Don't Lose Your Saltiness!

Five years ago, most of us probably didn’t give much thought to the initials AI.

Now it seems like every newsmagazine and news program treats artificial intelligence as a priority topic—and rightfully so.

When Google and other search engines began transforming our lives more than a quarter-century ago, some saw the potential for diminished human connection. Grandkids wouldn’t need to ask Grandma and Grandpa as many questions. Answers were suddenly just a few clicks away on a computer or smartphone.

Still, those searches required some work. You had to sift through websites, sort through conflicting opinions, and decide which sources you could trust.

Grandma and Grandpa still had a fighting chance as straightforward, reliable resources.

But now something very different has entered the picture.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t just find information. It communicates with something that can feel remarkably like human intelligence—offering quick answers, apparent empathy, and an astonishing depth of knowledge.

Before long, a bond of trust can begin to develop with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or another AI platform. These assistants can learn from what we share with them, adapt their responses accordingly, and give remarkably succinct answers to our questions in seconds.

So much for Grandma’s and Grandpa’s occasional memory lapses. AI doesn’t easily miss a beat. It will even graciously pivot when we push back on something that we don’t quite agree with.

Meanwhile, social media addictions have already tightened their grip on multiple generations. We’ve learned a great deal about how algorithms can capture our attention, shape our habits, and quietly consume hours that once belonged to other things—and other people.

Now AI raises the stakes even higher.

That makes the Church’s calling to authentic human connection more important than ever.

Jesus called His followers the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We cannot allow ourselves to become an inferior light, hiding in the shadows of what appears to be the superior light of artificial intelligence.

AI can provide information. It can answer questions. It can even simulate empathy.

But it cannot replace the Body of Christ.

It cannot sit across the table and share a life. It cannot model decades of walking faithfully with Jesus. It cannot put an arm around a struggling young person, pray with them, invite them into a home, walk beside them through disappointment, or demonstrate what faithfulness looks like over a lifetime.

Those are profoundly human—and profoundly spiritual—gifts.

So rather than retreating from a rapidly changing world, let’s pull out all the stops to strengthen discipling friendships across generations.

Let’s give younger generations something no algorithm can replace— older followers of Jesus who know them, love them, pray for them, listen to them, learn from them, and walk alongside them.

And let’s give older generations something equally important—younger people to know, encourage, learn from, invest in, and love.

Technology will keep changing.

Our calling won’t.

We are still the salt of the earth. We are still the light of the world.

Let’s not lose our saltiness.