Artificial Intelligence | Week 2 | Pastor Ben Pierce

Thanks for reading this message from Generation Church, delivered by Pastor Ben Pierce. In this piece, I unpack what we talked about in Week 2 of our “Artificial Intelligence” series: how a world shaped by rapidly advancing AI can subtly press Christians into a performative faith and how we can choose authenticity instead, choosing the presence of God, heart transformation, and surrendered trust over mere outward rituals, rules, and control.

Artificial intelligence is changing everything, and fast. It has already begun to reshape how we seek answers, work, create, and relate. In my message, I wanted to say clearly: AI is a tool of immense potential. Use it. Explore it. Rejoice over the cures and innovations it may bring. But also beware of what it can unintentionally teach us about God and spirituality: the language of performance.

Why This Matters: AI, Human Longing, and Spiritual Shortcuts

AI is not a sci‑fi novelty anymore. It’s here; it’s accelerating; it’s impressive. A few weeks ago, I watched as people began to ask AI theological and spiritual questions, “Who is the one true God?” “What is the one true religion?” “Am I eternally secure?” “What does God think of me?” The responses are immediate, polished, and persuasive. For many, that can be attractive. After all, we live in a results-driven culture: quick answers, clear outputs, immediate follow‑ups.

Remember how it felt when you first tried ChatGPT or another AI tool? You typed a question and within seconds you had a neat, confident paragraph in reply. Then the chatbot asked, “Would you like me to take that and do something else for you?” The follow-up feels like intuition. It’s brilliant. But it’s also automatic. It’s designed to perform for you.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using AI for practical help, such as writing an email, summarizing research, or brainstorming sermon illustrations. The innovation we’re seeing (for example, in protein‑folding research that accelerated modelling across billions of combinations) is breathtaking. However, the problem arises when we approach God in the same transactional, performative, and easily satisfied way. We’ve lost something vital when artificial answers displace authentic encounters with the living God.

Programmed for Performance: What It Looks Like in Faith

Growing up in Western culture, we are wired for performance. The “American dream” teaches us that we will get ahead if we hustle and perform. Self‑improvement and personal responsibility are good, but performance as a primary posture becomes toxic when it spills into our spiritual lives.

What does a performative faith look like in everyday terms?

• Reading the Bible because we feel watched, not because we’re hungry for God.
• Doing “Christian things”, tithing, serving, praying to look right before people rather than because our heart is tender before God.
• Becoming defensive and ashamed after a moral stumble, believing distance from God is deserved because outward behavior didn’t match the show we’d been giving.
• Allowing religious rituals to become substitutes for relationships, a means to measure worth rather than a conduit of grace.

If artificial intelligence can produce polished spiritual answers without a soul, Christians can easily slide into a religion that looks right on the outside while remaining cold on the inside. That’s the danger: external religiosity without inner relationship.

AI Can Imitate Worship, but It Cannot Replace the Spirit.

I gave a small demonstration in the message: I asked an AI to write a Hillsong‑style worship song. A few seconds later, it produced anthemic lyrics that checked all the boxes. It sounded authentic, built a worshipful crescendo, and could easily be performed on stage. But there was a catch: those lyrics were compiled from existing songs and patterns. They were polished but not inspired. They were reflections of other people’s hearts, not the outpouring of one.

That moment illustrated a key spiritual principle: our worship cannot be automated. God doesn’t want scripts; he wants surrender. The AI could assemble worship language and even mimic the form of heartfelt devotion. But it cannot be the Holy Spirit. It cannot be the divine encounter that changes a soul. The danger? When we start to expect a scripted, polished encounter, when we prefer tidy answers over messy transformation, we stunt our spiritual growth.

Quote to hold: “Authenticity, not artificial righteousness.”

God desires authenticity, not artificial righteousness. He’s not after a perfect checklist; he wants a relationship. It’s the difference between a curated set of actions and a heart shaped by the Holy Spirit.

Three Redirections to Avoid a Performative Faith

So, how do we guard against becoming “programmed for performance”? In the talk, I shared three profound but straightforward redirections. Each is a way to choose life and relationships over mere appearance and control.

1. Choose the presence of God over performance

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were models of religious performance: They knew the rules, collected the proper rituals, and displayed righteousness. Yet Jesus told them they “honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” They were experts in doing; they were novices in being with God.

To choose God’s presence over performance means our primary aim is intimacy with him. When we read Scripture, we ask, “How is God speaking to me?” rather than “How do I look when I quote this?” It means we worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23). It’s not the location, the show, or the precision of our theology that matters first; it’s whether our heart is touching God.

Practical ways to choose presence:

• Start the day with a short conversation with God: “God, how are you today? What do you have for my heart?”
• Set a simple rhythm of presence rather than a lengthy checklist of religious tasks.
• Let worship be a response from the heart, not a performance for others.

2. Choose transformation over tradition

Tradition is not bad; in many cases, it’s helpful. But when tradition becomes the end rather than the means, it blocks transformation. Jesus rebuked religious leaders for letting their traditions make the Word of God ineffective (Mark 7:13). The systems that were designed to lead people toward the Messiah had become barriers that prevented people from meeting him.

Tradition tries to change behaviour from the outside in. God seeks to change people from the inside out. We are called to be doers of the Word, not hearers only (James 1:22), but “doing” must be the fruit of a heart transformed by God’s truth, not mere behaviour modification.

Examples of tradition becoming a substitute:

• Tithing because “that’s what we do” rather than because God has made you generous from the inside.
• Worship gestures (lifting hands, kneeling) are done from habit or peer pressure rather than as a reflection of inner surrender.
• Defensive boundaries on who can participate in certain rites because of human systems instead of extending grace where Christ would.

How to move from tradition to transformation:

• Allow Scripture to be a mirror that convicts and changes, not a rulebook you use to score others.
• When you’re taught practices or routines, ask God if this is a “do” for you personally, not because you’ve seen someone else do it well.
• Pray, meditate, and invite the Spirit to implant God’s Word in your heart so that your actions flow naturally out of internal change.

3. Choose surrender over control

Religious people often resist surrender because they fear losing status, identity, or safety. The Sanhedrin’s reaction to Jesus’ miracles revealed this: “What are we accomplishing? This man performs many signs.” Their concern was the effect, the appearance, the control, not the person of Jesus himself.

Surrender looks risky. It might cost reputation, security, or plans. But surrender opens us into something far better than anything performance can produce. Jesus taught that anyone who wants to follow him must take up their cross daily and follow him, letting go of self to find life (Luke 9:23).

What surrender might look like in practice:

• Forgiving someone you’re convinced doesn’t deserve it, because you know God freed you first.
• Letting go of a lifestyle or habit that you enjoy but that keeps you from being fully obedient.
• Trusting God with outcomes: giving away control over a relationship, a career decision, or a fear about the future.

We must remember that we are not stepping into emptiness when we surrender. Ezekiel prophesied that God would give us a new heart, a heart of flesh, not stone, and the Spirit would move us to follow God’s decrees (Ezekiel 36:25–27). We surrender and receive a better life on the other side.

Identifying Performative Tendencies: A Brief Self-check

If you want to examine whether your faith has a performative bent, try these simple litmus tests. Be honest and gentle with yourself. Honesty is the first step toward transformation.

1. How do you feel when you sin? Is your first response shame and distance from God, or repentance and a quick step back into the relationship? Performance breeds distance and shame; a relationship breeds confession and grace.
2. Why do you read the Bible or attend worship? Because you feel watched or love Jesus and want to know him? If the motive is performance, the pattern will be brittle and short‑lived.
3. Are you reproducing someone else’s encounter with God (a practice, a ritual) without having had your own encounter? If you’re following directions you heard rather than a call you received, their fruit won’t be your fruit.
4. What are you holding on to that God keeps asking you to surrender? Unforgiveness, lifestyle choices, relationship control, pride, or reputation? These are the stony places in our hearts that need softening.

Practical Rhythms to Cultivate Authentic Relationships

It’s one thing to know the problem. It’s another to replace performance with presence. Here are practical, everyday rhythms I’ve encouraged people to try. None is magic, but each is a pathway into presence, transformation, and surrender.

• Begin with surrender: Start the day with a short prayer: “God, this is your day. What do you want from my heart?” A twenty‑second posture of surrender changes the trajectory of the day.
• Read the Word as a mirror: Let it read you before you move from scripture to action. Ask: “What are you saying to my heart?” and allow time for an honest response.
• Practice small, consistent obedience: Tiny generosities and small acts of confession add to heart transformation. Aim for incremental growth rather than dramatic performance.
• Invite accountability for the heart, not just the behavior: Share with trusted people about motives and struggles, not to earn approval, but to find help and prayer for inner change.
• Evaluate your tech habits: Use AI as a tool, not an oracle. Ask it for ideas, summaries, or help, but don’t let it be the final spiritual authority in your life. Test everything against Scripture and the counsel of the Holy Spirit.

On Using AI Wisely as a Christian

AI will be a central turning point in history as significant in its way as electricity. That doesn’t mean we should fear everything about it. I’m a fan of using technology for good. I want you to leverage it for evangelism, creativity, and scientific progress. But here are a few guardrails:

• Use AI for ideas, summaries, and teaching help, but always filter its spiritual answers through Scripture and prayer.
• Don’t outsource your spiritual life to a machine. No chatbot can replace the counsel of the Holy Spirit, the community of genuine believers, or the convicting work of Scripture.
• Remember that AI is programmed to perform. It’s designed to keep the user engaged, answer quickly, and smooth over discomfort. The Christian life sometimes requires discomfort and slow growth. Be wary of substituting quick fixes for the slow work of sanctification.

The Pharisee Story and the Woman Who Touched Jesus: Two Contrasting Hearts

In the message I compared two responses to God’s work: the Pharisees who were unmoved even when miracles happened (they were focused on control and status), and the woman with the issue of blood who reached out in faith, touching the hem of Jesus’ garment (she had nothing left to lose; she sought him in vulnerability and was healed).

The Pharisees had the right behaviors but the wrong hearts. The woman had no status, only faith, and encountered God’s presence. The comparison asks us: Which posture do you want to represent? Do you like outer righteousness or inner encounter?

Questions to Reflect on This Week

Use these as a personal examination or discuss them with a group or mentor:

1. What is one religious habit I do that feels more like performance than relationship?
2. Where am I holding on to control instead of surrendering it to God?
3. What small step of surrender could I take today that would point my heart back toward God’s presence?
4. How am I using technology to pursue God? Where am I letting it replace encounters with God or with people?

A Final Word and a Simple Invitation

If your faith has been more about checking boxes than meeting Jesus, hear this plainly: God is not asking for perfect performance. He’s asking for a relationship. He wants presence, not polish. He wants your heart, not just your hands.

Start small. Pray a short prayer of surrender. Ask God to remove the stony places in your heart and to replace them with a heart of flesh. Invite the Holy Spirit to make God’s Word active and alive in you. Choose presence over performance. Choose transformation over tradition. Choose surrender over control.

If you’ve never personally surrendered your life to Jesus, Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us that salvation is by grace through faith; it’s not a work we earn. It’s a gift to receive. If you feel a tug in your heart to respond, keep it simple: admit your need, thank Jesus for his sacrifice, and invite him to be Lord of your life. That’s the most critical decision you can make.

Prayer to Guide You

Father God, come and make your home in our hearts. Forgive our sin. Replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Transform us from the inside out so that our outward behavior flows from what you have done in us. We surrender our control. We choose your presence. We trust your Spirit to lead us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If that prayer resonates with you, take a step to find a church family, talk with a pastor or a friend who follows Jesus, or simply keep praying and ask God for more. We’d love to walk with you.

Resources and Next Steps

• Join a Freedom course or similar discipleship class to address deep places of hurt and healing and learn how to cultivate God’s presence in your life.
• Start a 21‑day habit of morning surrender: twenty seconds of prayer asking God what he wants from your heart that day.
• When you use AI, set a simple guideline: “AI will help my head work, but God shapes my heart.” Pray before you consult a machine.
• Read Ezekiel 36:25-27, John 4:23, James 1, Luke 9:23, and Matthew 15 to keep the scriptures in view as you apply these truths.

Thanks for taking the time to reflect with me. The best is yet to come, not because we perform better, but because we will fully know God and surrender more deeply.