A Conversation About the Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Christian Ministry

In collaboration with the Oxford Pastorate &  the J.W. Laing Trust Research Committee.

Note: This is an invitation only event.

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a science fiction dream; it’s an everyday reality. AI is profoundly and rapidly shaping how people work, create, learn, and think. For the Church and for Christian mission, this raises both urgent questions and exciting opportunities.

What does it mean to be human in an AI age; are we just meat machines? How should Christians engage with a technology that can mimic creativity, simulate companionship, and offer shortcuts to answers to so many questions? How can biblical wisdom engage with artificial intelligence?

We’d love to invite you to a one-day gathering in the beautiful grounds of Yarnton Manor near Oxford. The goal is to bring together a small group of leaders (from the Church, Christian ministries, and elsewhere) who are already thinking about some of these things. This is not a seminar or set of lectures, but a conversation—we want it to be open-ended as we learn from each other. The goal is for us all to get a clearer picture of the landscape: the risks, the opportunities, what good practice around AI looks like and to identify helpful responses.

Our aim is to explore the issues through open-ended, creative conversations to close in on some practical next steps. We want participants to leave with two clear pictures: First, the landscape—the risks worth naming, the opportunities worth seizing, and the questions the church needs to be asking. And second, some practical responses that would enable Christians to navigate the landscape well.

Some of the questions we might explore:

• What evangelistic opportunities does AI open up? What questions does it raise that could become bridges to the gospel?
• With what posture should Christians approach AI: fearful or hopeful, suspicious or open, or a bit of both?
• What ethical and pastoral challenges will church leaders increasingly face—from students using AI to cheat, to people forming emotional attachments to chatbots, to existential anxiety as valued skills and employment are disrupted by AI?
• How can churches and ministries be AI literate and use AI well (operationally and in terms of reach and content) while keeping humans genuinely in the loop?
• Where does the line lie between using AI as a tool and outsourcing our creativity, judgment, and even our discipleship to it?
• What theologies of technology and human personhood do we need—and who is already doing that work?
• How can Christians be salt and light in wider society by fostering healthy design and use of technology in accord with biblical ethics and anthropology?

Schedule:

• 9.30am - Arrive for coffee/tea & pastries
• 9.45 - Devotion.
• 10am - Session 1 - including opening contributions from Prof John Lennox, Prof John Wyatt and Charlie Catlett (Senior Computer Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory)
• 11am - Break
• 11.30am - Session 2
• 12.30pm - Community Worship
• 1pm - Lunch
• 2pm - Session 3
• 3pm - Short Break
• 3.15pm - Session 4
• 4pm - Finish