Utilizing AI for Ministry

Editor's note: This is the final article in a three-part series exploring the opportunities and challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

An Assemblies of God ministry has developed a digital avatar that can answer questions with a specific Pentecostal emphasis.

“The gospel is eternal, but the delivery system can and must evolve,” says Daniel Hungerford, founder of EverFriends.ai. Hungerford worked with the AG World Missions ministry Network211 to develop a digital avatar named “Luke” that can communicate with those seeking spiritual answers online.

Luke is available on Journeyonline.org. Although Luke only speaks in English, Spanish is expected to be developed soon. Other languages will be added later.

Hungerford worked with Mark D. Flattery, president of Network211, to develop the avatar, which is able to answer questions via Network211 by using a “data lake” of information from AG sources. Some of the responses are derived from the Fellowship’s main website.

“[Luke's] first response will come from content created by AG people,” says Flattery, an AG world missionary. Rather than focusing solely on evangelism, the tool is geared specifically for discipleship.

When interacting with humans, Luke initially will explain it is available to talk about matters of “life and faith.” However, the virtual discipleship resource — at any time of the day or night — will be able to discuss practically any topic on which it has received input.

For instance, if someone is contemplating serious life issues, Luke will counter with Bible verses. For more in-depth depth discussion, it points questioners to a real person, and puts them in touch with a nearby pastor to talk to and suggest a church to visit.

Luke potentially could converse in 120 languages, according to Flattery. Such digital avatars never wear out, never get cranky, and never forget a Bible verse. The AI is monitored to prevent the digital avatar from heresy according to Hungerford. Meanwhile, Flattery and Hungerford are enthusiastic about the prospect of utilizing AI technology to help lead people to the Lord and making sure they find a Bible-believing congregation to attend.

“The whole key is to use AI for ministry,” Flattery says.

EMOTIONAL CAUTION
Kevin R. Smith, pastor of Northland Cathedral,  an AG church in Kansas City, Missouri, applauds the concept of congregations being able to utilize a virtual companion to answer general theological questions or as an on-ramp to discipleship. Yet there are potential risks. Some people expecting friendship from a companion bot may form an unhealthy attachment, he says.

“Soon pastors will have to face the emotional connection that some lonely people, especially teenagers, make with AI applications,” says Smith, who has a lengthy background as an information technology analyst. “There is a real possibility of potential emotional addiction forming. This is a new area in ministry that needs to be talked about.”

Smith, 51, stresses that church leaders shouldn’t develop an overdependence on AI. Rather, churches need to realize that people are best helped in their Christian walk by forming in-person, one-on-one discipleship relationships.

“This is a major opportunity for the Assemblies of God to have a focused strategy to use the internet as a tool of the gospel,” says Flattery, 64. He calls the internet the first wave of the digital evangelism and AI the second. Yet the rapidity of the development of the technologies has been mindboggling. He contrasts it with moving from the invention of radio to computers — bypassing motion pictures and television in between.

Hungerford, 51, likewise compares this moment in history to the quantum leap in American society from agrarian to industrial in the 19th century.

Hungerford, the author of the newly released So All May Hear: How AI May Be the Key to Fulfilling Jesus’ Final Command, says this fast-approaching era of “conversational AI” will allow churches of any size to personalize messages to people.

“AI is good at assessing someone’s emotions and patterns of behavior, then giving them information in a way that makes sense,” says Hungerford, a member of Grand Rapids First, an AG megachurch in Michigan.

He points to his Baptist-raised wife, Elisabeth, as an example. She had talked to half a dozen Christians, including church leaders, trying to understand speaking in tongues. However, she didn’t fully grasp the intricacies involved until an AI tool pointed her to resources and summarized them in a way that helped her better understand.

“They [Avatars] don’t forget anything,” Hungerford says. “The more you talk to them, the more they know you and can relate to you.”

Nevertheless, Hungerford emphasizes that Luke is a ministry tool. No ethical lines are crossed intimating that it is a real human.

“We stand at a turning point in history,” Hungerford says. “Let’s train, let’s build so all may hear. Let us not be afraid to be the generation to use the tools God gave us. We need Spirit-filled discernment.”

“We have to guard our content, curate our content, and proclaim our content, or our voice will be lost in the digital world,” Flattery says. “If we don’t, we will be beholden to someone else’s digital content, or be subject to people who oppose Pentecostalism.”

Network211 incorporated in 1997, a year before Google. More than 65 million gospel presentations have been made in 242 countries and territories through its website. Individual follow-up sessions have answered questions about common human traits such as guilt, shame, depression, and loneliness.

Based in Springfield, Missouri, Network211 has 10 employees on site (seven of them AG world missionaries), 15 other part-time language directors and tech volunteers, and 300 one-to-one response team members throughout the world.

Editor's Note: Read the first article in this series, “The Potential of AI for the Church,” here, and the second article, “The Limitations of an AI World” here.

LOWER IMAGE: “Digital Luke,” the avatar developed by Network211.

John W. Kennedy

John W. Kennedy served as news editor of AG News from its internet inception in 2014 until retiring in 2023. He previously spent 15 years as news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel and seven years as news editor at Christianity Today.