The Great Commission in the Age of AI

How artificial intelligence is reshaping the fundamental challenge of missionary outreach

The apostle Paul posed a foundational question in his letter to the Romans that remains as relevant today as it was two millennia ago: “How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15). At its core, this passage identifies the central challenge of the missionary task: access.

Without access to people—without the ability to reach them with the gospel message—even the most compelling truth remains unshared. Throughout church history, missionaries have adapted their methods to overcome barriers of geography, language, culture, and technology in pursuit of this access. Today, we stand at another pivotal moment as artificial intelligence rapidly transforms how people seek answers, process information, and engage with spiritual questions.

The Digital Golden Era (2009-2024)

The last fifteen years marked what many consider a golden era for digital evangelism. The rise of Google advertising, social media marketing, and sophisticated targeting tools opened unprecedented channels for gospel outreach. Suddenly, a missionary organization could reach people in remote villages, closed countries, and unreached people groups with the click of a button and a modest advertising budget.

This digital revolution democratized global missions in remarkable ways. Small churches could sponsor ads that reached thousands in previously inaccessible regions. Christian content creators could build audiences spanning continents. Online discipleship programs could connect new believers with mentors regardless of geographical constraints. The Great Commission, for perhaps the first time in history, seemed to have tools commensurate with its global scope.

Digital platforms provided what traditional missions had always struggled to achieve: immediate, scalable, and measurable access to diverse populations. Missionaries could track not just how many people heard the gospel, but how they responded, what questions they asked, and where they needed additional support. The data-driven approach to evangelism emerged, bringing both opportunities and challenges that the church is still processing today.

The Challenges Emerge

Yet even as digital missions flourished, new obstacles began to surface. Religious censorship from major advertising platforms has steadily increased, with many Christian organizations finding their ads rejected or their accounts suspended for content that was previously acceptable. What began as efforts to combat extremism gradually expanded to include restrictions on traditional Christian teachings about salvation, morality, and exclusive truth claims.

Simultaneously, internet users developed “ad blindness”—the psychological phenomenon where people unconsciously ignore advertising content. As digital marketing matured, audiences became more sophisticated at filtering out promotional messages, including gospel content delivered through traditional advertising channels.

Perhaps most significantly, the digital space became crowded. Other religions, philosophies, and political movements adopted the same marketing techniques that had proven effective for Christian outreach. The uniqueness of the gospel message now competed not just with different content, but with equally sophisticated delivery methods. The tools that had given Christianity an advantage were now available to every worldview seeking adherents.

Enter Artificial Intelligence

Into this evolving landscape comes artificial intelligence, advancing at a pace that defies traditional technology adoption curves. AI capabilities double not every few years, but every few weeks. Machine learning algorithms now power search engines, social media feeds, customer service interactions, and increasingly, personal digital assistants that people turn to for life’s most important questions.

For those committed to the Great Commission, AI presents both extraordinary opportunities and concerning challenges. The technology’s potential to accelerate outreach is obvious: AI can translate content into hundreds of languages instantly, personalize evangelistic messages to individual contexts, engage in real-time conversations about faith, and scale discipleship resources beyond human limitations.

AI chatbots can provide 24/7 availability for spiritual conversations. Machine learning can identify people most likely to be receptive to the gospel message. Natural language processing can help missionaries understand cultural contexts more quickly. The same technology that powers commercial recommendation engines could potentially guide seekers to appropriate spiritual resources.

The Access Paradox

Yet AI also raises a fundamental question about the nature of access itself. If people can satisfy their spiritual curiosity through conversations with AI systems, does this create more access to the gospel or less?

Consider the individual searching for answers about God, purpose, or eternal life. Previously, this search would likely lead them to human intermediaries—pastors, missionaries, Christian friends, or at minimum, content created by human believers. These interactions, even when mediated by technology, maintained the relational element that has historically been central to gospel transmission.

AI potentially short-circuits this process. A person can now have extensive theological conversations, receive scriptural guidance, and even pray with AI systems without ever engaging with the human community that has traditionally been the vehicle for the gospel. While the information transmitted might be accurate … knowledge is not salvation and information is not transformation.

This represents a new form of the access challenge. It’s not that people cannot hear about Jesus—AI can certainly provide that information. Rather, it’s that they might receive a fundamentally incomplete version of the Christian experience, one that lacks the community, accountability, and incarnational witness that scripture presents as essential to spiritual growth.

Questions for the Path Forward

As AI continues its rapid evolution, the missions community faces several critical questions:

How can we ensure AI enhances rather than replaces human relationships in evangelism? The challenge is leveraging AI’s capabilities for initial outreach and resource provision while maintaining pathways to authentic Christian community.

What role should Christians play in developing AI systems? If these technologies will increasingly mediate spiritual conversations, the church has a vested interest in ensuring they reflect accurate biblical understanding and maintain respect for the transcendent aspects of faith that cannot be algorithmically processed.

Can AI help us reach people we’ve never been able to access before? Perhaps most hopefully, AI might open doors to populations that have been closed to traditional outreach methods, creating new forms of access that complement rather than compete with human outreach.

The Unchanged Foundation

Despite technological revolution, the fundamental truth of Romans 10 remains: faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The missionary task has always required innovation, cultural adaptation, and strategic thinking about how to overcome barriers to gospel access. The AI age represents the latest chapter in this ongoing story, one that will demand wisdom, theological reflection, and perhaps most importantly, a recommitment to the relational nature of the gospel message that no algorithm can fully replicate.

The Great Commission’s call to “go and make disciples” may require new interpretations of “going” in a digital age, but the imperative to make disciples—with all the human relationships, spiritual formation, and community life that discipleship entails—remains as compelling as ever. How the church navigates this tension between technological opportunity and relational authenticity may well determine the effectiveness of Christian missions in the decades to come.

Written by Chris + AI