The opinions and views expressed in Perspectives content are the author’s own and do not reflect the views, values, or position of Gloo.
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My weeks are usually full before they start. When I began integrating AI into parts of my workflow, I was looking for speed. What I found was something more uncomfortable: I had been treating all of my work as if it required the same level of presence, and frankly, it did not.
There is a category of work in ministry I would call mechanical. The drafted email. The meeting agenda. The administrative follow-up. The workflows happening behind the scenes that keep things moving.
This work matters. But I had slowly started giving it the same weight and urgency as the work only a pastor can do.
I was spending hours on tasks that could have been streamlined, and it cost me energy and attention.
What I actually changed
I started with sermon research. I was spending hours gathering background context on passages when I already knew the direction I wanted to go. I began using AI to support that scaffolding phase. Not to replace the wrestling, just the mechanical setup around it.
I still wrestle with the text. I still pray. I still bring what I know about my church into every sermon. That does not get outsourced.
Then I moved into pastoral communication. Emails I had been delaying because they required emotional clarity after a long day. I started using AI more like a communication coach, helping me think through tone, candor, and kindness when my mental energy was already depleted.
The thing that actually surprised me
When I started paying attention to where my recovered energy was going, I realized I was reinvesting it into people.
Not intentionally. But when I was not mentally composing an email mid-conversation, I was actually in the conversation.
The tool did not make me more productive. It made me more available. Those are not the same thing.
"Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day." - Dallas Willard
I think AI unexpectedly forced me to confront how divided my attention had quietly become. Honestly, I had been confusing busyness with faithfulness.
What I stay careful about
I want to be direct here: I stay deeply involved in every communication, every teaching moment, every theological decision.
The grind of sermon preparation is where pastoral formation happens, not just for the congregation, but for the preacher. If you outsource the wrestling, you lose the growth that comes from it.
And I watch carefully for moments when I am tempted to use AI to avoid the discomfort of finding my own words for a hard conversation. That is not delegation. That is avoidance. No tool should make avoidance easier.
Practical takeaway
Before you add any AI tool to your ministry workflow, ask yourself one question:
Is this helping me get to the pastoral work faster, or is it doing the pastoral work for me?
The first is a tool. The second is a risk worth naming before it costs you something.
See how Gloo is applying AI to serve church leaders
Author(s)
Brianne Shaw
Director, Corporate Marketing
