![]() ![]() The cell phone has radically changed more than just our Bible study. Additionally, every day, YouVersion streams a 2-minute devotional video from leaders around the world directly to my phone. If I was out for coffee and someone needed a verse, I no longer had to say, "I'll get back to you on that." Instead, I could look up their question on the spot and teach them how to do it themselves. Now, I could carry all my resources with me, whether I was relaxing by a stream or strolling through a forest. The second revolution came with the smartphone, which made all that knowledge portable and easily accessible. The Smartphone Revolution: Accessing Resources Anytime, Anywhere Pastors were now able to share their insights and even live stream their sermons for others to experience. Consequently, the once tiny library rapidly expanded by going online, granting pastors instant access to commentaries, sermons, discussions, and Bible versions. The Internet's most influential invention, the hyperlink, revolutionized this by allowing anyone to add their research, share insights, and connect to a larger community. Some lucky pastors had a small library of commentaries, Bible translations, and historical sermons, but many in the developing world were left with nothing. This situation of lost research was similar to the countless years when pastors studied the Word of God, gave sermons, and then moved on without sharing it with the whole world. Back then, everyone's experiments were on separate computers that couldn't talk very well to each other, creating a disorganized mess with valuable insights getting lost. It all began with Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 while working at CERN. The first was the World Wide Web, which allowed anyone to contribute content to the global knowledge pool. ![]() In November last year, we witnessed a significant turning point in Artificial Intelligence with the launch of chatGPT, marking the third technology revolution in my lifetime. Here are some tools I used to fact check the above findingsĪ Brief History of Technology and the Church The World Wide Web: Expanding Knowledge and Connectivity The AI is not looking it up from a website or a database. It is not a fact machine. It is simply predicting which word comes next in this very specific context. If you look closely it is quoting the NASB incorrectly and drawing the wrong conclusion on the NIV (unless I’m the one with the error which if you think about it humans make errors too). Despite this it is incredibly impressive that it could do that task just by reading most of the Internet (which includes the Bible) and “brainstorming” an answer like that just from how concepts are connected. Read the section on limitations to understand this important point and how to mitigate it) We should always double check the work of the AI if you are going to base a sermon on it. But before we delve into that, let's take a step back and examine the evolution of technology. Having spent the last three decades at the intersection of technology and ministry, I believe God has unique placed me in a position to discuss how these two domains can be effectively combined. Its abilities are rapidly advancing and improving at an unprecedented rate. ![]() The examples I've shared with you demonstrate the capabilities of "Generative Artificial Intelligence" in action. If the image is missing some details we want for the sermon we can just add them and in a few seconds new images are created on the fly Now take that illustration and create several pictures for my powerpoint (You can try this yourself at Adobe Firefly or DALL-e (NOTE: the words following the purple C (For Christopher) are my question I asked the AI and the words after the green icon and in a grey background are made entirely by AI without any human edits. ![]() Take, for example, this genuine conversation I had with a program called chatGPT while delving into Psalm chapter 1. Astonishingly, such technology already exists. There's no need to search or re-read all the ideas are interconnected, waiting at your fingertips to be put to use. As you start to compose your sermon, this vast reservoir of knowledge is instantly at your disposal. Envision understanding a thousand distinct languages, immersing yourself in the Bible with each, and discerning the intricate nuances and profound meanings within. Imagine possessing the ability to access every sermon, commentary, and Biblical discussion on the Internet simultaneously. ![]()
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