Understanding Digital Culture (and how it is different than in-person): Bringing Theology and Media Ecology Together.

Session #2 (Aug. 12)– Learning about Evaluating the Nut and Bolts (Bits and Bytes) of Online Ministry: Especially Hybrid (Digital/in-Person) Ministry Strategies and Methodologies.

Session #3 (Aug. 19) – Designing a Long-term Implementable Online Ministry Strategy

The course is also available for credit at Ambrose University and Seminary.

For more information and to register:

Whatever You Do, Don’t Do This

Whatever You Do, Don’t Do This: A Lesson from GameStop for the Church

Several weeks ago, amateur stock traders rallied together to boost the stock of GameStop, artificially inflating the stock price and disrupting the stock market.  Although Wallstreet investors were betting on GameStop’s inevitable demise (GameStop is like Blockbuster for video games), the amateur traders manipulated the system for their benefit.  They drove the stock price up and, if they bought low and sold high, profited while those on Wall Street lost.

Beyond the sensational headlines of this modern-day participatory culture case study with a David & Goliath edge, is an undeniable reality that, in spite of the temporary surge in stock enthusiasm, GameStop’s out-of-date business model will not be profitable in our increasingly downloadable world.

I believe a similar storyline has started to play itself out with the Church.  As the Church prepares to enter a post-Covid world, there will be many church leaders who will rush back to reopening and abandon their digital expressions, ministries and methodologies as they do.  As we embrace the promise of re-opening in society, we are at risk of “flooding the market” and buying stock in our previous out-of-date and ineffective ministry methodologies.  We will be tempted to trade in false hope!

As a church leader, you are entering a precarious season with a major temptation.  With accelerating vaccine rollouts (yay!) and the promise of things opening up again (yay!), the temptation of the church will be to go back to the way it was rather than the way it needs to be.

The lure will be strong!  We will be tempted to go back to what we knew, even if it stopped working long before Covid struck.  This will be the case for education models, business plans, architectural design, and churches.  In our rush for normalcy, we are at risk of selectively forgetting our previous ineffectiveness.  We’ll forget that overall church attendance, giving and engagement (across all denominations) were all trending downward before the pandemic.  To think the trend will magically reverse as we enter a “new normal” with an altered world is naive foolishness.  Will it feel good again to do things we are highly competent at?  Yes.  Will it be as effective as before?  No.  Although it may feel good to us, it will not, necessarily. mean it will be good for the church.

This is not a new human temptation.  Consider the Israelites in the desert.  It wasn’t long after their exodus from Egypt that they longed to go back.  Even though it was terrible, they longed for the familiar and predictable.  We are the same.  We, too, are tempted to just go back to the old way of doing things, even if it didn’t work, rather than adapt, learn, grow, change and redeploy for a new post-Covid world.  I don’t blame anyone for the temptation.  A year of learning new ways of doing things is exhausting; feeling like a fish out of water is uncomfortable.  However, to abandon all the lessons we have learned, the new methodologies we have discovered, the skills for innovation we have embraced and to revert back to the old way of doing things in a world that has been altered forever (especially when the old way of doing things was universally determined as ineffective) would not be wise.  It will be easy, tempting and comfortable, but it won’t be good leadership.

What wasn’t working before, won’t magically work now.  Society has taken ten years of change and condensed it into one.  If our evangelism and discipleship ministries weren’t effective before, resurrecting them post-pandemic won’t make them work.  Additionally, not everyone will come back in-person.  Some will prefer online engagement.  You may disagree (especially if you, personally, prefer in-person expressions) but there are people in our church communities who will desire to stay connected exclusively online or use online engagement as a way to augment their in-person participation.  We can’t ignore this group in our rush to in-person gatherings.  If we do, we do so at our peril.

We are all tired of change and we will all be tempted to just move back into the well-worn ruts of previous (pre-Covid) ministry methodologies.  I believe we are at a crossroads to either change and adapt to our emerging world or devolve back into a church that was already waning in effectiveness, blissfully adopting out-of-date methodologies for a world that no longer exists.  Nostalgia may feel good, but it is a sterile environment for conceiving vision.

As you look ahead, recognize the long-term impact of your choices and commit to move against your natural impulse and use this time to implement the long-term change needed.  Refuse to go back to the way things were.  Refuse to embrace ineffectiveness because it feels comfortable.  Whatever you do, don’t do this!

Ministry in Digital Culture: This Time It’s Personal

Although Jaws IV is arguably the worst of the Jaws film franchise and worthy of our collective amnesia, its tagline has defied the fate of the film and remained in the cultural ether: “This Time It’s Personal.”  This memorable line has permeated culture more than the scent of chum in water during shark hunting season. 

This phrase also encapsulates the reality of digital technology and the times we are in.  We live in the digital age of personalization where everything we do is customized to us.  We have personalized home screens on our devices, personalized movie suggestions on Netflix, personalized stores on Amazon, personalized Apple/Spotify music channels and personalized newsfeeds.  All of which have algorithms that curate the content we consume.  Separate from the dangers of this (we’ll address them later), people increasingly expect a personalized experience in digital space.  Unlike mass media where things were necessarily impersonal and generic, digital culture is incredibly personal and specific.

The personal nature of digital technology is partially why although people want to participate in the content they consume, they also prefer to wait in digital anonymity deciding if/when to step into digital view.  Digital space is intimate space and deeply personal.  Stepping into view means not just stepping out of anonymity but into intimacy.  For example, when one comments on a video or live feed, it means linking their profile to their comment and exiting the comfort of (perceived) digital anonymity for the spotlight of digital intimacy.  This is why digital space also provides the user with the unique ability to decide when and how known they want to be.  This is a new [digital] cultural norm, and we need to recalibrate our means of engagement to adapt.

In digital culture, pastors and church leaders must provide increased space for people to feel comfortable online before an expectation of engagement.  The challenge is, we are accustomed to impersonal communication and engagement with people in public in-person space that operated under a different social contract and norm.  As a result, our in-person and mass media influenced strategies and methodologies were often depersonalized as a result.  However, digital is different.  It is highly personal and, by the very nature of digital, more intimate.

Therefore, as you consider your ministry, how can you make your preaching, communication, online interactions, etc. as personal as possible?  How can you allow a safe initial engagement online to build trust and allow people a safe way to engage?  How can your preaching become even more proprietary (personal) to your people?  In other words, how can you make it more specific to your congregation as opposed to the generic forms of communication of mass media?  How can your online communications and mailing lists be more personalized (MailChimp and others can do this)?  How can your church advertising become more targeted and personal to the people you are trying to reach (all digital advertising, unlike mass media advertising, is personalized and targeted)?  As we move increasingly into digital culture, we will need to make our ministries and communications more personal as we do.

As you explore this in your ministry, a warning.  As Marshall McLuhan argues in his book Four Laws of Media (Technology), all media (technology) when taken to its extreme reverses on itself.  This too is the danger of personalization.  Taken to the extreme, we become addicted to personalization and it can fester into hyper-individualism and selfishness. 

Unlike what online algorithms tell us, everything is not about us.  One of the inherent dangers with the personalization of information, news, movies, music, etc. is that we begin to lose the skill of empathy and listening to others in the process.  As you pursue increasing ways to personalize your ministry, be aware of this potential and protect against it.  Teach about empathy, avoid ministry silos that can be common, intentionally breach the generational divide, etc.

There is another famous line from the original Jaws that is apt in this discussion, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” 

As we get a bigger boat online, may we be aware of our tendency to fill it with people just like us.  May we be reminded that love suffocates in sameness.  May we, in our desire for personalization, not lose sight of the mission that takes difference to accomplish.