Question
How Should Christians Use AI Tools Like ChatGPT?
Christians should use AI tools the way they would use any powerful capacity: deliberately, with discernment about formation, with honesty about authorship, and with attention to whether the tool is deepening or substituting for the practices that form mature disciples.
There is no general rule that determines whether using AI is faithful or unfaithful. The question is contextual. Using AI to summarize a research paper saves time without dissolving any meaningful practice. Using AI to write a sermon outsources the formation that comes from wrestling with Scripture. Using AI to compose a personal note to a grieving friend evades the relational labor that the note was supposed to express. Same tool; different formation outcomes.
A useful diagnostic: does the AI assistance free me to do what only I can do, or does it substitute for the very work that was forming me? Christians should also be honest about authorship. When AI substantially shapes a piece of writing, attributing it solely to the human user misrepresents the work. And finally, Christians should pay attention to what regular AI use is teaching them to expect — instant answers, frictionless production, the dissolution of effort. Those expectations have spiritual implications, even if no individual use is problematic.
Key Takeaways: Use AI With Formation in View
Diagnostic Question: Does this AI use free me for higher work, or substitute for forming work?
Authorship Honesty: When AI substantially shapes a piece of writing, that should be acknowledged.
Scripture: Colossians 3:17 (whatever you do, in word or deed); Galatians 6:7-8.
The “So What”: AI use is not binary good/bad but a series of formation-shaping choices Christians should make deliberately.
About the Author
James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.
SECTION 6
The Church’s Response