Social Justice and AI

Next, it's your turn. AI is changing the game and I think it's time for us to embrace it. So imagine your church being on the forefront of change, using AI to deliver justice, advocate for those in need, and minister more effectively. One of the challenges that we have is that it's going to make us speed up our ministries instead of slow down. So I wanted to talk to you guys today because I think it'd be a great opportunity to talk about social justice and artificial intelligence. I'm an African American pastor. We're living in a very interesting time in our country. And I think this is a great time to engage in this conversation. Because what if the missing link between your church and real lasting social change is artificial intelligence? Like and subscribe for more. Stick around. Let's have a conversation today. Hey, my name is Justin. I pastor a church in Vallejo, California. God has really privileged me. It's a chance to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love doing so. I believe that the merging of faith and technology is a great space for us to really consider. We do the work and the will of God. In this case, I believe that today I want to talk about this merging of how AI is transforming ministry and social justice. I think it can be a game changer for us. I think it's something we don't need to avoid. I think it's something we need to embrace. I believe that AI is here for the church, ministering for those committed to social justice. And I think this video today is going to change the way you think about outreach, advocacy, and how your church can make a real difference in its community. So what is AI? I think AI, to give a definition. The simplest way for me is decentralized human intelligence, where literally it's saying something outside of a human is thinking in ways human are. Now, there's so many issues to that, to me, but because I don't think that, I don't think that tech needs to be human, but I think we have to look at it in that way. If we take the brain and put it in something else, right? It's a tool for justice because in this world today, it can be used for a whole lot of injustice. Social justice issues require comprehensive understanding of data. And AI can analyze massive amounts of data quickly, helping us see trends, inequities and gaps we wouldn't notice otherwise. And let me tell you something, if you're not using it, the people against you are using it. AI can analyze data from local neighborhoods like unemployment rates and crime rates, education gaps and with this information, our churches can stop just doing the work that everybody else is doing and begin to do the work that actually is going to change lives. Imagine AI analyzing healthcare and access in our city. And within moments we understand the access people have to clinics in our areas. Higher rates of preventable diseases. And then our churches can partner with providers to have pop up clinics in the areas where the data is telling us where people are. That's AI driven justice, right? The power of AI doesn't just stop at data. I think it also goes with mobilization tools like predictive analytics can forecast when community needs will be greatest in the near future. And, and it allows your church to get ahead, to proactively address issues before they become crisis. That way you're able to search all the news stories that are out there today about what's going on in our community and not just the ones you get after worship on Sunday. So about ethics and AI. Well, we have to address ethical issues with this because at the same time I'm sitting here saying data driven and justice driven, also understanding that a lot of the faucets inside of our bathrooms are not trained on black skin or that police are using this to police our communities as, as well. Well, so I think we have to also look at the other side of it and think about ethics and AI. So is it ethical? Should we as believers even be tapping into technology? I think how we use it is what matters. And what I think that the issue to me when it comes to ethics is we're asking this massive question on ethics and AI without really getting to realizing that we are creatures of sin. The people who've built this are creatures of sin. So it's a responsibility of the church to ensure the AI is used ethically and built ethically to uplift and not oppress people by making sure there's the right data and data sets and data points and people and personnel in it. Maybe that means our mission fields are different. Maybe our mission fields are not just going overseas to other spaces, but our mission fields are some of these tech companies. That's where bias comes in. We all have implicit and explicit bias, whether we want to admit it or not. All of us, because we're creatures of sin, have implicit and explicit bias. And an AI can inherit bias from the data that is trained on. And that's why I believe we as leaders have to be trained and involved in how shaping artificial intelligence, how it's deployed and trained. Because imagine your church or your nonprofit partnering with AI developers to create fair, more just Algorithms that reduce inequality and don't just reinforce it, it's becoming Wakanda. But then lastly, so how do you start implementing artificial intelligence into your church? Let's get practical. You're probably thinking, okay, Pastor Justin, this sounds great in concept. How do we start doing it? Let me give you some simple tools. All right, if you go to the link in my show notes below, I give you a link to download my ebook on artificial intelligence in the church where I actually give you 51 tools. I think churches should use the best tools that are out today. But I think number one, we use AI powered customer relation management. So whether using subsplash, we're using glue, whether using church funnels, whether using ccb, most of those spaces have AI infused into it. I'm definitely church funnels and subsplash dubs where you can use AI powered CRM to track interactions with members. And that's where you can think about how you do follow ups. You do prayer requests, volunteer coordinations, even planning center to keep your ministries organized and responsive. And then lastly, AI driven social listening tools that helps your church track social issues on Instagram, on X, on Facebook, for example, if a local community is facing eviction or another social issue, AI can alert you to step in and do something about it, turn those alerts on, turn notifications on and build it out for you. So I think those are ways you can start implementing it and also then thirdly, using it for data driven analytics, using Perplexity, using using Perplexity, Google's AI search as a way for you to implement this stuff immediately and know what's going on so you can step in and do the work. So what's next? It's your turn. AI is changing the game and I think it's time for us to embrace it. So imagine your church being on the forefront of change, using AI to deliver justice, advocate for those in need and minister more effectively. One of the challenges that we have is that it's going to make us speed up our ministries instead of slow down. Don't sit back and watch it pass you by. Jump in with two feet if you want to dive deeper into artificial intelligence, how we can use ethically and powerfully. I have a masterclass I put together on all of this stuff. We talk about reskilling, upskilling and cross skilling. And my masterclass, you don't want to miss this. And so it's simple to the point. It gets you into the game. And I give you five tools you can try right now and you get one session with me where I actually take a look at your organization, take a look at your church and see what you can do. And then if also you can do that on my website, jrlester.comai and then if you want to follow me online, follow me at thattechpostor on Instagram and thattechpastor on TikTok for daily insights how to blend faith and technology. I'm the tech pastor giving you the business for your business. Go build the kingdom. Go be great. Go live, because you're amazing. Peace it.