Will the church actually FALL for this??

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Pastor Ron, I'm not feeling well today. Could you pray for me? Hey there, I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well.

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Let's take a moment to pray together. Was the computer called by God to be a pastor?

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The app also requires users to sign up for a $49 monthly plan to access unlimited calls and messages with the

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AI pastor. I almost threw up midway through that sentence. What is happening right now? Friends, this is not what the

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Bible teaches. What's next? Are we gonna take digital communion on our iPads?

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What in the voddie bockum is going on? So a friend, he sent me a link the other day and at first I couldn't believe it.

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But then I thought to myself, wait a second. Okay, America, check. 21st century, check.

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Mega church mentality, check. Is this really that surprising? So the headline here is, and we're gonna go into it.

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A mega church pastor offers an app where an AI version of himself prays with his people, offers them spiritual counseling, all for a fee.

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Now, some of you are like, no, Nate, that can't be. Yes, it's true, and we're about to get into it.

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But first, welcome back to Wise Disciple. My name is Nate, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you are meant to be, which entails figuring out what the role of a pastor is and what it isn't, amen?

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Make sure to like, sub, and share this one around. But if it blesses you, all right, let's get into it. It says, has a mega church pastor already pulled the plug on an app that features an

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AI version for himself offering prayer for a monthly fee? Ron Carpenter, Jr.,

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pastor of the 21 ,000 -member Redemption Church. 21 ,000 -member church, okay, with campuses in Greenville, South Carolina, and San Jose, California.

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So that's both coasts, guys. All right, has rolled out his own

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Ron Carpenter Ministries Advanced Archive app. The app, last updated in the

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Google Play Store on October the 22nd, promises to transcend traditional time and access barriers by enabling one -on -one personalized interactions, not possible before now.

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Okay, so here's what the app looks like.

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So it says, Ron Carpenter, and, yeah, the

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Ron Carpenter Ministries Advanced Archive app. It's a place where people can come together in community and purpose.

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Okay, let me just, let me go ahead and just tell you where all this is headed, okay? No. Okay, no, this is not community.

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No, this is not people coming together. This is an app where a computer program is talking to people.

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Make no mistake about this, friends. This is not pastoring. This is not church. This is not spiritual guidance.

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This is, it's foolishness, and it does a disservice to the real body of Christ.

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All right? So it's just got some other, so you can actually go and click on a sort of a screenshot here.

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That's kind of small. But it's somebody asking the question, what is the greatest thing you believe we can give to God?

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And then there's like this long answer, you know? Hey, I'm glad you asked that question. Let me tell you something. Obedience is the greatest gift that we can offer to God.

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Hmm. So the app had 10 plus downloads on Google Play, and one rating on the

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Apple App Store as of Wednesday, it is billed as a unique place where people from every background, race, and walk of life come together in a place of community.

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We read that. Offers users prayer and spiritual guidance from an AI version of the 54 -year -old carpenter.

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All right? There's a video demonstration here, so let's go ahead and take a look at that. This is

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Ron Carpenter talking about the app. Okay, I'd love to have my own personal pastor, so I hit the

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Ron Carpenter Ministries archive, and I call Pastor Ron. And after I call

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Pastor Ron, let's say - So you're not talking to Pastor Ron, friends.

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Are any of you members of this man's church, and you're watching this video, you're not talking to your pastor.

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You're talking to a computer. Was the computer called by God to be a pastor?

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I don't remember when that happened. I remember the Bible saying that God calls people, right?

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I remember the Bible saying that, you know, and Paul acknowledging that people have an aspiration to be pastor.

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I don't know where the Bible says that computers can have that. This is a really bad idea.

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You know what? Let's say I'm not feeling good in my mind. How can I help? Pastor Ron, I'm not feeling well today.

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Could you pray for me? Hey there, I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well.

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Let's take a moment to pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you know us and hear us right now.

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I lift up my friend to you. I ask for your healing touch to be upon. You wanna know more about it?

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You have to wait. We'll tell you later. This completely undermines the point of church and of the pastorate, you know?

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I mean, here's the question that you really have to be thinking, is like, what is the role of church?

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What is its function? Have you ever thought about that question before? I guess now's the time, now that we have the ability to create

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AI versions of our pastors, you know what I mean? And also, what is the role of the pastor?

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What is the pastor's function? If you really do that, just sit down, open up the scripture, try to do an extensive study on this, what you're gonna discover is a picture with regard to the church of real people gathering together in order to worship our

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Lord, to break the bread of communion together, and to encourage each other, to exhort each other, to exercise discipline when appropriate, to equip each other for the work of ministry.

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So I'm jumping all over the place in terms of sort of the scriptural passages that come to mind. But you realize all of these things require us to be together in person.

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As a matter of fact, together seems to be a key word or term that describes church.

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Look at how the apostle Peter describes the role of the elder in church.

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This is 1 Peter 5, verse one. So he says, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, here it is, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

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There's another key term. And I would argue you should notice those key terms. Those key terms should jump out at you in this particular passage.

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Peter says in verse two, the elders must exercise oversight, or another word for that is care for the flock.

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Now, here's the question. How can you do that without knowing them? How can you do that without knowing what they're going through?

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Without crying with them when necessary and rejoicing with them?

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Paul says in Romans 12, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

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See, there's a reason, friends, why the picture of the pastor is of a shepherd taking care of the sheep.

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Jesus says, my sheep know my voice and I know them and they know me and I lay down my life for my sheep.

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That is the model of what it looks like to be a pastor. A pastor should know his sheep.

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Now, the argument can be made, well, what happens when a church gets so big that one pastor can't know every single person?

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I would argue that's why you have more than one pastor. And that's also a great reason for the pastors to ensure that they're making themselves available to everybody who seeks to know them as their pastor.

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Look, is everybody who shows up on a Sunday morning, who walks around the building, are they saved?

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Are they going to become a Christian? No, but those who are seeking the Lord should have access to their pastors and elders and they should know them and the pastor should know them back.

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As a matter of fact, it's the pastor who tries to move away from this interpersonal relationship with his church family, he's the one who invites all kinds of trouble and even spiritual danger.

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This is a huge mistake, all right? Again, look at verse three, but, or excuse me, not domineering over those near charge, but being examples to the flock.

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How can the flock see the example of their pastor when their pastor is telling them to go spend time with a computer program?

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I don't care what newfangled term we're calling it these days, it's a computer program. I ask again, did

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God call the computer to be a pastor or did he call the man? This is ridiculous, all right?

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Pastor Ron goes on, I'd love to have my own personal pastor, Carpenter tells the camera as he demonstrates how the app responds with an automated message in Carpenter's voice.

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The pastor ended the short video by urging his followers to stay tuned to find out more information powered by Innovatex AI, the app also requires users to sign up for a $49 monthly plan to access unlimited calls and messages with the

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AI pastor. I almost threw up midway through that sentence. Carpenter's personal website also features an apparent link to the

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Advanced Archive app, which appeared broken as of Wednesday afternoon. The site does not reference the Advanced Archive app anywhere else.

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CP reached out to Carpenter for comment. You know, the mainstreaming of AI has already changed how some pastors approach their sermons with some churches opting to try chat

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GPT to generate their messages for Sunday mornings. So Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills has warned against the rise of AI among churches saying that the level of deception in the church is set to rise exponentially in the coming years as technology rapidly advances.

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I don't say this to scare you, I say this to prepare you, Hibbs said, in October, there is a level of deception coming both in and out of the church that is going to rock the world.

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It has to, God promised it would come, it would be an indicator of the last days. Well, he had me up until the pre -mail dispensational language.

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Okay, look, sidestepping that like Neo in the Matrix, okay? The point is, I'm struck by Jesus' words to the devil in Matthew 4, you know?

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Do you remember what Jesus said to the devil? So the devil was tempting Jesus in the wilderness. And then

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Jesus said this, verse four, Jesus says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

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This is a clear reference to the scripture. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8, verse three here. And there's this picture for you and sort of this model of behavior.

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Jesus is using scripture as the right answer in the moment while also teaching that scripture provides the right answer for every moment.

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That's why it's so important, ladies and gentlemen, that you get into the word, that you know

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God's word so well that it changes you from the inside out. And while AI seems to be this wonderful, convenient, newfangled gadget that will help you out, and it does by the way, so, you know, don't get me wrong.

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It is helpful just as much as any other computer program can be helpful, you know? But it's also potentially dangerous just like other computer programs can be.

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It's the same thing with the internet, right? But the point is, none of this should replace what the

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Bible teaches us about church and about church leadership, you know? It's not about replacing ourselves with digital avatars and AI.

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It's about getting to know each other even more. Now more than ever, we need to get into each other's lives.

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We need to live alongside each other and get into daily rhythms with each other.

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Why? Because that's where discipleship exists, ladies and gentlemen. That's where leveling up your knowledge of God's word exists.

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And we're developing your prayer life and your spiritual discernment and exercising your giftings, you know?

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And developing a maturity. All the benefits that you're being told now a computer program can do for you, it actually comes out of the overflow of relationships with real human beings.

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Don't fall for this scam, ladies and gentlemen. This is not the way, all right?

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I've got one more passage for you to consider. And then I think I'm gonna ask you a question after this.

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Look at this. This is the description that Luke gives of the church in the first century just exploding onto the scene, right?

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I think it's a pretty solid model that we all should aspire to, whether that's in 2025 or 3025, right?

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So watch this. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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And awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together.

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And all who believed were together. And all who believed were what?

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Together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

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And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising

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God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

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Question for you. Do you see any indication in this passage, right?

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Or anywhere else as the Bible characterizes church that the church should not be together, that people should just break off and branch off and do their own thing, you know?

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That people should not do church together in person. Is there any hint that some of this can be passed off and we don't actually need to really be in person for prayer, study, communion, and worship?

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I mean, imagine what's next, you know? Are we gonna take digital communion on our iPads? What is happening right now, friends?

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This is not what the Bible teaches. Do we sometimes find ourselves in situations where technology can help us out as Christians?

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Absolutely. Okay, no question. And I praise God for technology because,

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I mean, I think back to when I was a pastor at a church, all of a sudden the churches are shut down for the pandemic.

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What did we have to do? We had to lean into technology, okay? That's actually funnily enough how wise disciples sort of got started on YouTube.

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Anyway, story for another time. This is just not the standard of church set by the

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Bible. That's the whole point, okay? You need to go find you a pastor who wants to know you, who makes himself available to you, who knows what the

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Bible teaches and reveres it and is careful to follow it. That's the pastor for you, amen?

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All right, that's enough out of me. I'm getting worked up. All right, what do you think about all of this? Is this a wild idea or is this pastor onto something?

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Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to get your thoughts. As always, if you made it this far, you got to join up with my

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You can meet up with me one -on -one. We're studying the Bible together over there. Go check it out. The link for the Patreon is below.