AI: Imago Dei vs. Algorithm

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You ask a chatbot for a children’s session about Jonah and the whale. It builds a creative game, coloring sheets, a supply guide and is complete with a teaching outline. Unease arrives: Did a machine craft spiritual formation?

You find out that one of your church members turned to a chatbot for counseling and says that it helped turn their depression around. They share that they turn to it regularly to confide in.

You hear that young adults are struggling to find entry-level jobs. Some older, tenured workers have lost their jobs to younger employees who can do more with AI, and others have been replaced at their workplaces entirely by AI.

These are current realities that are happening on a small scale. Potentially, however, these scenarios could become commonplace. Moments like these are why the Church must root every AI conversation in one of the first concepts introduced in the Bible: Humans alone bear the image of God. Imago Dei.

Imago Dei: The Non-Negotiable Starting Point

Genesis 1:26-28 declares that humanity is crowned with Imago Dei, inherent worth that cannot be subtracted from. The Southern Baptist Convention’s 2023 resolution on AI makes it explicit: “our intrinsic value is as image-bearers—not rooted in what we do or contribute to society—and that human dignity must be central to any ethical principles, guidelines, or regulations for any and all uses of these powerful emerging technologies.”

In 2019, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) issued a document titled Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles that was signed by numerous Southern Baptist and evangelical leaders. Among the statement’s many declarations is this:

“We deny that any part of creation, including any form of technology, should ever be used to usurp or subvert the dominion and stewardship which has been entrusted solely to humanity by God; nor should technology be assigned a level of human identity, worth, dignity or moral agency.”

Anthropomorphism

Humanity eagerly attributes human characteristics to non-human things. Your pets and cars are just some of the most common examples. Think of all the nicknames, the way we speak to them, the movies and literature that transform them – these permeate many of our lives. If we do it with these things, how will humanity handle something that is designed to display human characteristics?

AI’s Exponential Risk – Why Does It Test Our Theology So Strongly?

Large Language Models/Chatbots imitate reasoning and empathy, blurring the lines between creator and creation. Companies intentionally adjust responses to enhance user experience and foster a “felt need,” encouraging increased usage.

Despite how much like people the models become, they will never fully replace a proper human experience of being in community with other humans. AI risks usurping a guideline for ministry that has been discussed since before its advent: Digital church strategies cannot replace human interaction.

Unfortunately, replacing is exactly what is happening. Marc Zao-Sanders authored a study drawn from the collection of public discourse, primarily from Reddit forums, examining how people are using AI. #1 of 100 is “Therapy/Companionship” and #3 is “Find Purpose.”

These uses are at the heart of pastoral ministry. The need is so great that AI is becoming a solution. In other words, people are so lonely and in need of community to work things out, AI is becoming their guide. Do we want to leave these issues to a machine that is tailored for financial return more than their well-being?

In recognition of such great needs, AI becomes a solution for churches to utilize in extending productivity and efficiency. This introduces the risk of transforming the evaluation of pastoral care from a qualitative scale to a quantitative scale and aggravating the problem it is trying to correct. If left unchecked, these pressures can reshape church ministry into a customer-relationship pipeline.

From Theology to Advocacy

Southern Baptists are setting guardrails and challenging themselves to act. The SBC resolution urges churches to “proactively engage and shape emerging technologies” rather than merely react to them. The ERLC statement, in a sense, empowers churches to be a driving force in shaping the future of AI by being a member of the public voice. The church has an opportunity, not unlike with social media, to be a moral force in influencing lawmakers and businesses in AI proactively rather than reactively.

In my opinion, the Church is at a crossroads with Artificial Intelligence. We have a choice to passively watch or actively work to shape the future of AI. With social media, I believe parents and the church were slow to discover the unforeseen consequences of the technology. We are early enough in the technology’s transformative development to help steer. Our local churches, in combination with efforts at a national scale through the SBC and resolutions, will be necessary. Will we, as has been the case historically, react after the damage has occurred or work to mitigate it?

From Theology to Policy

Whether growing from your AI Purpose Statement or starting from scratch, below are some recommended components to a policy you should create. (This is not a substitute for legal advice or legal review of a policy you create.)

1. Purpose Statement: Integrate AI adoption appropriately into your church’s mission/vision/discipleship.

2. Approved Uses: Sermon ideation or research? Yes. Funeral service generation? Maybe not.

3. Human Oversight: Establish an approval process for AI-influenced content before it is made public.

4. Transparency: Create public-facing labels, statements, etc., that identify AI content and/or state your general organizational approaches to AI.

5. Review Appropriate Inputs: Ensure that confidential information/data and sensitive personal information, including sensitive missional information of partner ministries (such as International Mission Board personnel), are not used when engaging with available models.

6. Review Cycle: Revisit the policy regularly.

Before you implement any new AI tool, gather leaders and answer these questions:

Mission: Does this properly advance the Kingdom of God in our context?

Dignity: Could anyone feel used, surveilled or sidelined?

Bias: Have we tested prompts that reference race, gender, disability or income?

Sabbath: Will this push healthy ministry boundaries?

Security: Does it open the door to exposing sensitive information?

Exit Strategy: If the tool goes wrong, can we remove it?

If you stall on any question, hit pause.

Humanize not Abolish

The goal is not to stifle technology but to rehumanize its deployment. This rehumanization is work that pastors and the Church are uniquely called to lead, considering Imago Dei. It requires meticulous work on the front end and a willingness to pivot the approach as things evolve. This temperament is counter to the ease of using and introducing AI and its ability to create.

Reflection Prompt: What steps can you take to strengthen your ministry now and in anticipation of AI’s continued encroachment into daily life in light of Imago Dei? Are there buffers in place to prevent “Pastoral Production” over “Pastoral Care”?

Action Steps:

1. Ensure that a policy/purpose statement exists that acknowledges the principles of AI use in accordance with the Imago Dei.

2. With your purpose/policy statement in hand, audit where AI is being used in your ministry. Consider places you might not regularly engage or oversee, such as Sunday School or small group ministries. The goal of the audit is to identify or predict those areas where AI is being incorporated or may yet be – but nevertheless is being implemented contrary to your identified purposes.

3. With your church/organization/context prepared for success, consider exploring avenues of advocacy in your sphere of influence. The goal is to push AI development in the same manner you have shaped your context or church.

Next in the series: “AI Handbook,” a succinct guide to models, key AI jargon and practical tips.

AI assisted the author in the research and drafting of this blog.

Sources and Resources:

Donbarger.com

Earls, A. (2023, February 20). Q&AI: How artificial intelligence says it can help pastors. Lifeway Research. https://research.lifeway.com/2023/02/20/qai-how-artificial-intelligence-says-it-can-help-pastors/

Workun, Z. (2025, February 21). Enhancing ministry with ChatGPT. Lifeway Research. https://research.lifeway.com/2025/02/21/enhancing-ministry-with-chatgpt/

Thacker, J. (2020). The age of AI: Artificial intelligence and the future of humanity. Zondervan Reflective

The Learning and Development Initiative. (2025, April 18). How and why people use Gen AI. The Learning and Development Initiative. https://ldi.njit.edu/how-and-why-people-use-gen-ai

Southern Baptist Convention. (2023, June 15). On artificial intelligence and emerging technologies [Resolution]. Southern Baptist Convention. https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-artificial-intelligence-and-emerging-technologies/

Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. (2019, April 11). Artificial intelligence: An evangelical statement of principles. Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. https://erlc.com/policy-content/artificial-intelligence-an-evangelical-statement-of-principles/

Cutter, C., & Zimmerman, H. (2025, July 2). CEOs start saying the quiet part out loud: AI will wipe out jobs. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-white-collar-job-loss-b9856259

Barkley, S. (2022, September 14). Why do we anthropomorphize? PsychCentral. https://psychcentral.com/health/why-do-we-anthropomorphize 

AI assisted the author in the research and drafting of this blog article.