Shepherding in the Age of AI

Week 1

What this is, and what it can’t replace.

No hype, no doom. What these tools genuinely do, what they get wrong, and the question underneath most pastors’ unease: if a machine can draft a sermon, what am I for? We’ll look at the real research together, including the parts that argue against using it at all, and name what in pastoral work should never be handed off. Then you’ll try it on one real task before we meet again.

You’ll leave with: an honest baseline, a clear sense of what is yours alone, and permission to still be skeptical.

Week 2

Where the line is.

The hardest session. Sermon preparation, attribution, and plagiarism. Then the disclosure question nobody gets to dodge: tell your people and pay a real price, or stay quiet and risk a much steeper one. We’ll work the actual cases, including the doctrinal errors you can’t catch by reading carefully.

You’ll leave with: a drawn line you can defend out loud to your elders.

Week 3

Your people and their machines.

The member in a relationship with a chatbot. The teenager taking things to an AI that she won’t take to her parents. The deepfake of you asking your congregation for money. This is pastoral care, not tech support, and it includes how you teach your church to think about all of it.

You’ll leave with: a protocol for the conversations you’re already being asked to have.

Week 4

Write your church’s AI policy.

Not discuss one. Write one. The convictions from the first three weeks become a document. We’ll work from three real models and you’ll draft yours in the session, covering counseling notes, prayer requests, giving records, children’s ministry data, and what you’ll tell your staff on Monday.

You’ll leave with: a document ready to take to your board.

Week 5

Getting your own voice out of it.

Eighty-four percent of pastors say AI output needs heavy editing. That’s almost always a setup problem, not a tool problem. We’ll build your corpus once (your manuscripts, your transcripts, your theological frame) so everything after sounds like you instead of like nobody.

You’ll leave with: a configured workspace that knows how you talk and what you believe.

Week 6

Putting it to work.

Sermon research that shows its sources. Newsletters, emails, and the administrative weight that eats your week. Workflows your staff can actually use inside the policy you just wrote. And verification as a reflex, not an afterthought.

You’ll leave with: hours back in your week, and a room full of people who’ll hold you to how you use them.

Shane Sooter

Twenty-five years at the intersection of leadership, creativity, and faith. Former Creative Arts Director at Southeast Christian Church. Founder of City on a Hill Productions. Led Rare Bird Productions for thirteen years — over 100 television episodes and two feature films written, directed, or produced. Now consults with ministries and media organizations on AI adoption across entire organizations, not just pilot projects.

“I’m not here to sell you on AI. I’ve spent my career helping pastors tell the truth compellingly, and I think this technology is going to make that harder before it makes it easier. I’d rather you walk in with your eyes open than stumble in late.”

Phil Russell, PhD

Spent decades in law enforcement command, making decisions with consequences that couldn’t be undone. Now holds a PhD in Leadership Studies and has spent twenty years mentoring pastors. He learned leadership from his father, Bob Russell — the man John Maxwell called “a leader of leaders.”

“Every generation of pastors gets handed something nobody trained them for. This is ours. The question isn’t whether you’ll use these tools. It’s whether you’ll have thought hard enough about it to answer for how you did.”