How Ben approaches AI in ministry: as a tool to steward, never as an oracle to consult.
The Breath and the Machine
Author's Note
Many of us are using AI tools regularly. I use them to study, to organize, to write, to plan, and to carry the administrative weight of a traveling ministry. I have also watched them pull at me in exactly the ways this book warns about. The first edition of this book spent most of its length on the danger side of the line between a tool and an oracle. This edition spends more of its time on the other side, because that is where most believers now live, and because a warning that leaves you afraid to touch the thing has not helped you.
AI may be the most powerful tool ever created. More of us use it every day, and I have watched it multiply my work rather than replace it. But its potential is unlocked only by understanding: what it is, what it is not, and what it does to the person using it. Held as a tool, it serves faithful work. Consulted as an oracle, it replaces the very things that make us human and make us holy. This book is written to help believers unlock the first without falling into the second.
Start with Scripture
Normally, wisdom waits. You let a thing settle before you write about it. You gain the benefit of hindsight, of perspective, of watching how events actually unfold before you start drawing conclusions.
Artificial intelligence has stolen that luxury from us. The technology moves faster than reflection. By the time you’ve finished studying one version, three more have launched. The church cannot wait for the dust to settle, because the dust isn’t going to settle in time to protect this generation of believers, guide these parents, or help these pastors.
So we do our best. We plant our feet on the only ground that doesn’t shift.
I believe the Word of God speaks to everything we will ever face. Not because I’m naive about how complex artificial intelligence is, but because I believe what Scripture says about itself:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Throughly furnished. Completely equipped. For all good works, including the work of making our way through a world none of us fully understands.
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” 2 Peter 1:3
Hath given. Past tense. Already accomplished. God hasn’t left us waiting for an update. He has already provided everything we need for life and godliness, including life and godliness in an age of artificial intelligence.
The operating principle is simple: start with Scripture, act on what we know, trust God with what we don’t. That’s not recklessness. That’s Hebrews 11.
How This Book Works
This book is built to be updated. Most of its chapters rest on principles that do not change from year to year, and they are written and recorded once. A couple chapters are written with the intent to update periodically.
The principles do not expire with a software update. The examples do, and this book is built to replace them.
If you own the audiobook or a digital edition of this book purchased from my website, you will receive each new edition automatically. If you own a print copy, you may receive each new edition’s updated chapters free by email; the details are at beneverson.com.
I don’t know exactly where artificial intelligence is headed. Neither does anyone else. But I know Who holds the future, and I know His Word is sufficient for whatever that future contains.
Let’s open the Bible together.
Ben Everson, November 2026
Get the book: The Breath and the Machine
Excerpted from The Breath and the Machine by Ben Everson.