← AI for the Kingdom
Contents · 2 / 57
  1. Copyright and Publication Information
  2. Preface
  3. A Note on AI and Sources
  4. A Note on Scripture, Statistics, and Terminology
  5. God, Humanity, Technology, and Mission
  6. The Church Enters the AI Age
  7. A Biblical Theology of Tools
  8. What Makes a Human Human?
  9. Intelligence Is Not Wisdom
  10. Babel, Pentecost, Language, and the Nations
  11. The Great Commission Has Not Changed
  12. Mission Belongs to the Church
  13. Understanding and Discerning AI
  14. What AI Actually Does
  15. Why AI Can Sound Certain and Be Wrong
  16. The Christian Responsibility for Truth
  17. A Framework for Christian AI Discernment
  18. AI in Missionary Practice
  19. Researching and Entering Another Culture
  20. Learning Another Language
  21. Translation and Localization
  22. AI and Bible Translation
  23. Voice, Orality, and Accessibility
  24. Evangelism and Apologetics
  25. Discipleship and Bible Teaching
  26. Training Local Leaders
  27. AI as Mission Infrastructure
  28. When Expertise Becomes Cheap
  29. Building Tools for Ministry
  30. Creating Christian Resources
  31. Administration That Serves Mission
  32. Mission Research and Strategic Intelligence
  33. When AI Becomes Dangerous
  34. The Temptation to Outsource Thinking
  35. The Temptation to Outsource Spiritual Responsibility
  36. AI Pastors, Companions, and Synthetic Authority
  37. Deepfakes, Deception, and Christian Integrity
  38. Privacy, Surveillance, and Persecution
  39. Bias, Cultural Power, and Digital Colonialism
  40. Governing AI Faithfully
  41. What Should We Delegate to AI?
  42. Building an AI Policy for Churches and Mission Organizations
  43. Building AI-Literate Missionaries
  44. The Strategic Frontier
  45. The Low-Resource Language Opportunity
  46. AI Agents and Increasing Machine Agency
  47. Resilient Mission Technology
  48. AI and the Remaining Missionary Task
  49. From Capability to Obedience
  50. The AI-Augmented Missionary
  51. The AI-Augmented Mission Organization
  52. Build for the Kingdom
  53. What AI Cannot Accomplish for Us
  54. Go
  55. Glossary
  56. Bibliography
  57. Index

Publication

Preface

~1 min read

Artificial intelligence entered public life with unusual speed. Within a few years, ordinary users gained access to systems that could translate, write, summarize, teach, generate images, analyze information, assist with software, imitate conversation, and increasingly act through external tools. Capabilities that once required specialists began appearing inside an ordinary text box.

For Christians concerned with global mission, this creates an obvious opportunity. Mission has always encountered barriers of language, distance, knowledge, training, money, infrastructure, and specialized expertise. Artificial intelligence can reduce some of those barriers substantially. In communities and languages that have historically received little technological investment, that possibility may matter even more than it does in already well-resourced ministries.

But capability alone does not tell the Church what faithfulness requires. A system can produce a translation without possessing responsibility for the translation. It can answer theological questions without receiving theological authority. It can communicate Christian teaching without becoming a Christian witness. It can automate ministry workflows without determining whether those workflows should have been automated.

AI for the Kingdom is not an argument for technological enthusiasm, nor is it a warning against artificial intelligence as such. It asks a narrower question: How should Christians, churches, missionaries, and mission organizations steward artificial intelligence in obedience to Christ and in service of God’s mission among the nations?

The book moves from theology to practice, from practice to infrastructure, from infrastructure to risk and governance, and finally from technological capability back to Christian obedience. Artificial intelligence may change what missionaries can do. It does not change whom Christians follow.