Across Kenya, young Christians are using chatbots to study the Bible, prepare lessons, and ask questions that they would hesitate to ask a pastor.
Vanesa Akinyi first encountered ChatGPT while she was still learning how to read the Bible. She often encountered passages that she could not understand. Sometimes she was baffled by a concept; at other times, she simply wanted to know what a word meant or why a passage mattered. So she started asking a chatbot for help.
Vanesa Akinyi, an entrepreneur and teens ministry teacher, uses AI as a Bible study aid.
Photo credit: Pool
During discipleship sessions, she would copy and paste a passage into the chatbot and ask what it meant, what she should take note of, and how she could apply it.
“Not everything that you read do you understand,” she says. “Sometimes you want to understand the concept of numbers because there are numbers in the Bible that are tied to something.”
Ms Akinyi runs Rehema Stores and teaches in the youth ministry at City Lighters Church. She still uses AI to study Scripture, but she distinguishes between using it as a study aid and relying on it for spiritual guidance.
She uses it to draft questions for Bible discussions. For example, if she is leading a session on Romans 8, she can ask for questions that encourage the group to consider the passage from different perspectives. She also asks for AI-generated images of the menorah or Noah’s Ark.
As a visual learner, she says these images help her to understand and remember what she reads. However, she says that she cannot use AI to write prayers or sermons.
“As I grow in Christ, I have learned to rely more on the Holy Spirit,” she says. “And so I don’t think I am able to prompt an AI tool for a prayer or a sermon, because if I make that a habit, I am neglecting or negating the Holy Spirit.”
She is concerned that relying too heavily on technology could weaken a believer’s personal relationship with God.
“There are areas where AI is very effective and can be used, but I don’t think it’s currently possible to use AI in certain situations because the more you rely on it, the less likely you are to develop a personal relationship with God,” she says.
She also believes that there is a difference between the answer of a chatbot and the counsel of a fellow Christian.
“One issue with AI is that it doesn’t challenge you,” she says. “AI will tell you what you want to hear, but never what you need to hear.”
A pastor can correct you because they know you and have often been through the same thing, she argues.
“If I tell my pastor that I’m going through something, how can they help me? They’ve already lived life, and they’ve probably been through the same thing,” she says. “I don’t want to be coddled. I want to be told the truth, because the truth will help me to grow.”
Brian Obiero, a Goodwill Peace Ambassador at the Global Peace Foundation Kenya, first used AI to prepare sermons and messages for young people at church. He has also used it for the devotional he shares with his family on their weekly Tuesday WhatsApp call.
Brian Obiero, former student president of the Cooperative University of Kenya, uses AI to prepare sermons and organise his devotional study.
Photo credit: Pool
“I first started using AI in my faith tradition when I wanted to prepare a sermon for the young people at my church,” he says.
Recently, he turned to AI while studying the story of David, who became king despite being overlooked by his family. Mr Obiero says it helps him organise his devotions and offers perspectives he might not have considered.
“It helps me plan and probably have different times for my personal meditation on the Word of God,” he says.
“There are things that the pastor may not be able to explain in depth, so I normally go back to the AI for a better understanding of them,” he says. Speed is part of the attraction.
“The most useful thing is that it’s very quick, and it provides me with real-time words that I can relate to, along with the revelation that comes with them,” he says.
However, he does not take its answers at face value. He checks them against Scripture.
“I wouldn’t say that I trust AI 100 per cent,” he says. “I normally try to compare AI with what’s in Scripture to see if the words are congruent.”
Shem Ian, a teacher who leads a community of young Christians called the Authentic Christian Community, occupies a middle ground.
He uses AI daily in Bible study, mostly to understand the original meanings of difficult words. However, he does not turn to it first when he is struggling personally.
“AI doesn’t fully replace the role of a shepherd in my life,” he says.
“I don’t actually go to AI first when I’m going through something personally. I pray about it first because I believe the Holy Spirit can help me to understand my situation better than any man can. Then, if I’m not sure I’ve heard the Holy Spirit correctly, I seek a second opinion from a pastor.”
For him, the tool mainly helps him find words for things he is already trying to understand. “AI just helps me express my feelings and describe situations,” he says.
He has also used it to explore contested questions in Christianity, such as differing views on communion and speaking in tongues.
“I also get to argue with AI until they get it right,” he says.
He sometimes runs his notes through the tool to refine the language and correct the grammar, as well as to generate headlines and catchphrases, before sharing them with his community.
However, he has also seen why answers must be verified. He regularly verifies references in his physical Bible. Once, someone in a social group shared a verse taken from an AI-generated screen-shot that did not appear in scripture.
“The lesson there was not to take everything you get from AI as the truth. Double-check it with your Bible,” he says.
Nevertheless, he believes that Christians should learn to use the technology rather than shun it.
“AI is a great tool for believers to enhance their practice of faith and make it more accessible,” he says. “Instead of demonising AI, as some people have done, we must teach our fellow believers how to use this ever-evolving technology for the benefit of the kingdom.”
Janes Ouko, a tutorial fellow and Sunday school teacher working with teenagers and high school students, started using ChatGPT to find information for assignments. He soon progressed to finding Bible verses and stories and asking for explanations of passages. He can ask ChatGPT to locate a verse, find other scriptures on the same subject, or simplify a passage for teaching purposes.
“I use it to search for Bible verses, generate a story or paraphrase a chapter, and apply it to real-life situations,” he says.
Recently, while preparing a lesson on why teenagers struggle to understand the Bible, he found that his printed teaching guide listed five reasons. When he posed the same question to AI, it produced ten reasons, several of which were not included in the guide.
“It helped me to explain myself and think spiritually about what I wanted,” he says.
What he values most is how quickly it links passages. When studying an account of Jesus healing someone, for example, he can ask for other instances where Jesus healed people in similar circumstances.
“It helps me find relevant or similar verses to the one I’m studying,” he says. “It can also help me to find the verses I want from the Bible.”
“Sometimes, during my personal Bible study or quiet time with God, I use AI for assistance,” he says.
However, there have been times when AI has provided him with Bible references that do not exist, including one to James chapter six, even though the book only has five chapters. These errors have made him more cautious.
“Before, when AI quoted a Bible verse or song, I would just go back and check,” he says. “It has taught me that I have to check again.”
The Reverend Kenneth Muruthi, a PCEA clergyman in the Marsabit mission area, is not surprised by its popularity among young Christians. They are looking for answers in a place that already feels familiar.
“There is a genuine hunger for God among young people, and they are looking for answers in their natural habitat, which is digital.”
He says that some find it easier to ask a chatbot questions that they are uncomfortable raising with a pastor or fellow believer. He cites anonymity, availability, the fear of hierarchy, and speed as reasons why this is the case.
“Young people have deep questions about doubt, sexuality, anxiety, sin and deconstruction. AI will not gasp, judge or gossip,” he says.
“A pastor may be busy on Tuesday at 11 pm. AI is not,” he says.
Rev Muruthi does not regard AI as a replacement for teaching or pastoral care. As a research assistant, however, he believes it can help Christians to find cross-references, compare Bible translations, understand historical context, and analyse Greek or Hebrew terms.
However, he warns that it can sound convincing while being incorrect, inventing verses or misquoting Scripture. He says that believers must test what it tells them against Scripture, Christian tradition, and the guidance of trusted spiritual leaders. His own yardstick is what he calls the ‘3-Lens Test’: Scripture, tradition and community, and the Holy Spirit.
“If AI contradicts clear Scripture, Scripture wins,” he says.
“The pulpit should never be outsourced,” he argues, maintaining that sermons should come from prayer, engagement with Scripture, and a pastor’s understanding of their congregation.
“Pastoral care and counselling must remain human. People need a shepherd, not a script.”
For him, the real question is where Christians place their trust.
“The danger is not the tool itself, but the throne we put it on,” he says. “Use AI to access the Word, not instead of the Word.”
He urges believers to use AI to facilitate prayer, rather than replacing it, and to share what they learn with their church communities.
