People ask me how a bivocational pastor uses AI. The honest answer is that I use it a lot, and I keep it out of the work that matters most. I let it be efficient where efficiency helps. In the work that forms me, I stay inefficient on purpose.
Mornings: An Editor, Not a Voice
My day starts with a few hours of focused time. I’m getting my heart, soul, mind and strength ready for a day of bivocational ministry. AI plays only a small part here.
I built the Agōn 12:30 app to support my spiritual habits, and AI shows up in only one or two places in it. The main one is my journal. I record my entries by voice. When I’m done, the app summarizes the high points and suggests a title or an image.
Mostly that’s convenience. It works like an editor tidying up after me. Sometimes it also nudges me to go deeper. One morning it simply said, “You really didn’t say too much there. Would you like to say more?” I did. A good friend or a spiritual director might ask the same thing. The thinking and the praying stayed mine. It just asked me to keep going.
The Workday: An Administrative Assistant
Once the day starts, AI steps up into a bigger role. It acts a lot like an administrative assistant.
It knows my calendar and my email, so it can point out what I need to follow up on. For projects, I often send off AI agents to do research or editing. It builds my social media calendar. It also makes sure nothing slips through the cracks from the different ventures I’m part of.
I work across software, a church and a nonprofit, so this matters. The busywork of managing life is real, and it eats the margin I need for people. When AI handles it, I have more of me left for the people God has put in front of me.
Sermon Prep: Help at the Edges
Sermon prep is where I draw a careful line. AI can help me research a topic. Sometimes I let it do an editing pass on my manuscript, to remind me when I’m getting too wordy or too heady.
But the research and the study itself have to be mine. It’s inefficient, and it’s the right way to prepare. A sermon doesn’t just carry information. The text works on the preacher first, and you can’t hand that off.
Where AI Has No Place
AI has nothing to do with my counseling or my prayer. Those are places of presence: me with God, and me with the people I shepherd. A tool doesn’t belong in the middle of them.
The Principle
Here’s how I’d sum it up. I stay inefficient in the work that forms me, and I let AI be efficient in the work that just needs to get done.
AI can summarize my journal, but it can’t pray for me. It can run my calendar, but it can’t sit with a grieving family. It can tell me my sermon is too heady, but it can’t make the text burn in my own heart. So I let it carry the load where it can. Then I give everything that’s left to the things only I can do.
Take this with you
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