AI Reads the New Testament

From time to time these days you will come across online opinion pieces warning about the perils of AI. This is hardly surprising with any technology in its infancy, but artificial intelligence raises hackles more than most innovations for the simple reason that the average person doesn’t understand it. No matter how many times you explain to some users that they are looking at the results of algorithms, not the natural responses of an independent personality, they talk about AI “interactions” as if they have some higher meaning.

I put it down to the failure of Western educational systems over the last forty years to teach math comprehensibly. People who understand the basics of computer programming know AI is all ones and zeroes. People who don’t, don’t.

Beyond the Obvious

Let’s go beyond the obvious. Yes, children or low-information adults may believe they are dealing with another intelligent being instead of a program, leading to unhealthy and even fatal outcomes. Chatbot-related suicides are a legitimate concern. But current AI tools pose other hazards for naïve users. All publicly accessible AI tools come with a level of ideological programming baked in that will irritate Christian users at times. If you cannot take AI output with a giant grain of salt, don’t depend on it as a writing aid. You will almost surely find yourself recycling laughable falsehoods.

All that said, when you input questions that are not likely subjects for pre-programmed bias into AI tools, they can give you some very interesting and useful output. An example may help.

The Perils of One-Man Ministry

I doubt secular ideologues have the slightest interest in the one-man/any-man ministry question often debated between Christians from denominational and non-denominational backgrounds. The chances of any given AI tool suffering from a programmed prejudice on the subject is something approaching sub-zero. Odds are that what follows is about as objective a summary of the perils of one-man ministry as you are likely to find anywhere. (The amusing thing is that Brave’s AI tool generated the output in response to the prompt “the perils of any-man ministry”, making it even less likely to bias.)

I present the following AI-generated summary of the dangers of hiring a solo pastor unedited and exactly as received, including bold for emphasis:

“A one-man ministry — where a single individual bears the full weight of pastoral leadership — presents significant spiritual, emotional, and practical dangers. While such a model may initially highlight the gifts of a gifted leader, it often leads to unsustainable pressure, burnout, and spiritual decline.

Burnout and Overwhelm

The one-man model places an impossible burden on a single person. Pastors are expected to manage preaching, counseling, administration, visitation, and crisis response — tasks that require multiple skilled individuals. Research shows that 38% of pastors faced burnout risk by 2021, with younger and mainline pastors especially vulnerable. This overload undermines both personal well-being and long-term effectiveness.

Spiritual Perils of Power and Isolation

When one person holds absolute authority without accountability, the risks of pride, egotism, and spiritual pride grow. As seen in biblical figures like Saul, dependence on human praise can become a fatal trap. Leaders may begin to seek approval more than divine validation, leading to compromise and moral failure. The absence of peer oversight increases the danger of hypocrisy, where outward piety masks inward spiritual emptiness.

Erosion of Team and Congregational Health

A one-man ministry discourages the development of other gifted individuals. The church becomes dependent on one person, stifling the equipping of saints for ministry (Eph. 4:11-12). When the leader leaves or fails, the church often collapses, as it lacked a foundation of shared leadership.

Loss of Focus on the Gospel

Excessive time spent in counseling or administration can drain a pastor’s time and energy from evangelism and preaching. The primary mission — proclaiming the gospel and advancing God’s kingdom — can be sidelined, replaced by reactive, people-centered work.

Conclusion

The one-man ministry model, while common, is not biblically intended. Scripture supports shared leadership among elders (Acts 14:23, Titus 1:5), ensuring accountability, balance, and sustainability. The most enduring ministries are those built on team leadership, where the focus remains on Christ — not on any one man.”

Analyzing the Output

Now, that output in summary form is far from perfect. It comes, as they all do, with a warning to verify critical facts. That would include the percentage of pastors facing burnout risk by 2021, for which Brave provided no authoritative reference. The stat may or may not be accurate.

I also find the assertion that a pastor’s primary mission is the proclamation of the gospel more than a little debatable, but I can understand exactly where a computerized tool scraping the Web would pick that up.

Then there’s the obvious: the tool completely failed to answer the question I actually asked, a common problem not just for AI but in plenty of conversations with human beings. You really have to phrase your prompts carefully. It’s an interesting one-off experiment but, needless to say, I will not be using AI to write blog posts.

Noting the Obvious

On the other hand, Brave’s summary catches most of the major biblical concerns about one-man ministry that we have documented here over the years. Its Bible quotations were more on-point than most bloggers trying to argue a case. More importantly, the tool notes something obvious about one-man ministry that the vast majority of evangelical churches do not: that the New Testament models a plurality of spiritual leadership, leaving the focus on Christ rather than any individual.

For some of our readers at least, that makes the opinion of an online AI tool more orthodox than the practice of their local church.