“The future is coming, and you’re not in it.”

That’s what Rear Admiral Chester Cain (played by Ed Harris) says to Captain Pete Mitchell (played by Tom Cruise) in Top Gun: Maverick.

Cain’s reasoning? Mitchell will be replaced by AI. “These planes you’ve been testing, Captain, one day, sooner or later, they won’t need pilots at all.”

Technological advances initiate a process of creative destruction, in which old ways of doing things give way to new ways, in the process displacing people who do things the old way. The Luddites, for example, were weavers whose livelihoods were threatened by the adoption of automated weaving machines.

The concern with AI is not merely that it will replace people’s jobs, but that it will fundamentally redefine what it means to be human.

How should pastors respond to this concern? That’s the question I ask Paul A. Hoffman in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Paul A. Hoffman is  senior pastor of Evangelical Friends Church of Newport, Rhode Island, and coauthor with Sean O’Callaghan of AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep, published by Baker Academic.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Open When . . . Parenting through Foster and Adoption.

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Some time ago, a pastor called Chris Sonksen and confessed, “Our church is stuck, and I feel empty. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this.”

A lot of pastors feel this way. One Lifeway Research study found that six in 10 Protestant churches are plateaued or declining. More than half of churches saw fewer than 10 converts in the previous year.

Another Lifeway Research study reported that more than 60% of pastors say that stress weighs heavily on them, with at least half reporting that their burdens have robbed them of joy in ministry.

These pastors and the churches they lead seem like trains stuck on the tracks. What can they do to gain traction and get moving again?

That’s the question I ask Chris Sonksen in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Chris Sonksen is founding pastor of South Hills Church, a multi-state, multi-campus church based in Southern California, CEO and founder of Church Boom, and an ordained Assemblies of God minister. Most recently, he is author of Traction: Five Proven Principles for Unstoppable Growth, published by Avail.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Audacious Faith.

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“The best days of the church are ahead,” write Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Raymond Chang.

“Don’t get us wrong. We are under no illusion that churches have it easy in this season. These days the church can feel … So fractured, So distracted. So divided and politicized. So exhausting. So hard to lead. Like everything is an uphill battle.”

So why are these authors confident about the future of the church? That’s the question I ask Kara Powell in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Kara Powell is chief of leadership formation and executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and a credentialed Assemblies of God minister. She is coauthor, with Mulder and Chang, of Future-Focused Church: Leading Through Change, Engaging the Next Generation, and Building a More Diverse Tomorrow, published by Baker Books.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of the Ignite Parenting Conversation Cards.

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