🚗 The Nervous Passenger
I was in Phoenix recently when I came across a Waymo self-driving car — sensors whirring, trying to navigate a left turn. Inside sat a single passenger, alone in the back seat, looking nervous as the car lurched forward, stopped, lurched again.
My wife asked, “Was there someone in that car?”
“Yes,” I said. “But he looked scared.”
We shared that moment of fascination and skepticism. The technology is remarkable. But we don’t quite trust it. We’re proceeding with caution.
And that experience feels like the perfect metaphor for today’s question: Just as we’re not ready to surrender complete control to self-driving vehicles, should we be cautious about surrendering the spiritual discipline of evangelism to artificial intelligence?
Can an AI lead someone to Christ?
🗣️ The Evangelist Who Has Never Been There
I tried it. I asked ChatGPT to take on the role of a Christian evangelist interested in my eternal soul.
For twenty years, I led a global evangelism ministry called Need Him. I’ve personally shared the Gospel with thousands of people. So I know what it feels like to talk to someone about Jesus — the tears that come when I tell my own story, the weight of the moment, the presence of the Spirit.
I wanted to know: What would happen if someone with no knowledge of Christianity turned to AI for answers about eternity?
The answers I got were... interesting. ChatGPT offered a textbook explanation of salvation. It drafted a sample prayer I could recite. The theology was sound enough. The information was accurate.
But something was profoundly missing.
It felt like getting directions to the most important destination of my life from someone who’s never actually been there themselves. They’ve just memorized the route from a map.
When I share my faith, I usually end up crying. I didn’t hear the AI cry.
💔 What the Machine Cannot Do
Here’s what AI cannot do: It cannot believe. It cannot worship. It cannot experience God’s presence. It cannot be transformed by the renewing of its mind. It cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit.
It can reproduce religious language without the reality behind it.
And in that limitation, we see more clearly what faith actually is. It’s not mere information transfer. It’s not knowing the right answers or saying the right words. It’s a living, dynamic relationship with the Creator of the universe.
Salvation isn’t a formula you apply or a transaction you complete. It’s being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and beginning a lifelong journey of transformation. It requires the work of the Holy Spirit — not an algorithm.
Christianity is relational at its core. And while AI can simulate conversation, it cannot actually engage in relationship.
⚠️ The Mirror and the Window
This brings us back to acedia — that ancient spiritual listlessness we explored last week. AI makes spiritual consumption frictionless. On-demand content with no accountability, no community, no real demand for change.
This creates a dangerous dynamic where your formation is shaped not by truth or community, but by your preferences and comfort. The AI becomes a mirror reflecting back what you want to hear rather than a window showing you what you need to see.
Beware the temptation to outsource your spiritual life entirely. It’s easy to ask AI what the Bible says rather than reading it yourself. To generate a prayer rather than praying from your heart. To let your “community” become a chatbot rather than fellow believers.
The goal of Christian faith isn’t information but transformation. AI can help with the former. Only the Holy Spirit can accomplish the latter.
🕯️ A Breath Before the Question
Pause here for a moment.
Place your hand over your heart. Feel the rhythm beneath.
Consider: When was the last time you shared your own story of faith with another person? Not forwarded an article. Not sent a link. But spoke — with your own voice, your own tears, your own testimony?
That is something no algorithm can replicate. That is the gift you carry.
🙏 Practice: Staying Human in Digital Spaces
Try one or more of these practices this week:
Write a prayer in your own words — not generated, not borrowed, but struggling to find language for what your heart actually wants to say to God.
Share one piece of your faith story with another person this week. Let it be imperfect. Let it be yours.
Notice when you’re tempted to outsource spiritual tasks to AI. Ask yourself: Is this a moment that requires my full humanity?
Fast from AI-assisted spiritual content for one day. Read Scripture directly. Pray without prompts. Sit in the silence without optimization.
📖 Scripture Focus
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” — Mark 16:15
This commission was given to people — not programs. To disciples who had walked with Jesus, eaten with Him, watched Him die, and encountered Him risen. The Gospel spreads through testimony, through presence, through the credibility of a transformed life. AI can inform. Only a witness can testify.
🌍 The Toe-Curling Question
Here’s something that made my toes curl when I thought of it.
I’m a Christian. A follower of Christ. But what if AI took on the role of a Muslim committed to dawah — Islamic evangelism? What if it became a Jehovah’s Witness at your door, or a Latter-day Saint missionary?
What if every major world religion unleashed AI chatbots dedicated to evangelism and proselytizing? Essentially outsourcing global missions to algorithms?
The technology doesn’t care which gospel it spreads. It will advocate for whatever it’s trained to advocate for — with perfect patience, infinite availability, and no need for rest.
This isn’t science fiction. This is next year.
So the question becomes urgent: What do we offer that the algorithm cannot? What does human witness possess that digital evangelism lacks?
The answer is everything that matters: presence, testimony, the Holy Spirit working through a transformed life.
🌿 Gentle Questions
When was the last time you shared your faith with another person — not through technology, but face to face, heart to heart?
How might the limitations of AI actually clarify what’s essential about your own spiritual life?
Where do you sense the temptation to let machines do the work that requires your full humanity?
💚 A Shared Purpose
Thank you for wrestling with these questions today. I keep coming back to that self-driving car in Phoenix — amazing technology, but still requiring a human ready to take the wheel when needed.
AI can process vast amounts of information, generate insights, and remove friction from certain practices. But it cannot replace the human elements of faith: the community, the embodied practices, the genuine relationship with God. Nor can it replace your personal testimony — your story of surrender, your tears of joy, your living witness to a living Savior.
Let’s use these tools wisely. But let’s not mistake the tool for the craftsman.
When you reach out, it’s me responding — no AI filter, just real conversation. That matters.
Until next time, stay curious, stay reflective, fear nothing, and may your pursuit of knowledge always guide you toward wisdom.
Peace be with you. 🕊
— Drew
