When AI Replaces Shepherding: A Warning for the Church

Wretched Radio with Todd Friel

Fortis Institute

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Segment 1 • Global elites at Davos warn that “by-the-book” religions could be eliminated by AI. • Let’s get real: AI can process data, but it can’t be human. • We can KNOW that AI, machines, and robots can never possess the mind of Christ that believers do. Segment 2 • AI will replace some roles—but not every vocation or calling will be effected. • The real question young people must answer: where am I replaceable? • If we don’t define categories and terms, technology will define them for us. Segment 3 • Todd reads an intro and entire segment written by AI. • If pastors use AI to write sermons, biblical shepherding turns into play-acting. • The real cost isn’t just efficiency—it’s warmth, care, and actual, human, pastoral presence. Segment 4 • AI has real limits—and real potential for human harm, especially in work and ministry. • A chatbot can’t read a room, feel tension, respond in love, or function along lines of emotion. • Final gut check: do you really want a relationship with a computer? ___ Thanks for listening! Wretched Radio would not be possible without the financial support of our Gospel Partners. If you would like to support Wretched Radio we would be extremely grateful. VISIT https://fortisinstitute.org/donate/ If you are already a Gospel Partner we couldn’t be more thankful for you if we tried!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ritchard Radio begins in three, two, one.
0:09.0	To convince a child to keep walking, try switching roles with them.
0:12.9	Let the child play the role of the parent.
0:15.0	They'll immediately do what you want them to do.
0:17.4	You are raising in your home, people that the Bible is very clear about their status.
0:25.5	They need to be converted. Not just a conformity of their behavior. They need to deal. You are raising in your home, people that the Bible is very clear about their status. They need to be converted. Not just a conformity of their behavior. They need a transforming encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate priority. It's time for Rretched
0:31.9	Radio with Tocphreel. It ain't a 10, but it's not a 1 either or actually it's not a 5 either, maybe 7-7-ish.
0:43.4	This is Wretched Radio on a scale of 1 to 10.
0:46.8	How scary is the future for humanity, courtesy of artificial intelligence, specifically religion.
0:55.4	Let's go to Davos, Switzerland.
0:57.1	Not that you and I can afford to go there,
0:59.8	like all of the elites who are a part of the World Economic Forum,
1:03.4	meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
1:05.9	One speaker in particular had some doomsday words for religion, all of them.
1:10.7	Any religion that goes by a book
1:12.7	is in serious peril, are we? Is it as scary as Israeli historian, Yuval Harari, claiming?
1:25.3	He said that if you are a religion that goes by a book because books contain
1:30.8	words, you've got some challenges coming your way. In fact, you could be eliminated because of
1:38.0	AI. Now, that's kind of a 10 on the doomsday scale. Is it that scary? Is it going to be that bad? Well, I think in order
1:47.1	to determine what it's going to look like for religion, I think we can pull the magnifying glass
1:51.5	back and just try to understand what AI is and what it can never be. And I think then, once we determine that and have a reasonable understanding of what AI is,
2:05.6	then I think we can take a look at the application into different sectors of society.
	...

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