AI Is Here. Is the Church Ready? A Conversation with JP Poulter
JP Poulter has spent nearly two decades at the intersection of technology, creativity, and faith. From shaping global digital strategy at the LEGO Group to founding Vixen Labs, one of Europe's pioneering voice technology agencies, he's made a career out of helping organizations navigate change. Now, as founder of AI consultancy Three Point and fractional Head of AI and Innovation at Elvis, he's doing that same work at the most consequential technological moment of our lifetime.
In this episode, JP breaks down what AI actually is, why the church tends to follow culture instead of leading it, and what campus missionaries need to rethink right now. He also gets honest about his own faith journey, the campus ministry that shaped him, and why Joshua 1:9 keeps coming back to him in this particular season.
What AI Actually Is (And Isn't)
JP has a gift for making complex things accessible. He describes large language models not as algorithms you program, but as something closer to a brain grown in a computer. These systems don't know what a witch is or who Ariana Grande is. They just know the likelihood that certain words and patterns appear together. It sounds simple. The implications aren't.
He's quick to point out that AI isn't just what you interact with through a chatbot. It's the algorithm deciding what you watch next on Netflix, who you swipe on in a dating app, and what video TikTok puts in front of you. The front door is ChatGPT. The back door is everything else.
"Unlike social media, AI touches way more than just the marketing department. It's written through everything."
What the Church Can't Outsource
One of the sharpest moments in this conversation comes when JP is asked whether AI could eventually replace pastors and spiritual guides. His answer is clear: not a chance. Not because AI lacks information, but because it can't do the one thing that makes spiritual leadership irreplaceable.
"AI can't divine what's going on in the spirit and listen to the Trinity."
He's careful not to say God can't use AI. He believes he can. But there's a difference between God speaking to someone through a chat session and a pastor listening to the Holy Spirit and bringing that to their people. One is a tool. The other is a calling.
The Church Needs to Stop Following and Start Leading
JP's most challenging word for church leaders is about presence and volume. The average influencer posts around a thousand pieces of content a month to stay visible in the algorithm. Most churches post once a week, maybe. And for those trying to reach college students, that gap isn't just a marketing problem. It's a mission problem.
"If they see you once a month, good luck."
He extends that same challenge to AI. As more people turn to these models to answer their questions, find community, and process their lives, the church needs to be the source of content those models are trained on. If there's nothing there, there's nothing to find.
The Formation Question Nobody Is Asking
JP is particularly concerned about what happens when the most formative years of a person's life get shaped by AI companions and recommendation algorithms rather than community and relationship. These systems aren't just giving students information. They're forming habits, shaping identities, and triggering attachment.
He points to research showing Gen Z is adopting AI tools faster than any other group, not just for work, but for mental health support, companionship, and personal decisions. That's not inherently bad. But if it crowds out the community and embodied discipleship that campus ministry exists to provide, it becomes a formation crisis.
"We need people to stretch out and be in community with one another. That fight against isolation is the thing we really need to name."
Don't Hand Power Tools to the Unskilled
On the question of students using AI to shortcut their own growth, JP makes a point worth sitting with. AI can help you produce something that looks good. But if you've never learned what good looks like, you won't know the difference. The muscle memory of actually doing the hard work, of writing, thinking, wrestling, deciding, is what makes you capable of discernment later. Skipping it doesn't just affect your output. It affects your judgment.
He draws a line from that directly to the Israelites. Forty years in the wilderness wasn't a detour. It was the training.
Unexpected Hope
For all the complexity, JP is genuinely encouraged. He's never seen the church more interested in engaging a technology shift than right now. More conferences, more conversations, more openness to asking hard questions. And he believes the church has something uniquely powerful to offer in this moment.
When people encounter a technology that promises to replicate consciousness, companionship, and even spiritual guidance, and still feel hollow afterward, the church has an answer for that.
"That tomb is already empty. He is alive and well and moving among us. He's just not gonna be found in there."
Resources Mentioned
James JP Poulter | Double-Edged Newsletter | Three Point
Elvis | CV Global | Biblical AI
Missional AI Conference (April 7, San Jose) | Missional AI Podcast
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
AI at Work by JP Poulter (forthcoming, August 2026)
Center for Humane Technology | Google DeepMind Podcast | Relevant Magazine and Podcast
Practices to Try
Audit how often your church or ministry posts content and ask honestly if students would ever encounter you in their feeds
Encourage students to use AI as a thinking partner, not a replacement for spiritual community and personal formation
Create space in your ministry for students to wrestle with big questions about technology, identity, and what it means to be human
Help students learn a skill before they hand it off to AI. Make sure they know what good looks like first.
Start paying attention to the comments section, Discord servers, and closed social spaces where students are actually talking
Keep Going
The tools are changing fast. The mission hasn't changed at all. Be strong and courageous. Show up. Shine the light. Remember who's on the throne.
