daily life as life goes on . . .

AI and Me!

That’s a topic to explore – with maybe more than one or two caves to venture into.

Let’s start back in my high school days.  Let me situate that in actual light years – or rather on a calendar.  Look to the late 1960’s.  Campbell Collegiate in Regina, SK is on the cutting edge of technology.  We have one course in computer programming in my final year of high school.  I learned a language that is now fairly well obsolete – Fortran IV (pronounced Fortran Four).

The handwritten programming script was sent to another high school in town – Balfour – where typists would create punch cards.  The punch cards would be run through a “computer” (which at that point had vacuum tubes and was located in a high-security area with air conditioning and dust control).  Errors would be detected and the process would start all over again until a satisfactory answer was spit out on computer paper.

Our class toured the actual computer facility run by a provincial crown corporation.  The hype around this new technology was immense.  IBM was prominent, programming (coding) was a new and untested area of vocation and we were the generation that would usher in this new approach to life and living.  One of my fellow students ended up a few years later at MIT and, as I understand the timeline, was involved in some of the world’s initial AI development.

Imagine the curiosity that flowed in the conversations of that class.  We were taught to be open to a new way of doing things.  I’m sure previous generations were antagonistic to what we were doing – we wrote them off as uninformed.  Some forward thinkers would encourage us – we welcomed their applause.  Who could have imagined that the abacus of long ago would evolve into today’s AI?

But even then I had some reservations.  Triggered by watching a movie in Grade 10.  If you guessed “2001 – a Space Odyssey” you might know where I am heading.

Well, that went well!

I tried out a bit of AI on my sermon for this coming Sunday (Clearview Community Church, Kindersley, SK – 10:45 am).  Used Notebook LM – the free version.  Just plunked a PDF of the sermon onto the app and let the magic happen.

You get a podcast with two hosts (actually really fun to listen to them talk about your sermon!).  A Table of Contents to what I had written, a briefing and summary.  Along with other fun little tips.

Overall, I can see why a pastor would want to us AI.  If . . . you start with your own creativity and let AI analyze what you have done.

I’ll revise the sermon this week and hopefully have something “better” to say by the time Sunday rolls around.

If you haven’t written on AI or seen a mention of AI in your daily life – what have you missed?

Just reading a report from the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society – a group who helps author’s get remuneration and has oversight responsibilities for what author’s generate/create.  The report is called:  A Brave New World?  A survey of writers on AI, remuneration, transparency and choice.

In a concluding statement, Tom Chatfield, ALCS Chair, author and tech philosopher attempts to bring forth the strong place of creativity in our world.  Here is a true creative writing by a human:

“Both creators and audiences deserve better than a future of endlessly opaque algorithmic outputs. The purpose of reading isn’t to consume as many words as possible, just as the purpose of writing isn’t to fill the world with torrents of text. What matters is the human connections and experiences woven through creative work. Writing, reading and storytelling are how we forge meaningful bonds between people; how a society explores its values and makes sense of its experiences.”

How much is creative work (human) valued and respected in an algorithmic age?  This is the question Chatfield asks – a question our son has asked as an artist.  We might go even more basic in the question – What human work will be valued and respected in an algorithmic age?

I co-wrote a book after the pandemic had basically quieted (you can still pick it up on Amazon.ca – This is Us!  Canadian Small Churches in Action:  The Covid Years).  We (Nate Stacheruk, Matthew Cunningham and myself) reviewed 35 podcasts on small churches in Canada that I had done during COVID.  In the end we came up with some summary conclusions and the following after Covid epilogue.  Nothing new – but a few years later I don’t think we were far off:

Simple church. Significance is not based in paid leadership, building size or weekly attendance. The church as the gathering is the definition of church more than the building, a denominational legacy structure, paid staff reputations or even size of attendance. The simple church leans into a much needed understanding of the small church as a model and example.

Gift-based function. We will be more active in promoting a gift ministry style – so each small grouping is individually their own church. We have lived with an overwhelmingly traditional/one style fits all so non-conformists were persecuted. We will need to move to a more open source type of church.

Liturgical service. Service will become an integrated way to live. Worship is all of life – so the liturgical (service) calendar is always full. Churches will seek to expand their sense of liturgy to include set times of vertical worship, outreach in service to the community/world, socialization to the kingdom.

Facility in-focus. Small churches will decide the financial viability of maintaining a facility. Physical buildings can be a great advantage until the cost of repair, utilities, etc becomes too high. We will prioritize people over facilities.

Shared instruction/preaching. In a video saturated world, there are many accessible audio/visual instructional/preaching offerings. In our current society we are used to the use of microphones and being willing to be out-front. Speakers are able to be nurtured even in the smallest of churches.

Elastic MOU’s. As the universal church, we will seek to understand each other, finding were we can bend and be flexible. Finding the core of unity will continue to be a vital pursuit. But unlike an approach that seeks to make the definition of the church super detailed and restrictive, most churches will seek to find small points of agreement. Networks will proliferate to achieve projects/resources to benefit the local/small church.

Curated Resources. Various church formats will need to examine their viability along with understanding the best practices to achieve the best results. Collating and curating resources to assist in this ecclesial literacy will become the emphasis of broad networks (which will serve denominations/networks)

Expansive F2F. Cross fertilization of ideas will be increasingly acceptable. Instead of entrenched debate there will be a desire for loving discussion. Workshops will proliferate – both to share ideas but also to share stories. Use of Zoom will continue to provide virtual connection. This posture shift will cause churches to listen while not compromising truth.