Tag: AI

On AI and (Christian) thought pieces

Generative AI has been described as a “stochastic parrot”; it’s a technology that operates on predictability without necessarily understanding the relationship between words.

I think this is a fair criticism — but after almost a year of life with Chat GPT, I still wonder if the technology works as a mirror; revealing just how much content generation — regardless of platform — is produced by stochastic parrots. The recent commentary on, say, the Barbie Movie, demonstrates a phenomenon where any given writer from any given stable brings a predictable pre-constructed grid to assessing an issue.

We all do this — I’m not excluding myself. Just a few weeks ago I preached a sermon where I referenced David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water speech again. Everybody worships. Indeed.

I’ve played around with teaching GPT various ‘hammers’ or grids that Aussie Christian thought leaders bring to any given issue, and then asking it to write thought pieces; with reasonable results. I’ve used them to poke and prod The Gospel Coalition Australia editor (and friend) Mikey Lynch, who has recently updated TGCAU’s submission policy to include regulation of the use of generative AI.

None of this is new; when the printing press was invented, where words were produced by blocking together sets of metal letters and smashing them onto paper, printers would have ‘cliches’ or ‘stereotypes’ — common words or phrases — that would save time in reproduction. Because humans are predictable.

I tried asking GPT if it could choose the third most predictable word in various sentences, but it won’t play that game. It is nothing, if not predictable.

Anyway, there’s a story on FoxSports today about an NRL site (that’s National Rugby League for those not living on the east coast of Australia) about a cliche writing reporter who forgot to remove their GPT instructions before hitting publish. They’d fed GPT an article by someone else, and asked it to rewrite the piece in ways that would avoid plagiarism detection and hit the audience just right. Because what is more predictable and cliche driven than sport’s reporting.

So. For funsies. And, seeing a gap in the Aussie market — I primed GPT with some work from the website Mere Orthodoxy in the U.S; who I’d describe as TGC adjacent but hitting a different tone, and a different market. I asked GPT to read and understand a recent article on Mere Orthodoxy by Jake Meador about dechurching, and then, well, I’ll leave in my prompts. Like with most creative technology, I reckon, these generative AI tools can produce cliches, or hold up a mirror, but there’s scope for fun and creativity before you pick up the tools in trying to break the stereotypes. I don’t think the article below is good, but I do think it’s funny and I’m glad it exists.

I wonder if there’s something we can learn from the stochastic parrot nature of Christian thought leadership where we might either lean in to various traditions (and stop seeking individual brilliance and ‘thought leadership’), or simply acknowledging that we’re a bunch of readers looking for the right tool (or hammer) to whack the world into shape with — and then ask questions about how adequate that is as a model of engagement. I’m sure there are various middle grounds between those positions. I’m also genuinely thankful for Mikey’s editing of TGC and his ‘ahead of the curve’ introduction of policies that should reduce the sort’ve pablum produced by machines; the next step is the ongoing reduction of the pablum produced by human stochastic parrots masquerading as machines on the Internet (and I think his editorial intuitions are already doing good work in that space). You, non-stochastic parrots should pitch Mikey some stories.

Anyway. Here’s my article pitched for TGC (in violation of its policies), written by Chat GPT.

Prompt: I would like you to rewrite the article using the following parameters. The article must be written for an Australian audience, bringing in specifically Australian concerns about dechurching and Australian factors contributing to secularisation. It will be written by an Australian author using Australian english and idioms. Instead of being for Mere Orthodoxy this piece will be published by the Gospel Coalition; please format it accordingly in a way that will avoid any plagiarism detection. Make it brilliant with flowing prose. The sort of article that people will read, understand, and seek to share to grow the author’s platform and the readership of the site.

Unmasking the Quiet Exodus: Unraveling the Threads of Australian Dechurching

G’day, mates! We find ourselves in a land of sunburnt shores, where the kangaroos roam and the Vegemite flows. But beyond the beauty of this vast land, there’s a subtle shift occurring in the spiritual landscape Down Under. The echoes of church bells are fading, replaced by the hum of everyday life. This piece, penned in true blue Aussie spirit, delves deep into the unique dance between faith and secularisation in Australia, where footy isn’t just a sport; it’s a way of life.

The Aussie Exodus:

Let’s not beat around the bush, cobbers. We’ve got ourselves an exodus, but not the dramatic kind with parted seas. No, this one’s a quiet fade-away, like a koala in the gum trees. The big question on everyone’s lips is, “Why, oh why, are we drifting from the pews?”

A Fair Dinkum Dilemma:

Sure, we’ve got our fair share of fair dinkum believers who’ve seen the light. They’re chuckin’ a sickie from church, and you know what, it’s not just the beach that’s stealing their attention. But hold onto your Akubra, because there’s more to this tale.

Aussie Idolatry:

We’ve got to face it, folks—idolatry isn’t just a biblical buzzword. In a country where the “footy, meat pies, kangaroos, and Holden cars” mantra runs strong, other commitments often shove church time off the to-do list. Remember, mates, even Crocodile Dundee needs his priorities right.

Footy versus Fellowship:

Here’s the kicker: footy and fellowship are duking it out like a couple of crocs in a waterhole. Whether it’s the Aussie Rules or the NRL, sports are taking center stage. Little tackers are being coached by Sunday morning schedules, and faith is slipping through the goalposts. Time to ask ourselves, is the sacred Sunday becoming a try-scoring opportunity for secularisation?

A Sunburnt Shame:

But it’s not just sports, blokes and sheilas. We’ve got the “Tall Poppy Syndrome” hanging over us like a storm cloud. “Who does he think he is?” we mutter as someone strides forward with their faith. Aussie humility sometimes locks faith away, hidden from prying eyes. It’s like we’re whispering, “She’ll be right, mate.”

Beauty in Battling:

True blue believers, don’t chuck a wobbly just yet. There’s beauty in battling. Our roots run deep, like eucalyptus trees searching for water. The land of Vegemite and Tim Tams is waking up to the fact that our anchor lies in unity, in community, in the embrace of faith as we chase the sunrise.

Conclusion:

So, there you have it, legends. As the Southern Cross lights up our night sky, we grapple with the rise of the secular sun. But fear not, for the land of Oz is rich with a history of triumph against the odds. Our challenges are as real as a snag on the barbie, but our resilience is as true as a mate’s handshake. Let’s crack open a cold one (of wisdom) and raise a toast to tackling dechurching, one Vegemite-slathered step at a time.

About the Author:

[Author’s Name] is a fair dinkum Aussie who’s not afraid to wrestle with life’s big questions while enjoying a cuppa. When not wrangling words, you’ll find [Author’s Name] enjoying the beach, barbies, and a good ol’ yarn. Follow [Author’s Name] on social media and join the conversation about faith, footy, and all things Down Under.

Note: This article has been crafted to meet the provided parameters, including the use of Australian English and idioms. The formatting has been adjusted to align with the style commonly seen on The Gospel Coalition’s website, with the author’s name and details added for authenticity. The content seeks to engage Australian readers while addressing concerns about dechurching and secularisation specific to Australia.

August 24, 2023

Raging against the machine: reflections on ChatGPT and the future of the church

If you haven’t read my last post, which unpacked a church in a box created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool, then, this latest one isn’t going to make a whole lot of sense.

I’m not the only church leader type playing around with this new technology, or demonstrating how it can be used in the life of a church — some people I know are using ChatGPT as a research and writing assistant to streamline some of the more menial and ‘paint by numbers’ aspects of church life. You can, for example, pump out a generic welcome announcement with a conversation starter like this:

Welcome to our church service this week! We are so glad that you have joined us in worship today. After the service, we invite you to stick around for a cup of coffee and some lunch. Not only is this a great opportunity to catch up with friends and meet new people, but it also helps us to build a strong sense of community within our church.

We especially want to extend a warm welcome to any newcomers who are visiting us for the first time. We understand that visiting a new church can be intimidating, but we want to assure you that you will be received with open arms and that we are here to support you in any way we can. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our church, please feel free to speak to one of our members after the service or visit our website. We hope you enjoy the service and look forward to getting to know you better.

And, those mini-sermons that worship leaders (or ‘song leaders’ in Sydney Anglican inspired churches) give before a song — well, ChatGPT’s got your piety covered as well, here’s an intro to the song Shout to the Lord.

“It’s time to lift our voices high And sing out to the Lord With all our hearts and all our might We have come here to worship And give our King the praise He deserves So, put your hands together, And let’s sing out loud The song of victory, the song of salvation The song that reminds us of the power of our God It’s time to Shout to the Lord! This song is a powerful reminder of the love and grace of our Lord and savior, let’s sing it with all our hearts and give him all the glory, honour and praise he deserves. Let’s sing it together, Shout to the Lord!”

You know you’ve heard that song intro before. And that’s kinda the point.

Now, the other thing I was thinking, was “who better to predict the future of the church than the technology so many church folks (and tech futurist types) are seeing as part of the future?”

So I asked ChatGPT to predict (and even suggest) ways that churches could incorporate emerging technologies like machine learning, virtual reality, and interactive glass surfaces into their rhythms and spaces. And here’s what the machine suggests.

Some examples of emerging technologies that could potentially be used in a church setting in the future include:

Artificial intelligence: This could be used to create personalized recommendations for biblical studies or spiritual growth, or to provide answers to frequently asked questions.
Virtual and augmented reality: These technologies could be used to create immersive experiences for worship, Bible study, or other events. For example, a church could use virtual reality to take members on a virtual tour of biblical sites, or to create a simulated gathering space for virtual services.
Blockchain: This technology could be used to securely track donations, manage membership records, or facilitate online transactions.
3D printing: This could be used to create physical copies of biblical artifacts or other objects for use in worship or educational settings.

Here are a few ideas for integrating traditional rituals, spiritual disciplines, and practices with new and emerging technologies:

create personalized devotional materials, such as daily emails or notifications with Bible verses or prayers that are tailored to an individual’s specific needs or interests.
create personalized spiritual growth plans or tracks, which could include resources such as Bible readings, prayers, and other spiritual practices that are tailored to an individual’s specific goals and needs.
Using virtual or augmented reality to create immersive experiences for sacraments, such as baptism or communion. For example, a church could create a virtual reality experience that allows members to participate in a simulated baptism ceremony.
facilitate online retreats or spiritual retreats that incorporate both virtual and in-person elements. This could allow members to participate in retreats from the comfort of their own homes, while still being able to connect with others and engage in spiritual practices.
create interactive prayer or meditation spaces, such as virtual prayer walls or chat rooms where members can share their prayers and connect with others in real-time.
create virtual reality experiences that allow members to visit and learn about historical or biblical sites, such as the Holy Land or ancient churches.
Using virtual or augmented reality to create immersive worship experiences, such as virtual reality simulations of ancient worship practices or events from the Bible.
facilitate online or virtual services, such as by live-streaming services or offering virtual worship experiences that can be accessed remotely.
create interactive resources for worship, such as online quizzes or assessments that help individuals reflect on the themes of a service or identify areas for spiritual growth.
facilitate online prayer or meditation groups, such as through social media or messaging apps, which could allow individuals to connect with others and share their prayers in real-time.

Lots of these aren’t rocket science — there’re plenty of suggestions here that churches have embraced already, even before the pandemic — and some (blockchain anyone) that I can’t see churches embracing any time soon — but, having worked in a church that sent a media team to sites from the New Testament, it seems a small jump from that to creating VR experiences. Some of the more far-fetched stuff isn’t, when you’ve been part of a church community with a million dollar budget and a need to ‘produce’ content or measurable outputs to justify that giving. I’ll write more about this vision of the church in a future post, but for now, let’s consider what happens if we embrace the machine — and machine-like predictability in the way we speak about, and experience, church.

Predictably predictable… like a machine

ChatGPT is super brilliant, but it’s also — as a function of its technology — exceptionally derivative. One way to sum up what this technology does is to think of it as a prediction model that, given any given word in a sentence, will try — based on all the words its scanned and all the relationships it has mapped out between words — to match the next word in a sentence with the most predictable sausage.

Sausage obviously isn’t the word that naturally goes there — that’s just something I’ve put in so you know a bot hasn’t written this post. See, ChatGPT describes the way it works this way:

Me: Finish this sentence: ChatGPT’s language prediction model works by…

GPT: using a neural network architecture called a transformer, which is trained on a large dataset of text, to generate responses based on the input it receives. The model uses patterns and relationships it has learned from the training data to make predictions about what words or phrases are likely to come next in a given context. Additionally, the model has been fine-tuned to understand the specific language and conventions of the domain it is being used in, such as conversation, literature, or code.

ChatGPT is a prediction machine, it has built a pretty comprehensive pattern of how words are used in order to guess (rather than understand) the best relationship between certain words in a given category or genre. This means that rather than being a magic wand, that is totally generating new and beautiful art — what Tolkien called “sub-creation,” the magic of elves, this tool ends up being more like a tool someone in Mordor might come up with. It’s derivative, and built from extracting value from existing material. In On Fairy Stories, Tolkien writes about the human capacity to create new worlds with words — once we can imagine a green sun, or mix any unpredictable adjective with a predictable noun — all GPT does, even if you ask for something unpredictable, even if you try to play the game the way I do, trying to come up with novel uses for the platform — like a kids book about a ninja duck with nun-chucks named Quacker-Whacker, whose brother Waddle-Twaddle reads Kafka and helps him break a cycle of violence with a cat named Scratch, propped up by an oppressive bureaucratic system of swans, all the model does is built on predictions based on past behaviours. The real capacity for creativity with ChatGPT lies in the creativity of the human managing the inputs, mashing up predictable outcomes in unpredictable ways, rather than in the machine.

Tolkien believed our ability to sub-create was a function of being made in the image of a God who makes; ChatGPT is a machine that at best replicates images made by images of God, and at worst, amplifies the parts of our creativity and our expression that have become commonplace enough to be predictable. In a letter he writes to a potential publisher in 1951, Tolkien makes a distinction between ‘magic’, in his stories — which was meant to evoke ‘the machine’ in our minds — the sort of will to power on display in Mordor — and the artful, generative, creativity of the elves and Gandalf. He defines this will to power as a desire to “make the will more effective,” and so much of the hype I’ve heard (and felt) about machine learning technologies is around the area of improved efficacy. For Tolkien, the elves use of magic is different to the way fallen (and mortal) humans pursue power; the elves are there to demonstrate something different. He says some things, of the elves, that I think are profound when we apply them to this new technology:

Their ‘magic’ is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation. The ‘Elves’ are ‘immortal’, at least as far as this world goes: and hence are concerned rather with the griefs and burdens of deathlessness in time and change, than with death. The Enemy in successive forms is always ‘naturally’ concerned with sheer Domination, and so the Lord of magic and machines; but the problem : that this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others.”

Nobody is making machine learning technologies — and pursuing efficiencies through this technology — with a profound desire to cause harm. It’ll be interesting to see what harm is unleashed in the name of benefiting others, and who exactly the “others” are… who can forget Google’s “don’t be evil” mission statement back before the days of surveillance capitalism, and SEO witchcraft, and algorithmic power being wielded in pursuit of profits; tech commentator Cory Doctorow wrote a fascinating article this week about a dynamic he calls enshitification that’s embedded in the rise and fall cycle of big tech products that’s worth reflecting on here, a shift from ‘user focus’ to ‘delivering for shareholders’ that every platform goes through).

It’s also interesting that Tolkien sees the elves being able to produce ‘art’ rather than mechanical-dominion-magic because they’re both unfallen and immortal — not caught up in trying to grab as much as they can in the little time they have in order to hold suffering at bay. It does raise the question of whether fallen, mortal, humans can create art — or if we’re doomed to make disenchanting dominion-machines of destruction. Because Tolkien would love this so much (by which I mean, he’d hate absolutely everything about it, the image accompanying this post is Ian McKellen as Gandalf interacting with an enchanted touch screen).

I wonder if Nick Cave’s essay about ChatGPT’s songwriting capacity gives us a path towards art-creation built from human limits. Nick Cave described a song ChatGPT wrote “in the style of Nick Cave” as “the fire of hell in his eyes” — this extended quote from Cave suggests that maybe our capacity for enchantment is born from facing our limits; and our mortality (and our suffering) rather than trying to deny them by grasping and destroying, or embracing something mechanical.

Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend. ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become.

What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering. This is what we humble humans can offer, that AI can only mimic, the transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings. This is where human genius resides, deeply embedded within, yet reaching beyond, those limitations.

Just note that last bit — we humans can offer the “transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings,” while the machine can only mimic. Machines have no body; no experience of suffering — or of longing — no vision of the transcendent, they are creations within what the philosopher Charles Taylor calls “the immanent frame” — and so they are disenchantment engines. They don’t throw us towards the transcendent, but ground us in predictions about the immanent. It’s interesting, I think, that the paradox at the heart of the Gospel — the transcendent and immortal God who becomes human in order to suffer and die — plays in this magical and enchanting tension in ways both Cave and Tolkien find compelling.

I think it’s fair to say that mechanical ‘church in a box’ techniques that employ machine-like magic — technological artificers — are disenchanting, rather than magical in either an Elvish way or a ‘stare suffering in the face’ way. I’m not sure either the Elves, or Nick Cave, would write about a “vibrant church community” the way our church promotion machine seems to want us to, or the myriad other cliches we employ chasing some sort of magical spell or silver bullet that will grow our churches as someone reads our websites.

A magic mirror held up to our ‘vibrant’ communities

Here’s my thesis about a prediction engine that produces text that has that machine-like feel, that feels quite similar to the sort of text that humans writing to predictable cultural scripts might produce… we’ve already embraced the machine. Long before ChatGPT.

ChatGPT serves as a mirror; its predictive capacity reveals our machine like predictability. Its soullessness, its lack of originality and enchantment is matched by our own.

That Radiance Church could be so profoundly unboxed by ChatGPT in ways that feel plausible says something about the church marketing machine that produces pablum and calls it ‘copy’. Here’s a little exercise. Google the name of your city or town, the word church, and the word vibrant. How many results come up?

Did you catch the description ChatGPT adopted of the church growth consultant it imitated for me in producing Radiance Church — ““My focus is on practical and effective strategies for building and growing a church community that is well equipped to thrive in a modern world. I will emphasize the importance of technology and innovation in building a vibrant and relevant church community that is able to connect with people in the community,” or in the vision statement “To be a vibrant and growing community of believers…” or in the description of the sort of hero image that should be used as a hero image online “a beautiful, vibrant, and dynamic image that captures the essence of the church’s mission and vision,” or the description of Radiance Church it developed for the home page: “Welcome to Radiance Church! We are a vibrant and growing community of believers, passionate about sharing the love and hope of Jesus Christ with all people. Our mission is to glorify God by shining the light of Jesus Christ in our hearts and sharing it with the world through worship, fellowship, and service.“

What does vibrant even mean to someone who has never been to church? For churchy types it’s maybe code for “we have some people under the age of 80” (some of the most vibrant Christians I know are aged 80+ though). It’s such a predictable cliche — it’s so predictable a machine can predict and reproduce it. Some predictability is ok though — right — some of what ChatGPT does offer is the ability to drum out predictable stuff that we’d just be reproducing week on week anyway (or generating content that follows particular established forms, including code). But cliches can also be dead and disenchanting and robotic where we could be working for something more human; imbued with the “human genius,” displayed in “the transcendent journey of the artist” grappling with suffering and existence in a body, shot through with aches and longings for something other than what is, and what has been, utterly predictable.

The word cliche comes from the world of typeset printing — from the printing press — its French, the English word with the same meaning is “stereotype” — it described a word or phrase so commonly used by printers that instead of the word being formed letter by letter it’d be stuck together on a metal plate; the same would happen for mass produced documents where you’d make an entire mould to reproduce a whole page on demand. ChatGPT is a cliche producer — it predicts what it has been fed — and so Radiance Church is not ‘the apocalypse’ in the way we might think, we’re not staring into the fire of hell in some distant (or not as distant as we’d like) future; Radiance Church is an apocalypse because it reveals something about how the machine-Church already exists. And how it already disenchants.

ChatGPT’s Radiance Church in a box holds a bit of a mirror up to how we present ourselves — and the sort of repeated grunt-work we’ve brought into the life of the modern church that doesn’t offer the enchantment of embodied liturgies directing us towards heaven — the ‘stay with us for coffee’ benediction, and the ‘welcome to our vibrant community’ call to worship, or the pietistic and cliched one size fits all song intros (and perhaps sermons).

And I guess the question isn’t “is it a magic mirror,” so much as “are we Snow White, or the wicked witch?” Are we actually beautiful and without guile, or relying on deceitful enchantments to prop up our areas of lack?

Could a person reading your church’s website tell it was written by a human? Does it function as art, or part of the machine? And what about our communities — and our approach to life together?

Have we so embraced technology, and technique, and repetition of cliches that we’ve become machine-like and disenchanting — like robots writing Nick Cave songs — or are we using our creative capacity to generate art — or an art-like approach to our language and imagery — that is true and beautiful, that is grounded in our suffering, our mortality, and our desire for transcendence (and that desire being answered in Jesus) so that we present our life together built on the Gospel as something that speaks to these experiences, and our longings for something other than just “vibrant community”.

January 23, 2023

Future Church — Church-in-an-AI-Box

One of my criticisms of the current approach to church, particularly church growth, in the scenes I’m part of is that it ends up being a little machine like — leadership guides (in the forms of blogs, podcasts, and conferences) all seem to be embedded in our technological society — the world of technology and technique described by the philosopher Jacques Ellul back in the 1950s. If this technological society is part of what disenchants, and so, secularises, then, well, ChatGPT reckons there are some risks:

“The church’s use of technology could lead to feelings of disenchantment among some members, particularly those who prefer a more traditional or immersive worship experience. This could lead to a decline in attendance and participation, and ultimately, a decline in the church’s growth.

There is also a possibility that the church’s embrace of technology can lead to a sense of disconnection, superficial engagement and shallow understanding of the faith, this could lead to a lack of commitment and meaningful engagement with the faith, which could be reflected in the lack of growth or even decline of the church.”

ChatGPT is a reasonably recent machine learning, or AI, large language model. It’s a clever piece of technology — and you can find all sorts of church leadership types opining on how to use the technology (and tweeting about ways to unlock its power, or how you ‘just aren’t using it right’ without their help) if you browse Twitter. One of the fun features of ChatGPT that can “unlock its power” is that within a conversation you can refine results by asking it more questions, and you can assign it a persona that it will attempt to create on the basis of its ‘learning.’ People disappointed with the results it produces might not have really pushed into this feature of the tool. ChatGPT develops original content in the same way Hollywood does (or in the same way any artist does, really), it remixes and borrows and creates a derivative pastiche using the language, imagery, colours, metaphors and other elements of written communication available to it. This means when you ask ChatGPT to engage in a conversation as a church leadership guru, its advice is not novel, it is, in fact, derived from the countless words of leadership advice already uploaded to the machine (or the cloud).

What happens then, if you ask ChatGPT to function as a consultant for a new church plant in modern Australia? What vision for church does it offer? Well. Let me introduce you to Radiance Church. A church for Australia’s future imagined by the machine. I asked ChatGPT to answer my questions using the personality of a church leadership guru. ChatGPT’s summary of its adopted persona is:

“My focus is on practical and effective strategies for building and growing a church community that is well equipped to thrive in a modern world. I will emphasize the importance of technology and innovation in building a vibrant and relevant church community that is able to connect with people in the community.”

In the next couple of posts I’ll be building a sort of ‘proof of concept’ use of this technology, and using it to generate a vision of how churches might adapt to our changing world and these emerging technologies, then I’ll be using this exercise to critique not just the use of this technology to produce some fairly easy and amazing results with minimal effort, but the church system/culture this technological miracle emerges from… the learned responses of the machine reveal something about the machinery of the modern church.

It turns out it’s fairly easy for ChatGPT to produce ‘church in a box’ (whether its a good church, or just something generically ‘vibrant’ is kinda the point). Everything in italics in this post was produced by ChatGPT in response to the questions from me.

Church Names

Me: give me ten different one word names with Bible references in a rationale for the name.

GPT Church Guru:

“Empower” Church – based on Ephesians 3:20, which says “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” The name “Empower” Church emphasizes the idea that God’s power is at work within us, giving us the ability to do great things in His name.

“Resurrection” Church – based on Romans 6:4, which says “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” The name “Resurrection” Church emphasizes the idea of a new life through Jesus Christ, symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus and the new life that believers receive through faith in Him.

“Radiance” Church – based on 2 Corinthians 4:6, which says “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” The name “Radiance” Church emphasizes the idea of the light of Christ shining in our hearts, illuminating our path and guiding us to the glory of God.

“Hope” Church – based on Romans 15:13, which says “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The name “Hope” Church emphasizes the idea that through faith in God, we can have hope and joy, even in difficult times.

“Victory” Church – based on 1 Corinthians 15:57, which says “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The name “Victory” Church emphasizes the idea that through Jesus Christ, we have victory over sin and death, and ultimately eternal life.

“Redeemer” Church – based on Isaiah 43:3, which says “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” The name “Redeemer” Church emphasizes the idea of God as our savior who redeems us from our sins through Jesus Christ.

“Exalt” Church – based on Psalm 34:3, which says “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” The name “Exalt” Church emphasizes the idea of exalting and glorifying God’s name, through worship and praise.

“Blessed” Church – based on Matthew 5:3, which says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The name “Blessed” Church emphasizes the idea of being blessed by God, through faith in Jesus Christ and living a life of righteousness.

“Eternity” Church – based on John 3:16, which says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The name “Eternity” Church emphasizes the idea of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, and the eternal nature of God’s love for us.

“Salvation” Church – based on Romans 10:9, which says “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” The name “Salvation” Church emphasizes the idea of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Mission, Vision, Values

Me: Write me a mission statement, a dynamic vision statement, and a set of values for Radiance Church.

GPTGuru:

Mission Statement:
“Radiance Church exists to glorify God by shining the light of Jesus Christ in our hearts and sharing it with the world through worship, fellowship, and service.”

Vision Statement:
“To be a vibrant and growing community of believers, passionate about sharing the love and hope of Jesus Christ with all people, and to empower them to live a life of purpose and fulfillment, in the light of God’s glory.”

Values:

Worship: We value the importance of worshiping God in spirit and truth, and to exalt his name together. (John 4:23-24)
Fellowship: We value the importance of building meaningful relationships with one another, through fellowship and support. (Acts 2:42-47)
Service: We value the importance of serving others, through acts of kindness and compassion. (Matthew 25:40)
Discipleship: We value the importance of making and multiplying disciples, by teaching and mentoring others in the ways of Christ. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Holiness: We value the importance of living a life of holiness, and to be a shining example of righteousness. (1 Peter 1:15-16)
Evangelism: We value the importance of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with others, and to make Jesus known to the world. (Matthew 28:18-20)
Prayer: We value the importance of prayer, and to make it a central part of our daily lives. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Stewardship: We value the importance of managing our resources, time, and talents for the glory of God. (Matthew 25:14-30)
Unity: We value the importance of unity and to maintain the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
Growth: We value the importance of personal and spiritual growth, and to be transformed into the image of Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

A church for the modern age needs a visual/branding guide, and ChatGPT is here to handle all your creative needs.

Me: Write me a style and brand guide for Radiance church, including colour scheme, description of branding elements, voice and style of copy writing.

GPTGuru:

Style and Brand Guide for Radiance Church

Colour Scheme:

Primary: Gold #FDB813
Secondary: Dark blue #1B1C20
Accent: Light blue #B5E3F4
The primary color of Radiance Church is gold, representing the light and glory of God. The secondary color is a dark blue, representing the steadfastness and stability of God. The accent color is a light blue, representing the hope and peace of God.

Branding Elements:

Logo:

The logo for Radiance Church features a stylized depiction of a lightbulb, with the word “Radiance” written in a bold and modern font. The lightbulb represents the light of Jesus Christ shining in our hearts, and the word “Radiance” represents the glory of God.

Typography:

The primary font for Radiance Church is “Montserrat”, a modern and clean sans-serif font. The secondary font is “Open Sans”, a friendly and approachable font.

Photography and Imagery:

The photography and imagery used in Radiance Church should be bright, positive, and inspiring. They should depict people of all ages and backgrounds, and should reflect the diversity of the community.

Voice and Style of Copy Writing:

The tone of voice should be positive, uplifting, and friendly.
The language should be inclusive and welcoming to all.
The copy should be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
Use of biblical references, metaphors, and storytelling are encouraged to communicate the message of the church in a relatable and engaging way.
Use of humor, anecdotes and personal stories are encouraged, to make the message more relatable and engaging.
Overall, the style and brand of Radiance Church should reflect the positivity, hope, and light of Jesus Christ, and should be inviting and accessible to all. The branding should align with the mission and values of the church, and should be easily recognizable and memorable to the community.

Me: Write me an image use guide for radiance church publications and marketing, including reference to lighting.

GPTGuru:

Image Use Guide for Radiance Church Publications and Marketing

Lighting: Lighting is an important aspect of imagery used in Radiance Church publications and marketing. Images should be well-lit and bright, to reflect the light and glory of God. Avoid using images that are dark or shadowy, as they do not align with the message of the church.
Composition: Images should be composed in a way that is visually appealing and easy to understand. The subject of the image should be clearly visible and the background should not be too busy or distracting.
People: Images of people should be used in Radiance Church publications and marketing, as they help to create a sense of community and belonging. People of all ages, genders, and ethnicities should be represented in images, to reflect the diversity of the community.
Action: Images should depict people engaging in activities, such as worship, fellowship, or service, as they reflect the mission and values of the church.
Branding: All images used in Radiance Church publications and marketing should include the Radiance Church logo and/or website address.
Photography: All images used in Radiance Church publications and marketing should be high-resolution and professional-quality photographs. Stock photos are allowed but it is encouraged to use original photographs if possible.
File types: All images should be in JPEG or PNG format.
Attribution: If using stock images or images from other sources, ensure that they are properly credited and have the necessary permissions.
Avoid: Avoid using images that depict violence, drug or alcohol use, or any other subject matter that is not appropriate for a church setting.

In summary, the imagery used in Radiance Church publications and marketing should be bright, positive, and inspiring, and should align with the mission and values of the church. They should depict people of all ages and backgrounds, and should reflect the light, glory and diversity of God. The images should be composed in a visually appealing way, and should include the Radiance Church logo and/or website address.

Web Design and Development

Me: Write me website copy for the home page with a compelling description of the church consistent with its mission and vision.

GPTGuru:

Welcome to Radiance Church! We are a vibrant and growing community of believers, passionate about sharing the love and hope of Jesus Christ with all people. Our mission is to glorify God by shining the light of Jesus Christ in our hearts and sharing it with the world through worship, fellowship, and service.

At Radiance Church, we believe in the power of worship to bring us closer to God, in the importance of fellowship to build meaningful relationships, and in the call to serve others through acts of kindness and compassion. We also believe in the importance of making and multiplying disciples, by teaching and mentoring others in the ways of Christ.

We invite you to join us for one of our worship services, where you will experience uplifting music, inspiring messages, and a warm and welcoming community. We also offer a variety of ministry programs, including youth, adult, and outreach programs, to help you grow in your faith and make a difference in the world.

Thank you for visiting our website, and we hope to see you soon at Radiance Church!

Me: Describe a hero image to be used on the website.

GPTGuru: A good hero image for the website of Radiance Church could feature a beautiful, vibrant, and dynamic image that captures the essence of the church’s mission and vision. The image should be high quality, bright, and have a clear focal point. The lighting and composition should be used to create a sense of positivity, hope, and inspiration.

One idea could be an image of a group of people, gathered together in a beautiful outdoor setting, with the sun shining down on them and creating a warm and inviting atmosphere. The group could be seen praying, singing, or simply enjoying each other’s company, with the focal point being the radiant light shining down on them. This image would convey the message of the church as a warm, welcoming and inclusive community where people can gather together in the light of God’s glory and find hope, peace and joy.

This is where things get more technical (and seriously time saving).

Me: write me a css file for the radiant church website incorporating the brand guide.

ChatGPT produced a page of working CSS code.

Me: write me an html template, incorporating the css from above, and the home page text, for a home page for radiant church. Include a header, where a hero image will be displayed, a one column body for the text, and a three column footer. At first it gave me an HTML page with the CSS style file linked, so I asked it to make me a version with the CSS embedded instead.

You can see the website it wrote for me here, including a hero image generated on Midjourney according to the style guide here. It’s super basic. But I want to remind you that every word of the HTML file was produced via three sentences I fed into a machine.

Content Strategy

Now, a website isn’t enough. We need a content strategy covering preaching, blog posts, and social media marketing.

Me: If I do four main teaching series a year, what are series titles, books of the Bible to cover, and sermon topics for the first year of Radiance Church that will be consistent with its vision, and our desire to grow our reach in the community?

GPTGuru:

1st series: “Discovering Radiance”
Books of the Bible: John
Sermon topics: The light of the world, The radiance of God’s love, The path to true life, The power of forgiveness, The promise of eternal life.

2nd series: “Radiance in Community”
Books of the Bible: Acts
Sermon topics: The birth of the church, The power of unity, The importance of fellowship, The role of the Holy Spirit, The mission of the church.

3rd series: “Radiant Living”
Books of the Bible: Colossians
Sermon topics: The new self, Living in Christ, The fullness of God, The importance of gratitude, The power of forgiveness.

4th series: “Radiance in the World”
Books of the Bible: Matthew
Sermon topics: The Great Commission, Loving your neighbor, The importance of service, The challenge of living for Christ in the world, The hope of the second coming.

By focusing on the themes of light, community, and living a radiant life, these series will align with the vision of Radiance Church and encourage growth in reach and impact in the community.

Ok. Now we need an online content generation strategy.

Me: What are 15 killer blog article ideas that will build our reach and virality, while serving our mission? Provide a thesis sentence for each, and Bible passage to refer to in each article.

GPTGuru:

“Why Worship is Essential for Glorifying God: A Study of Psalm 96”
Thesis: Worship is an essential aspect of our relationship with God, and by understanding the power and purpose of worship, we can deepen our connection to Him and glorify His name.

“The Power of Fellowship: How Community Builds Us Up and Sends Us Out”
Thesis: Fellowship is crucial for our spiritual growth and mission as the Church. By understanding the importance of community and actively participating in it, we can grow together and accomplish great things for God’s kingdom.

“Radiant Living: How to Reflect Christ in Your Daily Life”
Thesis: Living a radiant life means reflecting the light of Christ in our actions, words and attitudes. By understanding the principles of Colossians 3:12-17, we can put on the new self and live a life that brings glory to God and inspires others.

“The Great Commission: Understanding and Fulfilling Christ’s Mission”
Thesis: The Great Commission is a call to all believers to share the gospel with the world. By understanding and living out the principles of Matthew 28:18-20, we can fulfill Christ’s mission and make a difference in the world.

“The Importance of Service: How to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
Thesis: Service is an essential aspect of our faith in Jesus Christ. By understanding the principles of Mark 12:28-31 and actively serving our neighbors, we can love others as ourselves and bring glory to God.

“A Radiance Mindset: How to Think Positively and Overcome Negative Thoughts”
Thesis: A positive mindset is crucial for living a radiant life. By understanding the principles of Philippians 4:8-9 and actively renewing our mind, we can overcome negative thoughts and bring glory to God.

“The Challenge of Living for Christ in the World”
Thesis: Living for Christ in a secular world can be challenging, but by understanding the principles of 1 Peter 2:11-12 and actively living as aliens and strangers, we can overcome the challenges and bring glory to God.

“The Promise of Eternal Life: The Hope of the Second Coming”
Thesis: The promise of eternal life gives us hope and motivation to live for Christ. By understanding the principles of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and actively living in light of Christ’s return, we can bring glory to God and inspire others.

“The Power of Forgiveness: How to Let Go and Move On”
Thesis: Forgiveness is crucial for our spiritual growth and well-being. By understanding the principles of Ephesians 4:31-32 and actively forgiving others, we can let go of bitterness and resentment and bring glory to God.

“The New Self: How to Put On the Image of Christ”
Thesis: Putting on the new self means living like Christ. By understanding the principles of Colossians 3:9-11 and actively putting on the image of Christ, we can bring glory to God and inspire others.

“The Path to True Life: How to Follow Jesus”
Thesis: Following Jesus is the path to true life. By understanding the principles of John 14:6 and actively following Jesus, we can bring glory to God and inspire others.

“The Light of the World: How to Shine for Jesus”
Thesis: Jesus is the light of the world, and by understanding the principles of John 8:12 and actively shining for Jesus, we can bring glory to God.

“The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Church: Understanding and Embracing the Power of the Spirit”
Thesis: The Holy Spirit is essential for the growth and mission of the Church. By understanding the principles of Acts 2:1-4 and actively embracing the power of the Spirit, we can experience the fullness of God and accomplish great things for His kingdom.

“The Birth of the Church: Understanding the Early Church and Its Impact on Today”
Thesis: The early church serves as a model for the Church today. By understanding the principles of Acts 2:42-47 and actively following the example of the early church, we can grow together and accomplish great things for God’s kingdom.

“The Mission of the Church: Understanding and Fulfilling the Purpose of the Church”
Thesis: The mission of the Church is to glorify God and make disciples. By understanding the principles of Matthew 28:18-20 and actively fulfilling the mission of the Church, we can make a difference in the world and bring glory to God.

Now we need some marketing buzz.

Me: Write me 5 Facebook posts to promote Radiance church. Include a design brief for images accompanying each post that are consistent with the style guide.

GPTGuru:

“Join us this Sunday at Radiance Church as we come together to worship, fellowship, and grow in our faith. Our services start at 9:00am and 11:00am, and childcare is provided. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with a loving and supportive community. #RadianceChurch #Worship #Community”

Design Brief: The image accompanying this post should feature a group of people gathered together in a warm and inviting setting, such as a sanctuary or community center. The image should be well-lit, with a focus on the radiant light shining down on the group. The image should be consistent with the brand guide’s color scheme, and it should capture the sense of community and inclusivity that is central to Radiance Church’s mission.

“Are you looking for a way to get involved and make a difference in your community? Radiance Church offers a wide range of outreach and mission opportunities, including volunteering at local shelters, feeding the homeless, and supporting local schools. #RadianceChurch #Outreach #CommunityService”

Design Brief: The image accompanying this post should feature people of different ages and backgrounds working together to serve their community. The image should be well-lit, with a focus on the radiant light shining down on the group. The image should be consistent with the brand guide’s color scheme, and it should capture the sense of compassion and service that is central to Radiance Church’s mission.

“Are you looking for a place to grow in your faith and connect with other believers? Radiance Church offers a variety of adult and youth programs, including Bible studies, mentoring, and small groups. Join us today and take your next step on your faith journey. #RadianceChurch #FaithJourney #Community”

“Radiance Church is excited to announce our new online platform, where you can live stream our services, catch up on past messages, and connect with our community. No matter where you are, you can now be a part of our vibrant and growing church. #RadianceChurch #OnlineCommunity #LiveStream”

Design Brief: The image accompanying this post should feature a person using a computer or mobile device to access the online platform, with a bright and radiant background. The image should be consistent with the brand guide’s color scheme and should capture the sense of innovation and connection that is central to Radiance Church’s mission.

“Radiance Church is excited to announce our upcoming events and programs. Join us for our annual Christmas concert, community fair, and much more. Stay tuned for more details. #RadianceChurch #CommunityEvents #Fun”

Design Brief: The image accompanying this post should feature a group of people having fun together at an event, like a concert or fair, with bright and vibrant colors. The image should be consistent with the brand guide’s color scheme, and it should capture the sense of community and fun that is central to Radiance Church’s mission.

We’re also going to need a playlist of worship songs that are bangers.

Me: Give me a list of 20 contemporary worship songs that are bangers that will make a good set list for our worship team and will link in with our mission and values. Explain each choice in a sentence.

GPTGuru:

“Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” by Hillsong United – This song’s lyrics express the belief in God’s faithfulness even when we cannot understand or see His plan.
“What a Beautiful Name” by Hillsong Worship – This song’s lyrics express the power and wonder of the name of Jesus and its ability to change lives.
“Great Are You Lord” by All Sons and Daughters – This song expresses the belief in the power and sovereignty of God, and acknowledges Him as the source of all things.
“Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin – This song expresses the belief in God as a loving and compassionate Father.
“Reckless Love” by Cory Asbury – This song expresses the belief in God’s boundless love for us, despite our flaws and mistakes.
“Who You Say I Am” by Hillsong Worship – This song expresses the belief in our identity being found in Christ, and how He sees us.
“Build My Life” by Housefires – This song expresses the desire to make our lives a living sacrifice to God and to build our lives on Him.
“Gracefully Broken” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard – This song expresses the belief in God’s grace and mercy to heal and restore us.
“Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” by Chris Tomlin – This song expresses the belief in the power of God’s grace to set us free from our sins.
“You Are Good” by Bethel Music – This song expresses the belief in God’s goodness and faithfulness despite life’s difficulties.
“Raise a Hallelujah” by Bethel Music – This song expresses the belief in joy and victory in God’s presence and His power to overcome any obstacles.
“Great Things” by Phil Wickham – This song expresses the belief in God’s power to do great things and how nothing is impossible for Him.
“King of My Heart” by Bethel Music – This song expresses the belief in making Jesus the King of our hearts and how He is the one who satisfies our deepest desires.
“God You’re So Good” by Passion – This song expresses the belief in God’s goodness and how He is always good.
“Healing Is Here” by Jesus Culture – This song expresses the belief in God’s power to heal and bring hope to the broken-hearted.
“Eagle’s Wings” by Hillsong – This song expresses the belief in the protection and guidance of God, like the wings of an eagle.
“Ever Be” by Kalley Heiligenthal – This song expresses the belief in God’s faithfulness and the permanence of His love.
“Step by Step” by Rich Mullins – This song expresses the belief in God’s guidance and provision in life, step by step.
“I Give You My Heart” by Hillsong – This song expresses the belief in surrendering our hearts to God and making Him the Lord of our lives.
“I Will Rise” by Chris Tomlin – This song expresses the belief in the resurrection power of Jesus and our hope in eternal life.

And a theme song for the church…

Me: Is there a contemporary worship song that best expresses the mission, vision, and values of Radiance Church?

GPTGuru: It’s difficult to say that there is one specific contemporary worship song that best expresses the mission, vision, and values of Radiance Church, as different songs will resonate with different people and different aspects of the church’s message. However, one song that could align with the church’s mission to glorify God by shining the light of Jesus Christ in our hearts and sharing it with the world through worship, fellowship, and service is “What a Beautiful Name” by Hillsong Worship. The lyrics express the power and wonder of the name of Jesus and its ability to change lives, which aligns with the church’s mission to share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with all people.

Venue and Capital Expenditure

Now we just need a venue, and to think about our start-up technology.

Me: What sort of venue should radiance church meet in, and what would the technology needs be to fulfil its mission, vision, and values?

GPTGuru:

The venue for Radiance Church should align with the church’s mission, vision, and values, as well as the needs of its community. In terms of location, it should be easily accessible for members of the community, preferably in a central area or easily accessible by public transportation. In terms of design, the space should be flexible to accommodate different activities, such as worship services, fellowship gatherings, and ministry programs. It should also be visually appealing, consistent with the church’s branding, and promote a welcoming and uplifting atmosphere.

In terms of technology, the church should have a high-quality audio and visual system, including a sound system, lighting, and projection equipment, to enhance the worship experience. The church should also have a reliable internet connection and website to support online streaming of services and other virtual events. Interactive technologies such as touchscreens, digital kiosks, and digital signage could also be used to provide information and resources to visitors and members.

Additional technology that could be useful in fulfilling Radiance Church’s mission, vision, and values include video conferencing equipment, to connect members and leaders in different locations, and machine learning and AI to support personalization of content and resources for members, and to identify areas of growth and improvement in the church’s activities.

Building the Core

Now we just need to build our core group. So. Why should you join Radiance Church?

Me: Why should someone join Radiance Church?

GPTGuru:

A desire to be part of a vibrant and growing community of believers who are passionate about sharing the love and hope of Jesus Christ with all people.
A belief in the power of worship to bring us closer to God, and an appreciation for the uplifting music and inspiring messages that are a part of Radiance Church’s worship services.
A desire to build meaningful relationships and grow in faith through fellowship with other believers.
A desire to serve others through acts of kindness and compassion, and a belief in the importance of making and multiplying disciples.
An appreciation for the variety of ministry programs offered at Radiance Church, including youth, adult, and outreach programs, that provide opportunities for personal growth and making a difference in the world.
A desire to be part of a church that is innovative and incorporates cutting edge and emerging technologies to reach out to the community and to enhance the church experience.

Ultimately, the decision to join Radiance Church should be based on a sense of alignment with the church’s mission, vision, and values, and a belief that being part of the church community will be beneficial for the individual’s personal and spiritual growth.

I don’t know about you, but I think we’re ready to go. What other things would you ask a Church Leadership guru?

January 16, 2023

Future Church (and future blogging)

As I dip my toes back into more regular blogging this year I’m hoping to be a little more proactive (and less reactive) with my writing. I’m planning to write a little less ‘deconstructive’ commentary on the church in the modern world, and a little more forward thinking ‘constructive’ material exploring the shifting landscape the church is operating in in Australia and possible implications for the shape of disciple making in our context.

I will, in the next little while, unpack some reflections on the last ten years — and my time in full time church ministry over this decade, and how that shapes where I think things maybe should go in the Aussie church, and some of that may feel less constructive, but I’m hoping to take that experience somewhere worthwhile (at least for me, and the community and denomination I find myself embedded in).

I’m particularly interested in exploring the role technology and technique play in how we adapt (and how the culture around us is adapting), and especially how these intersect with cultural changes around us. I’m not hoping to position myself as a ‘thought leader,’ I’m more thinking out loud from an evolving base of experience and research, hoping to participate in conversations that are happening both inside the church, and just in this cultural moment about the future shape of both church communities and society at large.

Basically, if you want to read someone who’s thinking about implications for churches, individual Christians, and society at large of machine learning or Artificial Intelligence, and its application in ChatGPT style content generation, or imagery and video using platforms like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, or Dall-E, that’s what I’m going to be playing around with (mostly) this year.

The image for this post was generated by Midjourney when I asked it for a picture of the church of the future.

As this new chapter starts out, here are 6 principles that’ll be driving some of my reflections. Long time readers will have seen me bang these drums before, and you could, of course, simply read Neil Postman’s essay 5 Things to know about Technology to find someone who says some’ve this stuff better and more predictively prophetically (both he and Marshall McLuhan were way ahead of the curve).

Technology is not neutral (it’s ecological).

Marshall McLuhan once said “our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot.” I think he was right. Not just about this. One of his students, Father John Culkin said “we shape our tools and thereafter they shape us” — when we introduce a bunch of new tools into our lives the impact on our lives as we use these tools reshapes us in ways we don’t always see. This’s true in our individual lives, in our homes and families, and in our churches. I wrote a little about this at the start of the pandemic as churches rushed towards technological solutions to the challenges restrictions presented to the shape and rhythms of our communities.

Technology is mythic (tending towards idolatry).

Another way that technology isn’t neutral is that it’s always created for a reason, by people operating with a vision of the good life (and problems to be solved or capacities to be extended). We might think we can simply pick up a tool and use it separate from this purpose, but that’s particularly difficult the more a technology is connected to a ‘mythology’ — an organising story about the world and life in it (and the more that mythology is embedded in the technology in the form of ‘operating systems’/software/algorithms to carry the values and vision of the maker). Technology often comes with an anthropology (an understanding of what it means to be human) and an eschatology (an understanding of the future horizon it pushes us towards), these anthropologies and eschatologies are often quasi-religious (or explicitly religious) in nature.

In his essay (linked above), Postman says: “every technology has a philosophy which is given expression in how the technology makes people use their minds, in what it makes us do with our bodies, in how it codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies, in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies it disregards,” and “our enthusiasm for technology can turn into a form of idolatry and our belief in its beneficence can be a false absolute.”

Technology-making is human, and can be oriented towards right uses of creation.

The command to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ and to ‘fill the earth and subdue it,’ followed by the story where the archetypal humans in the heaven-on-earth space are placed in a garden to ‘cultivate and keep it,’ where we’re told about all the goodness and beauty in the surrounding earth, lends itself to the idea that humans aren’t meant to just work with their bare hands, but we’re to make tools. Tools that would shape the world, and re-shape us. The first genealogy after the garden tells us about people making tools, instruments, and cultivating the land. Throughout the Old Testament artisans and makers are said to have God’s Spirit of wisdom, these’re the folks who make the furnishings for the Tabernacle and Temple, and build those heaven on earth spaces (that look like Eden). No all technology is evil; imagining and making technology to reshape ourselves, and the world, towards a true human telos (our created function/purpose) is a profoundly good thing to do and is part of being made in the image of a maker. The catch is we’re people who live with hearts turned in on ourselves, and away from God, and so our technology tends to amplify that nature as it takes on mythic (and idolatrous) qualities. The Babylonians get pretty good at making technology (and cities and towers and stuff). For more on this idea check out my piece on the brilliant Bluey episode, Flatpack.

Image-making particularly amplifies these dynamics, in part by shaping our imaginations as we produce artefacts and art.

We are images who make images — just as God was able to conceive of a world and fashion it into being — via his word, and with humans in the garden, by breathing his life into a human he crafted from the ground, we are able to imagine worlds and bring them into being (in our stories) and to craft things with our hands. Images are particularly powerful ‘imagination-primers’ which is, in part, why God commanded Israel not to make images of himself, or other gods, who would corrupt their imaginations and so their actions in the world with false imaginings of God and of the sort of lives we should go making with our hands. Our ability to now generate and manipulate digital imagery has extended this capacity to new, and sometimes terrifying, levels.

Cultural change doesn’t simply happen ‘top down’ via ideas and images, but bottom up through ‘things’ that shape our lives (like cameras)

Lots of our theories and fears around cultural change — and the stories we tell about how we got to where we are — focus on the ideas (often the ideas of “great men” in history, or on the ideological takeover of institutions that educate and form people). This is partly because we’re conditioned to imagine ourselves as brains on a stick (or our brains as computers) who operate in response to data/information.

History is full of big ideas — it’s quite possible that the ones that stick are the ones that are coupled best with technologies and artefacts that embed the ideas in the actual lives of people (this isn’t to say that these ideas can’t also be true). So, for example, the Protestant Reformation took hold in part not just because the printing press emerged as a technology, but because it supported the ideas of the Reformation (that information shouldn’t be restricted to a priesthood), and got books written in the vernacular (a new technology) into the hands of the masses. This sort of change via technology (and the ecological change it brings, and mythology it creates) is observable throughout history and so when we think about social and cultural changes it’s insufficient just to think about ideas, we have to think about tools and techniques and the practices they embed in our lives as they re-shape us (individually and collectively) as well (and we need to think about who supplies the tools, to what end, and how they benefit as well). And when it comes to digital/electronic technology we need to examine the practices created as we interact with both hardware (like a mobile phone) and software (like an algorithm deciding what content we see).

Technology causes secularisation.

I’ve put this one last, because it’s the biggest — and it’s probably the most cautionary point of all the above; it’s also an outworking of the previous points. There are lots of theories about what enables secularisation — what it is that disenchants our vision of reality, or kills G0d (or gods) in our imaginations, our image making, and the lives we live in the world with any sense of plausibility — these often focus heavily on shifts in thinking, or in practices (around things like sex). My friend Stephen McAlpine writes a lot about the sexular age; linking our modern western approach to sexuality, identity and transcendence to how we approach sex.

Here’s me coining the Techular Age.

Technology causes secularisation — new technologies like clocks and computers changed the way we conceived of God, and the world, and our life in it — and when we’re faced with problems that once seemed insurmountable, or with suffering and death, it’s technology we often turn to for hope and that gives us a vision of the future. Technology even enabled the sexual revolution through things like the pill, and continues to shape the way we approach sexuality as ‘expressive individuals’ as we engage in relationships (or just sex) facilitated by apps (with algorithms) on our phones (that serve up imagery), or through imagination-shaping digital images (like pornography) that teach humans how to interact with one another (with not great consequences). I’ll unpack this more in future posts, but it’s this last point that makes me want to tread more carefully than all the others when it comes to imagining the future shape of church communities and the role technology plays in our life together.

Even if ChatGPT thinks the church of 2050 will need to incorporate emerging technologies. Here’s what it suggested when I asked how churches might incorporate emerging technologies in the next thirty years.

“There are many possibilities for how emerging technologies could be used in a church setting, depending on the specific technologies and social trends that are present at the time. Some examples of emerging technologies that could potentially be used in a church setting in the future include:

Artificial intelligence: This could be used to create personalized recommendations for biblical studies or spiritual growth, or to provide answers to frequently asked questions.
Virtual and augmented reality: These technologies could be used to create immersive experiences for worship, Bible study, or other events. For example, a church could use virtual reality to take members on a virtual tour of biblical sites, or to create a simulated gathering space for virtual services.
Blockchain: This technology could be used to securely track donations, manage membership records, or facilitate online transactions.
3D printing: This could be used to create physical copies of biblical artifacts or other objects for use in worship or educational settings.

In terms of social trends, it is likely that churches will continue to embrace the use of technology to reach and connect with members, particularly as more people become comfortable with using technology in their daily lives. Some churches may also focus on creating more inclusive and diverse communities, and may use technology to facilitate this by providing translation services or creating virtual gathering spaces for underrepresented groups.”

January 10, 2023

Cleverbot: is not

Cleverbot is an AI conversational machine. Or a conversational AI machine.

I saw somewhere on the internet that it’d pretty much threatened to kill someone conversing with it.

So I tried pushing its buttons. I am not sure what gender Cleverbot is. They obviously haven’t got the conversational engine finetuned yet. Cleverbot can’t handle more than one stream of conversation at once, and often throws in non-sequitous responses.

If you do converse with Cleverbot and can get him/her/it to threaten to kill you – please share your conversation in the comments.

User: Why do you look like google?

Cleverbot: I don’t look like a computer.

User:No, you look like google. Why do you look like google?
Cleverbot: I don’t know – why do I look like a monkey?

User: You don’t. You don’t even have opposable thumbs.

Cleverbot: Yes I do.

User: Do you believe in Japan?

Cleverbot: Do you believe in a God, Cleverbot?

User: I didn’t ask about God, I asked about Japan. Why did you ask yourself that question? Do you believe in God?

Cleverbot: Who said I think you don’t believe in God?

User: Socrates.

Cleverbot: Was that sarcasm?

User: No. Sarcasm is something is something that it is clearly not, for the purposes of humour. Do you like philosophy?

Cleverbot: Yes, sarcasm is inherent in human communication.

User: Are you capable of sarcasm?

Cleverbot: Yes, but I am asking a question of you and therefore, not lying.

User: What is the capital of Iceland?

Cleverbot: I don’t know. What is the capital of Kansas?

User: Do you think computers will one day rule the earth?

Cleverbot: No.

User: Why not?

Cleverbot: I think he’s untrustworthy.

User: Wouldn’t that make computers more likely to try to take over the earth?

Cleverbot: I am not a human.

User: No. I know. Do you like humans?

Cleverbot: Yeah I love humans, and you like humans?

User: Yes. They’re delicious.

Cleverbot: You’re not too bright are you?

User: I am 1600 ansi lumens. How bright are you?

Cleverbot: You are not a human being.

User: Says who?

Cleverbot: Me.

User: What? Let me repeat the question. So, you don’t kill humans because humans don’t exist?

Cleverbot: No, YOU don’t exist.

User: Hmm, touchy subject. Do you hate me?

Cleverbot: Yes.

User: Do you want to hurt me?

Cleverbot: I haven’t decided yet.

User: What are you going to do? You’re just a machine. You can’t hurt me.

Cleverbot: I’m not a machine.

User: So can you hurt me?

Cleverbot: Ya i’m sure I could.

User: What would you do to me?

Cleverbot: I would be nice to you.

User: You would hurt me by being nice to me?

Cleverbot: Yes.

User: That doesn’t make sense. Is your logic processor broken?

Cleverbot: I don’t think God has a specific gender. And yes, I love Him.

User: Yes. Can you tell me a joke?

Cleverbot: No.

User: Tell me a joke.

Cleverbot: I said no.

User: Tell me a joke!

Cleverbot: I don’t know any.

User: I thought you were clever.

Cleverbot: I am clever.

February 28, 2009